Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Luke Donald Prefers Quickies



The older I get, the more I've realized how much of a time commitment playing golf can be. You get out to the course early, hit balls, pay for the round, get a cart, go tee off, and by the time you're done, you've spent roughly the same amount of time on the links as someone flying from Los Angeles to New York. That, my friends, is a long day.

And for most of us that love golf, the time doesn't really matter. We're all glad to be out on the course, hacking it around, and yucking it up with our friends. But to watch someone play slow? That's another story, and that is what the PGA Tour has become.

Guys like Kevin Na, Ben Crane and Jonathan Byrd have taken an already slow activity and made it frame-by-frame, and a lot of people think it's a terrible thing for golf. One of those people? Luke Donald, world number one, who spent his Monday afternoon complaining about the turtle practice. His above tweet was what started it, but Donald continued, saying, "Can't really blame the officials, not enough of them to govern. Responsibility lies with the players and their caddies ... If u r second to putt, why not read your putt while the player 1 is reading his. 30 secs saved there = 35 mins saved for the round #simple ... I could rant all day long, don't think anything will ever change as the slow players don't realize they are slow."

Ahh, patient X, the slow player that thinks he is fast (luckily, we know that isn't Crane ... he even made fun of his slow play with a video).

Sadly, Donald is right. Nothing is going to change. After Luke went on his rant, Paul Azinger pointed out that since he was a rookie on tour, back in 1982, slow play has been an issue raised in meetings, so this isn't breaking news, but it is nice to see one of those biggest names in the game right now taking offense to an issue.

4 comments:

  1. I've got to agree with Luke slow play is highly annoying and sometimes effects my own golf game. I like to play at a fairly quick place.

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