Slow play has been a big talking point in professional golf over the past few years and, at the Farmers Insurance Open, it reared its ugly head once again.
At Torrey Pines, the wind was up during the final round and, in terms of pace of play, it took the final group of Harris English, Andrew Novak and Aldrich Potgieter three hours to play their front nine, something that CBS’ Dottie Pepper called out on broadcast.
.@Dottie_pepper PREACH 🙌🏻🙌🏻🙌🏻 pic.twitter.com/BebcTDyHP7January 25, 2025
Following the final group, who waited 15 minutes on the par 3 third hole on Saturday, Pepper stated on broadcast: “You know Frank (Nobilo), we’re starting to need a new word to talk about this pace of play issue and its respect for your fellow competitors, for the fans, for broadcasting. It’s just got to get better.”
After the statement, Nobilo could be heard saying “well said,” with the majority of social media seemingly agreeing with Pepper’s comments, as many took to X/Twitter to voice their appreciation of Pepper’s call-out.
Amongst the comments, one user wrote: “The pace of play needs to change on a go forward basis,” whilst another stated: “Pace of play is insanely slow. Wish the tour would enforce it more than they do.”
The final group of the Farmers Insurance Open took four hours to play 13 holes on Saturday
(Image credit: Getty Images)
At last week’s The American Express, groups took a near 5.5 hours to complete their final rounds and, with the rise of TGL, some players like Matt Fitzpatrick and Rickie Fowler have encouraged the element of a shot clock to help speed up proceedings.
However, speaking after his TGL side’s victory against New York GC, Justin Thomas addressed the problem of slow play, stating: “You know, it’s tough. Look, this is my 10th year on tour. I’ve been on the PAC a lot of years. We’ve talked about pace of play all 10 years…
“Look, there definitely could be some things here and there that are done, but it’s also — I think there’s, like, a Fan Forward survey that the Tour does with fans. They like harder golf courses, they like watching us play difficult places, but they want us to play faster, so those two don’t go together. You’ve kind of got to pick and choose your battles.”
