NEWTOWN SQUARE, Pa. – A cursory glance at social media is all it took to realize the pace of play at the PGA Championship is on the languid side of glacial with rounds on Days 1 and 2 drifting well past five hours.
Policing pace of play, however, is not nearly as easy as those on social media seem to think.
The most recent example of how nuanced pace of play can be on a demanding golf course with winds swirling to 25 mph came early Friday when the group of Justin Thomas, Keegan Bradley and Cameron Young were informed they were on the clock.
Thomas and Bradley were seen on television coverage having an animated discussion with a rules official.
“We just didn’t really agree with it. It’s hard because it’s kind of the whole time par thing. What is time par? How can time par on this course be the same when it’s blowing 25 [mph] and the pins are tough, than if it’s not? And does time par change every day?” Thomas said. “There’s just so many factors that go into it. We were behind. That wasn’t our issue or being annoyed by it, it’s just the fact that we weren’t holding up the group behind us.”
Thomas said his group “caught up” on the next hole and were taken off the clock, but it was hardly an isolated incident. Alex Smalley, who was a shot off the early lead following a second-round 69, was also put on the clock midway through his round.
“The hard part to me with the whole pace-of-play thing is there’s so much that goes into golf and there’s so much that goes into hole to hole in terms of, are you hitting it close, are you able to tap it in, or you have to mark it, stuff like that, to where, are you holding the group up or are you not, to where it’s very hard to make that call,” Thomas said.
