Jack's Fantastic Slow Play Rant: It's The Golf Ball

Kathy Bissell with a splendid Jack Nicklaus venting about the distance explosion's role in slow play. Nothing really new here to most of us but for newbies, it's always great to hear the best ever explain why there is nothing to be gained from distance expansion.

"The main culprit (in) slow play, to me, is the golf ball and the distance the golf ball goes," he said. "Golf, it used to take three hours, three and a half hours, British Open, you used to play the last round in three hours or less. Today they take close to five hours."

One reason for longer times during majors, according to Nicklaus and anybody who plays in them, is the difficulty of the setup.

"The more time it takes to play it, the harder it is on the public to watch and the harder it is to manage and the harder it is for the pros to become role models for the young people watching who are going to say, I'm going to emulate a pro and copy what he does. And all of a sudden that kid takes five hours, five-and a half hours, and it just sort of escalates right through the game," Nicklaus added.