Jason Day -- Friend or Foe?

As though my challenge as a Director of Rules and Competitions to keep my players moving around the course in a timely manner isn't hard enough, I now have Jason Day serving as the poster person for being deliberate as professed in this article - http://www.pga.com/news/pga-tour/pace-play-pga-tour-question-no-easy-answers.

In short, it seems that he has blamed his poor start last year to his not being as deliberate, and that was why he played better the second half - he was more deliberate.  And, since this is his "job," he should have the right to take as much time as necessary.  He states, "In my opinion, I don't care so much about speeding up the game. I've got to get back to what makes me good.  If that means I have to back off five times, then I'm going to back off five times before I have to actually hit the shot."  Great!  Thanks Jason!

So, I'm guessing it couldn't be that he simply wasn't playing as well or putting as well.  Of course not, it cannot be the player's fault.  It must have been the fact that he had to play under the very restrictive pace of play policies that got him.  He's a champion and star player, so he gets the prime starting times and, as a result, gets stuck in the middle of the field where it's naturally slower, but he was still not deliberate enough and played poorly.  Hmm.....

Using that analogy, the Cowboys or Patriots would have gone undefeated this year had it not been because they were forced to go by the 45 second play clock.  Some pitchers surely would win 5-6 more games in a year if they could take longer time between pitches.  Who cares that baseball games routinely take three plus hours to complete?  And who cares that Jason and some of his TOUR buddies take close to five hours to complete a round?  

Actually, Jason, many do.  Just ask people who watch golf and play golf.  The commentators at this year's World Cup from Australia were very critical of the pace of the Chinese players, and rightfully so.  At one point, they were nearly three holes behind.

Also, Jason, do you care about your fellow competitors who like to play faster?  Shouldn't they have the same right to play at their preferred pace?  Are they not playing for the same money you are?  Obviously you don't care.  What if one decides he needs to take six hours to play?  Will that bother you?  In that case, probably so.

I have an idea, let's put all of the fast players at the front of the field and slow players (you know who you are) at the back - every round.  Maybe those at the back won't finish some rounds due to darkness.  They'll have to come back early the next morning to finish.  Plus, television won't be there to see them finish, and they'll miss out sharing their sponsor's names to the world.  I wonder if the sponsors (Nike, TaylorMade) will like that idea?

Better yet, if a group gets out of position, that group should be forced to "pull over" and let the following group play through.  That should give Jason plenty of time to visualize his next shot.  I expect after having to let a few groups play through during a round, Jason will get the message and speed up.  (NOTE:  As defined, a group is out of position when it has an entire par 3 or par 4 hole open, or if the group in front is on the putting green of a par 5 hole when it arrives at the teeing ground.  Notice the position of the group behind is not relevant)

Day does make the valid point that the courses they play are set up to be difficult - quick greens, difficult hole locations, longer rough and they have to hole out each hole - but these are the best players in the world.  And, they spend hours hitting thousands of balls to practice their craft.  One would think that they can practice the pre-shot routine enough so that it can be done in 30 seconds.  In the NBA, a team would have turned the ball over by then.  

Lastly, keep in mind, the pace expected by the TOUR is not unreasonable.  It is not making them play as though they are in a West-Coast, run and gun offense where shots are rattled off every ten seconds. The Rules Committee creates a pace that is realistic given the course conditions, weather conditions, time it takes to walk the course, etc.   The standard pace for a group of three is going to be (roughly) 4:40-4:45, potentially longer.

I wish the TOUR would make a statement by creating tougher penalties, but that's a lost cause ... the TOUR is the players.  Kind of like expecting Congress to sanction itself, but at least we get the opportunity to vote them out of office. 

If we all make the effort to walk with purpose to our ball, start our pre-shot routine before it's our turn to play, be ready to play when it is our turn and continuous putt once the ball is inside 3-4 feet, we can reduce the time it takes to play, enjoy the round and (often) play better.  NOTE:  If you play using a cart that is restricted to the path, make sure you take 3-4 clubs with you to play your next shot ... and don't wait until your cart partner has played before going to your ball (unless, of course, you will be in interfering with their shot).

Cheers-
Doug