Here's How the PGA TOUR Is Addressing Slow Play Issues

PGA TOUR officials announced at Pebble Beach a number of initiatives aimed at improving how fans experience the PGA TOUR. Chief among those aims: speeding up the pace of play and the flow of broadcasts. Here's what we learned today.The PGA TOUR said later this year it will test allowing players to use distance-measuring devices during competition. The hope is that would speed up the process of players getting their yardages, particularly when they hit errant shots.

Distance Measuring

Rangefinders are permitted in the PGA Championship, and the Tour has tested the policy on the Korn Ferry Tour. It’s not clear if allowing rangefinders would also mean disallowing yardage books, and a very unscientific poll of social media and tour-pro chatter suggests players and caddies will likely still double-verify their yardages with the books if allows.

Transparency

The TOUR also said it would look closely at being more transparent with player violations of pace-of-play policy. Players are being fined, the tour insists, it’s just happening behind closed door. But the Tour said there is growing momentum toward sharing metrics like a player’s Average Shot Time and publicizing violations like other leagues do.

The plan is to use ShotLink data to produce clearer pictures as to which players need to speed their act up.

“There are players out there whose routines are longer than they need to be,” said Gary Young, the TOUR's SVP of Rules & Competition. “We’re at a point in time where guys are admitting that.”

TOUR brass has been encouraged by players’ willingness to accept change is necessary.

Field Sizes

The TOUR believes that recent tweaks to field sizes will have a significant impact on the flow of a tournament. Field sizes for tour events will largely be reduced, with many key tournaments such as the Players Championship dropping to 120 players instead of 144. Most field sizes will see a reduction of at least 12 players beginning in 2026.

According to the Tour, slow players “can hide” if they know they’re eventually going to hit a wall when they make the turn. They like to use the cars-on-the-freeway analogy. More cars on the freeway means cars can’t drive as fice. With less groups on the course, and a bigger interval between tee times, those players won’t be able to hide.

Commercial Load and Broadcasts

The Tour said it is in active discussions with media partners as to how they can innovate with their advertisements. Instead of a 30-second commercial, maybe it’s a sponsored moment that doesn’t stand in the way of showing golf shots.

The Tour also said it has started re-cutting broadcasts to suit fans’ desires. It’s not entirely clear what that means: cut-down versions that show more shots and less commercials would seem logical. Obviously, that will never replace the network broadcast, but the idea is to incorporate aspects of that tailored content into the proper broadcast.

“From my understanding the Tour is trying to do a lot of polling to the fans and also a lot of conversations with networks,” said Jordan Spieth. “Obviously linear television's changed from the last time a deal was done to the next time anything can happen. Trying to figure out what's the best product that we can put forward, whether it's on the course here or it's through other -- different things like TGL and how do you reach a different audience.”

Analysis

Recent changes in the world of golf—competition—and shifts in consumer behavior have clearly lit a fire under the PGA Tour. Fans will want them to go further, to simply penalize players, but the Tour was never going to go from 0 to 100. Big picture, this might not move as fast as people want it, but it’s progress.