Jackson: "I'm with Butch, it's time to crack down on golf's slow play scourge"

The golfing landscape at all levels of the sport may have changed dramatically over the years, mostly for the better, but one subject remains a constant every single year - the scourge of slow play.

It’s a debate that resurfaces several occasions throughout the season for as long as I can remember. It is usually triggered by an incident in a professional tournament, mainly on the PGA Tour, and it feeds down to amateur levels.

The issue has been discussed at length by golf’s ruling bodies on many occasions and, despite often conceding that it is not a good look for the game, there is rarely any significant action taken.

The DP World Tour were proactive in dealing with slow play a few years ago as they introduced “monitoring penalties”, with Jordan Spieth being the first high-profile offender in Abu Dhabi.

The Tour were widely applauded for their crackdown, but the PGA Tour have never really followed suit. Groups have been put “on the clock” far too rarely, and five-hour rounds have become acceptable standards.

As much as I despair at Tour professionals pushing the limits over the time it takes to hit their shots and putts, I fully understand they do it without fear of repercussions. Players will, quite rightly, do whatever they feel will enhance their performance, and if that means being slow, deliberate and methodical, then so be it.

There have been some notorious incidents in recent memory, with JB Holmes being one of the most frequent offenders. He was lambasted for taking over four minutes to play his second shot to the final hole at Torrey Pines in 2018, holding up playing-partners Alex Noren and Ryan Palmer with all three in contention for the title.

Holmes’ antics ensured their final round took over six hours, and the American was the protagonist in similar controversy the following year, this time at Riviera. He defended his pace afterwards, because it was windy!

He infuriated Brooks Koepka when they played together in The Open at Royal Portrush in 2019, but the fact is that he took his own sweet time because he could. And look, it might be unfair of me to single him out, he was far from the only player slowing the game down, but he was up there with the worst of them.

More recently, Patrick Cantlay has come under scrutiny for his leisurely approach to tournament golf on several occasions, most notably at the Tour Championship last month. Tommy Fleetwood defied his playing-partner’s pace to break his PGA Tour duck in some style, but many other pros with more combustable temperaments would surely have been adversely affected.

Cantlay’s dour, expressionless demeanour and his sluggish pace on the course have made him a target for widespread criticism, and his behaviour at East Lake prompted renowned coach Butch Harmon to suggest one simple solution to speed up the sport.

“Two-shot penalties,” he said on the Son of a Butch podcast, hosted by his son, Claude Harmon III. “These guys don’t care about getting fined, they’re all multi-millionaires. But if you put two shots on them, it could cost them making a cut, it could cost them winning a tournament, it could cost them keeping their card.”

In my view, Butch is 100 percent correct, and who are we to question the opinions of the most successful golf coach in history? His comments reminded me of one of my favourite interviews a few years ago.

Matt Fitzpatrick had just completed his second round at the BMW PGA Championship when I collared him to elaborate on his comments following the first day, when he described the pace of play as “embarrassing”.

“When the pace did not improve I spoke to the referee on the 15th, and he said there were seven groups on the clock,” said the Ryder Cup star. "That's far too many, and with that number of groups on the clock, why hasn't anyone been penalised?

“That's the only thing that will make the players speed up. They are not going to risk a penalty shot, so they would surely pick up the pace. I just can't get my head around it at all.

"It's cheating. If you take longer than 50 seconds, or whatever the allotted time is, you are cheating. A lot of people don't see it, but that's what it comes down to."

Harsh words, but that proved just how he felt at the time. He accepted that not everyone is suited to playing as fast as he does, but he was right in saying there were far too many slow-play offenders who got away with it time after time.

I’m with Butch and Matt, it’s high time that two-shot penalties are handed out to the slothful Tour pros. I’m certain the majority of golf fans around the world would welcome tougher punishments at the top of the sport.

As Butch said, if they don’t like it, then “hurry the hell up, damn it!”