PGA Tour gives pace-of-play updates, data to be posted publicly for first time

USA Today

2 days ago

The PGA Tour has crunched the numbers from its testing of distance measuring devices earlier this year and other policy changes and the results are in: Play sped up! The findings also match up with the returns of a survey of 153 players and another 144 caddies. According to the study, 82 percent of all players and caddies reported using DMDs.
'The majority of players believe that the overall speed of play improved, and we see that the majority of players feel that their individual speed of play improved,' the Tour reported during a Zoom call with members of the media on Wednesday. 'Three-quarters of the players on both tours support the use of DMDs being permitted on a permanent basis on our tours.'
While it is hard to nail down how much of a savings of time the use of DMD's will result in – every player is different, courses are different, and weather and other factors all contribute to pace of play – it is safe to say that the use of DMD's won't make play any slower than it already is.
'The noteworthy trends from the analysis of the ShotLink data has shown that approach shots and all par-5s have been trending faster and the period of time in which DMDs were permitted when we also know or have seen in the data that the shot times for those shots within 40 to 60 yards of the green were faster as well,' the Tour said. 'That's actually 4.9 seconds faster for those shots from the fairway and 5.1 seconds faster for those shots from the rough.'
The Tour's Video Review Center also is proving to be a timesaver. The study found they've shaved about a minute off the response time of every ruling and helping to slice about five minutes off the average round time.
'You take that 20 times during a tournament, that's five minutes per round, so that's been a big advantage for us,' said Mark Dusbabek, the Tour's lead TV rules and video analyst.
None of this should come as a big surprise. But the Tour felt a need to conduct empirical evidence it will bring to the Player Advisory Council for their review.
'Those of us who sit out there each day and watch these players in the field of play, we saw a mixture of the DMD usage, whether it be the player using the DMD himself or a caddie working the numbers as well as working the numbers in the book. But the bottom line is it seemed like the process was going quicker,' said PGA Tour senior vice president of rules and competitions Gary Young, who noted that the number of players using the devices also was largely expected. 'I think it's a recognition of a generational change in the sport where we have younger players now coming up who have just been using these devices day in and day out as they play the game, and it doesn't surprise me that 70 percent plus are saying that they'd really like to see DMDs.'
Young also revealed the change to the rules for docking penalty strokes for pace of play, which was implemented on the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour Americas but not on the PGA Tour, had its desired effect, too. Under the revised Pace of Play Policy, which is in place for the remainder of the 2025 Korn Ferry Tour season, the first offense of a 'bad time' will now result in a one-stroke penalty. Under the previous policy, a one-stroke penalty was not applied until a player received a second 'bad time.'
'They went from having 10 bad times during that time period on the Korn Ferry Tour to simply one bad time with this change in policy,' he reported. 'There's a sense of urgency that's developed on the player behavior side. They do not want to get on the clock, and if they are on the clock, they want to get off the clock as quick as possible.'
The PAC for both the PGA Tour and Korn Ferry Tour will make recommendations to the Board, who ultimately will determine whether any such rule changes go into effect. Young said he would expect approved changes to be implemented for next season, but it's possible they could go into effect sooner.
One immediate change that will be a boon to fans is the Tour will begin posting pace of play course and group data in real time on PGA Tour.com for the first time.
'For the course data itself, this will include average time for the field to play each hole and will include front nine and back nine times and overall times, and this will be located in the course and hole stats page at the round level...when you look at group data itself, this will have turn and finish times,' said Billy Schroder, the Tour's senior vice president of competitions and special projects. 'This will be included on PGA Tour.com from this point forward, and really what we're looking at here is we know within the ShotLink system there is a lot of data and the trick and the skill is to find a strategic plan to bring this to light for the fans so it enhances their enjoyment of the competition, how do we tell a better story of what's happening on the golf course for the fans' enjoyment.'
This is the first visible evidence of the Tour's commitment to be more transparent about pace of play and share with the public what players are guilty of being slow pokes.
Andy Weitz, the Tour's chief marketing and communications officer, said the Tour's pace-of-play problem is one of the first areas it is tackling as part its fan-forward initiative.
'It's an area we're committed to addressing on behalf of those fans as well as our players and our partners, and we know there are a lot of things that go into the speed of play equation, but we're committed to finding the right solutions and tackling it from every angle,' he said.