Major(s) News & Notes, January 30th, 2025
The biennial slow play panic. Plus, Schauffele's concerning injury, Ryder Cup heckling, Scheffler and McIlroy churn out Quotables, This, That, Reads and a word about Will Rogers.
Days to The Masters’ Honorary Starter’s tee shot: 70
Days to the Chevron Championship start: 84
Days to the PGA Championship’s first tee shot: 105
Days to the U.S. Women’s Open first tee shot: 119
Days to the U.S. Open’s first tee shot: 133
Days to the Women’s PGA Championship: 140
Days to The Open’s first tee shot: 169
Days to the Women’s Open first tee shot: 182
Days to the Walker Cup flag-raising ceremony: 218
Days to the Ryder Cup opening session: 239
After wasting gobs of time poking around the internet reading about past slow-play brouhahas, my count says we’re in the midst of (at least) our fourth slow-play crisis of the last decade. The groveling can be called a biennial occurrence where everyone but the PGA Tour Commissioner screams about urgently needed action, only to have the issue soon disappear from the collective golf memory.
These slow-play hullabaloos often produce demands for unwieldy, unproven, or nonsensical solutions. A shot clock idea bandied about in the wake of the TGL’s debut would be impossible to accomplish over a 200-acre property featuring a full field. But the spirit of the proposal is sound. The greatest golfers to ever grace green grass posting record scores should be able to hit a ball in under 40 seconds and finish in under five hours. However, there are also folks—guilty as charged—who point out that no clock, monetary fine, or even a sizzling cattle prod can push players around in less time since longer courses take longer to walk. And with modern distances, logjamming situations are created with reachable par 4s and 5s. The PGA Tour is opposed to distance regulation, which might help with this component of the slow play problem.
But if you want to spot a true golf point-misser? Do your best Usain Bolt impersonation when they mention rangefinders as a cure.
Not long ago, distance-measuring devices were going to be the saviors of pace, dwindling recreational participation, and world peace. If everyone would just buy a $300 gadget, everything would go faster. Or so we were told (mainly by the PGA of America whose members would be happy to sell such a device and pocket the vig).
It was the PGA Tour who shot this miracle cure down after testing the devices in tournament play on three tours in 2017. They studied the usage of DMDs in tournament play after one of the slow-play debacles. They were desperate to prove the devices could work, perhaps fueled by Commissioner Jay Monahan’s weird view that the visual of a player consulting a modern device would make the Tour look—oh you knew it was coming—younger/cooler/millenial friendly.
Unfortunately, the study results said the devices did not speed up play. We never saw the data, so it would not surprise any upright, non-visually impaired schmendrick who has watched college or junior golf. The devices might have even slowed down play.
The very best golfers in the world will always rely on a yardage book when their livelihood and trophies are on the line. They might consult a rangefinder for comfort or from one fairway over (a pathetic de-skilling side effect that punishes the fairway-hitting greats).
“The PGA Tour conducted a four-tournament test of Distance Measuring Devices on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2017, with varying results,” the Tour said in 2021 when the PGA of America began allowing rangefinders in their championships. “We decided at the time to continue to prohibit their use in official competitions on the PGA Tour, PGA Tour Champions and Korn Ferry Tour for the foreseeable future. We will evaluate the impact rangefinders have on the competition at the PGA of America's championships in 2021 and will then review the matter with our player directors and the Player Advisory Council.”
On Wednesday afternoon at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, the Tour convened scribblers whose Cypress Point invites must have washed out to sea. The Tour announced that distance measuring devices would be a part of a four-pronged effort to pick up the languid pace-of-play seen in early 2025. A cynic might say the limp, slapped-together ideas were cobbled together only to squash the slow play narrative until it inevitably fades. Such a strategy would be pretty shrewd in normal times. Particularly since the Commissioner is in Pebble Beach.
From ESPN’s story by Paolo Uggetti:
“As the commissioner [Jay Monahan] said back at the end of the year in his video to the fans, everything's on the table,” PGA Tour chief marketing and communications officer Andy Weitz said. “So it's in that spirit that we look at creating the best version of PGA Tour golf.”
Wait, Andy who? The bad teleprompter reader guy? Where’s the Commish?
Oh right, he has a tee time Thursday! And really long round ahead of him! Perhaps the self-described insomniac had already settled into his Lodge suite, maybe had the fireplace going, and was curled up alongside his go-to homeopathic remedy for sleep, The Collected Works of Jerry Tarde.
Why anyone would think Monahan cares about slow play only has to remember what he said to Golf Digest almost eight years and 45-minutes-per-round ago:
“I don't see a problem with rounds on our tour taking four hours, 45 minutes, because it's been consistent around that number for a long time,” he said. “What drives the small amount of criticism is the impulse in the modern world to do everything faster than we did it last year. So am I going to push for faster rounds? As it stands, no.”
Ah, how sweet. Don’t-ever-penalize-’em Finchem would be so proud!
I point out this entire mishegas in a major championship-focused newsletter to remind you that the PGA Tour views the Rules of Golf as an annoyance in need of replacement whenever the USGA and R&A dare to uphold the values of the game.
Quadrilateralslowplaystudiers, I will continue to monitor this latest dust-up before it inevitably fades. Or until the majors stop coddling the slow pokes.
Speaking of majors and big Cup events, we have plenty to get to this week, from updates on top players to loads of lively quotes, and a note on the Palisades fire.
Schauffele Update
The Athletic’s Gabby Herzig reported an injury update via Xander Schauffele’s “team.”
“He’s recovering from a rib cage injury,” Herzig writes. “It’s on his right side, and it’s an acute intercostal strain/micro tear. Looks like it happened during a pre-season workout toward the end of the year. He was just cleared by doctors to practice again and is eager to get back to playing.”
Last year’s PGA and Open champion played the season-opening Sentry along with the TGL’s opening night match. But clearly things regressed. Now his season re-debut is in question with just two months to go until the drive up Magnolia Lane. (And, of course, his TGL availability.)
Combined with the injuries and mishaps of other players, it’s been a strange start to 2025 for the world’s elite. Golf’s Dylan Dethier summed things up here, where everyone else not named Schauffele or Viktor Hovland appears to be turning a corner:
Quotable, Scottie
Scottie Scheffler on how he injured his hand making ravioli on Christmas. “We wanted to make them from scratch so you've got to roll the dough and you've got to cut the dough, but we were at a rental house so we didn't have like the right tools and the only thing there was a wine glass that we found. I had my hand on top of it and it broke, which side note, I've heard nothing but horror stories since this happened about wine glasses, so be careful. Even if you're like me and you don't drink wine, you've got to be real careful with wine glasses.”
Scheffler on watching his 2024 performances while waiting for his hand to heal. “There's a few tournaments I looked back at where the thing that stuck out the most was that I never really overreacted to stuff, I kind of stayed in it and kind of waited for my moment to get hot. Sometimes I got hot, was able to get up the leaderboard and win. Other times I didn't and I still had a decent finish. Most of it was just reminding myself of how to kind of play tournament golf just because I've been off for a bit.”
Scheffler on Pebble Beach. “You're not going to see at this golf course the same shots you would see at a brand new golf course because they're thinking about distance and they're thinking about all these different things. New golf courses are 8,000 yards and the fairways are bigger and the greens are bigger because it's easier to grow grass that way, there's less trees. But you come to a place like Pebble Beach and it has some of the charm of a golf course that develops and stands the test of time.”
You know…eh forget it. Go on…
Scheffler on why he’d be a boring designer of courses for his game. “I'm not super creative in that sense. Being able to look at a hole and tell you what I like or what I don't like is -- I think it's something that really interests me because I think at times what we're doing to golf courses these days is not right and it's not what's best for the game personally.”
You know if we adopted new testing that reduced the disproportionate advantage you guys get from modern equipment then the architec…oh forget it. Good luck this week.
Johnson Heckled Over Ryder Cup Picks
Attention-seeking hecklers should never be acknowledged. But a Farmers Insurance Open incident involving 2023 Ryder Cup captain Zach Johnson highlights what will be an ongoing problem with golf’s coarsening fanbase.
First shared by Zire Golf and fessed up to by an account going by Malbon_Hater, a jamoke can be heard yelling toward Johnson as he walks off the 18th tee.
“We lost the Ryder Cup because of you,” said Mr. Hater (going with the NY Times stylebook here) toward Johnson. The losing captain resisted the urge to get into a shouting match after last year’s Scottsdale hissy fit.
Caddie Brian Smith marched over to Mr. Hater and pushed back.
“Hey dude, why don’t you shut your mouth?” Smith said. “You got a problem?”
Mr. Hater backed down a bit, replying, “Yeah, with Sam Burns and Justin Thomas.”
“Then go talk to them, okay?” Smith said. “Just shut up. Don’t be a dick.”
While it’s easy to blame social media and wannabe influencers with a phone, the change in tone toward players ramped up with the now extinct “Live Under Par” campaign where noise, phones and general dbaggery were given the green light. You know, in the name of young energy coveted by advertisers. Six years later we have the present day saturation of excessive money talk, LIV, gambling and an overall stench of greed to thank. These incidents will continue.
In this case, Mr. Hater was in easy-going San Diego. Just wait until Long Island where the players will be paid, the ticket price gouging is rampant, and alcohol sales will start bright and early.
Quotable, Rory
Rory McIlroy on golfers as entertainers after Justin Thomas’s letter to his peers imploring his peers to do more interviews. “When we're growing up dreaming of professional golfers and trying to get the best out of ourselves, the last thing on our mind is being an entertainer. We're competitive people at the end of the day, we want to play against the best players in the world and we want to try to come out on top.”
McIlroy on what constitutes entertainment. “I came out on the wrong side of it last year, but I would say the last round of the U.S. Open was pretty entertaining last year and that was pure competitive golf. I think the more we can get to scenarios like that, the better.”
McIlroy on oversaturation of pro golf. “I can see when the golf consumer might get a little fatigued of everything that's sort of available to them. So to scale it back a little bit and maybe have a little more scarcity in some of the stuff that we do, like the NFL, I think mightn't be a bad thing,” he said. “I think 47 or 50 tournaments a year is definitely too many.”
This And That
Jim Furyk joins Captain Keegan Bradley’s cavalcade of Vice Captains for the 45th Ryder Cup. The nine-time player from 1997-2014 joins Webb Simpson, Brandt Snedeker and Kevin Kisner. Furyk went 10-20-4 in a Ryder Cup playing career that saw participation on two winning teams. He drove carts for the winning team in 2016 and led the 2018 squad to a resounding loss at the 2018 event outside Paris. The PGA of America said additional Vice Captains will be announced at a later date.
The USGA, Masters and PGA of America announced that registration for the 12th annual Drive, Chip and Putt qualifying is now live at DriveChipandPutt.com. Everything remains the same: boys and girls ages 7-15 can attempt the first stage of qualifying in all 50 states. The program is free and will conclude with 80 finalists competing on Sunday, April 5, 2026 at Augusta National. Local qualifying begins May 2 at 357 sites nationwide and continues throughout the summer. One again, there will be four age categories and top performers will advance through subregional and regional qualifiers in July/August and September/October. The ten regional include TPC Sawgrass, Whistling Straits, Pinehurst Resort & Country Club, Laurel Valley Golf Club, Valhalla Golf Club, The Ridgewood Country Club, Pebble Beach Golf Links, Hazeltine National Golf Club, Fields Ranch at PGA Frisco, and Four Seasons Hualalai Resort.
Reads
⏱️ Jared Doerfler on the business case for a shot clock in golf.
🎨 Kelly Crow looks at the effort to authenticate a $50 garage sale painting as a $15 million Van Gogh.
To the relief of many, Madarang reports that Jigsaw Farms saved all 54 horses under their care. The outfit leased space at the historic park to provide lessons to youngsters, educational trips for school kids, and therapy meet-and-greets for traumatized and special needs adults. It’s just one of many heartbreaking losses from the firestorm.
The Friday prior to the fire breaking out west of the Jigsaw, I went over to Will Rogers for a late afternoon hike. Some Quad readers will recall from pre-U.S. Open coverage that this local institution was on my list of things to visit when in town looking to take a safe hike with incredible city and ocean views.
At the start of my hike, I walked by the main polo field where the comedian and his friends played in the early 1930s. I stopped to enjoy the freshly cut open lawn next to the ranch home. That’s where the footprint of two Billy Bell-designed holes still sit (including the rumpled outlines of a fun boomerang-shaped green). Someone had just edged the grass around what’s left of bunkers Bell built for the Rogers holes. The greens are no longer maintained but I appreciated the effort to retain a nod to the ranch’s heyday before Rogers died in a plane crash (he did not play golf but it did not stop him from having every amenity possible at his dream estate).
I also went there knowing the grim wind forecast for the following week. The specter of fires inspired me to get out and enjoy a few favorite hikes. Just in case. Fire is always in the back of your mind hiking around here when it hasn’t rained in months and Santa Anas are predicted. Even in January.
After looking at the old golf holes, I moved along and made a traditional stop at the Jigsaw operation to watch a horseback riding lesson underway, then paused at two of the sage-scrub-encircled pastures to enjoy the noble horses bathed in afternoon light.
When finishing my hike after going up a thousand feet above the ranch, I randomly chose to take a side path that runs by the original stable building and then behind the Rogers home. At one point, I stopped, looked at the wood shingle roof on Rogers’ home, and smiled, thinking how remarkable it was that his wife’s gift to the state over eighty years ago was still here. Four days later, it was gone. As was the incredible main stable and the other buildings leased by the Jigsaw Farms operation.
I share this not to make you feel lousy or sorry for the community, but to suggest that if there is something you’ve been meaning to enjoy, savor, or experience again? Do it. There are so many places in the Palisades and Alta Dena areas that I wish I’d appreciated more, but they are now gone. Though it’s gratifying to know all of the horses at Will Rogers and their grooms got out safe. And according to the story by Rolling Stone, the folks at Jigsaw hope to rebuild. A GoFundMe is going well.
On that note, enjoy the golf from Pebble Beach. Accounts from on site suggest the course is in superb condition, the weather will should provide a typical Crosby mix, and the next four days should deliver otherwordly sights and sounds interspersed with pro golf. Albeit, played at a very slow pace.
Geoff great stuff and the links are awesome. If you have any type of move to speed up play then how do you fit in these player caddie convos that seem repetitive and go on for 90 seconds to determine if it is 123 or 125 to the pin. And what about this 60 yard walk up to the green on pitch shots. Like everything else this is an interesting topic which is probably more interesting than last Saturday’s final round. And what about players needing rules officials for every drop. The players should not be allowed to use officials and know the rules. But the Tour is jawboning.
Thank you, Geoff for some much appreciated perspective on the wonder of life and it's fragility. You truly do never know what life has in store.
Crosby weather indeed... have you seen the forecast for this weekend? It looks pretty bleak here but we're 125 miles northeast of Pebble. I was hoping that it would sag further south to give you some of the storm, but the persistent high pressure is, well persistent. It still looks like they will get rain Saturday and Sunday there. Hoping and praying for rain in southern California. Just not all at one time. I know... a lot to ask.