USGA's Pace Of Play Symposium Roundup

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Dan Hubbard offers a synopsis of the day's highlights from Far Hills, while the USGA Twitter account offers a superb summary of key specifics mentioned by panelists during the day-long symposium on slow play.

Unfortunately it appears the takeaways remain perplexing: championship golf and everyday golf are different beasts, and we have to do everything we possibly can except start at the one place that matters: distance.

It's a little like hosting a symposium on lung cancer and not dwelling too long on smoking.

Ryan Herrington focused on the role the rules of golf play and how simplification may help shave some time off rounds.

USGA executive director Mike Davis said a general review of how to simplify the Rules of Golf overall is ongoing but that pace of play is a specific prism being used to identify areas for potential change. To wit, Davis mentioned that situations where players take drops is something being looked at and whether players should be required to take a second drop in instances where the first one results in balls still being out of play--or whether they should simply place the ball at the spot the ball hits the ground as they would with a second drop.

That should get us back two minutes from our five-hour round.

Jim McCabe zeroed in on the various panelists who wanted to clarify the concerns should be about the everyday golf course, not championship golf, even as the USGA's Jeff Hall acknowledged that championship committees could do more.

“We had to dig deeper (thanks to the data) and when discovered that, boy, that finger started to point back at us, the (USGA Championship) committee with a Capital C,” Hall said. “We can do our part to help (the players).”

While Hall was specifically talking about some slow-play issues at the U.S. Open and how officials reacted to rectify them, USGA Executive Director Mike Davis made it clear that the “While We’re Young” campaign is “focused on the recreational golfer.”

Said John Bodenhamer, senior managing director of rules, competitions and amateur: “Championship golf is different from recreational golf.” And former PGA Tour commissioner Deane Beman went so far as to say “the PGA Tour gets a bad rap” with the constant moaning and groaning about rounds that reach five hours and beyond.

“It’s just not possible to get 144 (players) around in less than 4 hours, 40 minutes,” Beman said.

Well, except...there is that pesky distance issue, which Beman touched on and the USGA Tweeted about.

 

 

Then there were the super stats from Dr. David Hueber talking about nicotine...errr...I mean, the costly expansion of the game's footprint and how no matter what we do, rounds will not speed up until the footprint changes.

 

I didn't see much on how green speeds have played a role in pace of play, something the USGA's Matt Pringle is studying and sure to present great information on when his work is completely. There was this tweet from the USGA about Torrey Pines maintenance director Paul Cushing's presentation where he undoubtedly spoke of the role the Stimpmeter has played:

 

There was also this highlight video: