"We've had 4½- hour rounds for 30 years."

Not only is this Slugger White-slow play quote in this week's Golf World depressing, it doesn't exactly back up John Paramor for daring to speed up play at Firestone.

Bob Verdi asks about pace of play...

You hear some guys say it's too slow, and the only way to speed it up is by penalizing strokes. But I don't believe you should affect a man's livelihood with a stopwatch. Also, I don't feel play is as slow as some people think. We've had 4½- hour rounds for 30 years.

Except that during the first two rounds of most tour events, you've had 4½- hour rounds plus another 45 minutes on top of that over the last ten years.

So if one of the tour's top two officials charged with enforcing the rules doesn't believe you should affect a man's livelihood by enforcing a rule, then I guess it'll be another 17 years before a penalty stroke is handed out? Why even put people on the clock?