"Think about it: an event, with two players tied, finishing on a par-5, and the telecast was losing viewers."

One of the hurdles to cracking down on PGA Tour slow play with penalties revolves around the excuse that this is not a fan or television problem, merely something the players have always complained about (and therefore, just a way of life on the tour).

So it's nice to see Garry Smits document a case where fans watching Webb Simpson Sunday during the Zurich Classic were annoyed by what they saw on television. I noticed Smits' tweets as this was happening and am glad he wrote a note about what he witnessed.

But Simpson has replaced Ben Crane and J.B. Holmes as the face of slow play on the Tour. He’s slower than slow. I started timing him on his last few holes, and he regularly took 90 seconds or more to hit shots (the Tour’s policy is 40-60 seconds).

The problem isn’t what I think; it’s what fans think. I was watching the finish of the event in a sports bar. Some fans coming in noticed that Simpson and Watson were teeing off on the final hole of regulation, tied for the lead. It took Simpson hitting two shots to make two fans turn away in disgust. One of them said: “Let’s see if bowling is on one of the other TVs.”

Think about it: an event, with two players tied, finishing on a par-5, and the telecast was losing viewers.
Later, after Simpson required more than 1:30 to hit a straightforward chip, another fan said: “I’m glad he missed it.”