British Open: Bryson DeChambeau has a 'simple' solution for slow play
Bryson DeChambeau prides himself on examining every phase of the game of golf in minute, scientific, obsessive detail, before, during and after his rounds. But that examination can take time, and on Saturday during Round 3 of the British Open, DeChambeau was put on the clock for slow play on the 17th.
“We were struggling with pace the whole day. I was moving my butt as fast as I could. Greens were really tricky. I was trying to read them right,” DeChambeau said after his round. “We just kept losing time.”
DeChambeau was just the latest player to take plenty of time to get around Royal Portrush. Some rounds on Thursday took in excess of six hours, thanks to the swirling winds, spattering rain, treacherous greens and demonic rough. Players stacked up at tee boxes all over the course, and frustration radiated across the course.
Six hours is just way too long to take to finish a round of golf at the professional level. Slow play is the game’s current scourge du jour, blamed — not entirely unfairly — for a decline in interest in the professional game. No one wants to watch players pace, measure, waggle, waggle and waggle again. The question is, what do golf’s Powers That Be do about it?
Naturally, DeChambeau has plenty of thoughts on slow play, and also naturally, he believes there’s a quick fix.
“It's very simple. It's not difficult at all,” he said after his round Saturday. “You eventually time everybody for their whole entire round. Very simple.”
However, while he’d be happy to be timed, DeChambeau acknowledged that it wouldn’t go over too well with the rest of the field. “Nobody wants to do it,” he said, “because people are too scared to get exposed.”
Timing players’ overall rounds would average out the elements of the game where players are faster, or slower, than the field. “My putting, I'm more deliberate, take more time on that, but when it comes to iron shots, off the tee, I'm pretty fast,” he said. "Everybody plays a different style of game, and that's just the way it is.”
The methodology of timing full rounds would allow officials to target specific players rather than entire groups. “If somebody is playing slower, the (official) can go up to him and say, ‘Hey, man, you're over par with your time,’” he said. “All you do is you just time them for every single shot. He gets there and puts the bag down, and how long it takes him to hit that shot and how long it takes him to walk to the green. It's not rocket science.”
Earlier this year, the PGA Tour announced new methods to address slow play, from the use of rangefinders to increased penalties to disclosure of slow play statistics later this year. It’s still very much to be determined whether the new rules will pick up the pace.
But timing every player, DeChambeau believes, would have an immediate effect on slow play. “Long story short,” DeChambeau said, “one day I hope we can have a better system.”
