The PGA Tour has instituted a new pace-of-play policy that will leverage data from the ShotLink data system to distribute fines to the slowest players on Tour. The new policy will go into effect starting with the RBC Heritage tournament in April.
Individual players will be placed on an observation list if their ShotLink data suggests they are among the slower players. Those players will be added or removed from the list based on a 10-tournament rolling period. If on the list, a player will be held to a 60-second window limit for all of his shots.
“It’s a relatively small number. Over the last 12 years, 10 percent of the Tour membership have averaged 45 seconds or more,” PGA Tour chief of operations Tyler Dennis said of the observation list, according to the PGA Tour.
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If a player exceeds 60 seconds, it will be considered a “bad shot” and he then will be timed on an individual basis even if his playing group is in proper position. If no infractions occur within two holes, he will no longer be timed according to ESPN.
However, if a player makes a second “bad shot” in a tournament, he will be assigned a one-stroke penalty and an additional penalty for every bad shot thereafter. If no infractions occur within two holes, he will no longer be timed, according to ESPN.
Timing will be tracked by on-course rules officials. The Tour will not make its observation list public, but players will be told if they are on the list on a weekly basis. As part of the new policy, any player in the field who takes more than 120 seconds (absent a “good reason for doing so”) will be assigned an “excessive shot time.” Players who receive a second excessive shot time in a season will be fined $10,000.
