WGC Dell Technologies Match Play - Slow Play

[Orikoru]

Thats 100% wrong. Their job is to entertain us! Where do you think the money comes from?!

They get more prize money for winning, not for entertaining us. Ergo a professional golfers job is to win golf tournaments. It's Sky etc's job to make it entertaining since they're the ones ellong the entertainment to us.

 

[Imurg]

They get more prize money for winning, not for entertaining us. Ergo a professional golfers job is to win golf tournaments. It's Sky etc's job to make it entertaining since they're the ones ellong the entertainment to us.

If the end product is boring people to the point of not watching then TV companies will look at the ratings and decide that not enough people are watching to make them enough money. They'll stop showing the game.
Sponsors won't get airtime for their product or service
The amount of money coming from them will dwindle as they're not getting enough return
Then the prize money goes down and , eventually, players stop playing because they can't make enough money.
It all comes from us.
Will these massive corporations pump millions of dollars into backing golf tournaments if nobody is watching them?

 

[Orikoru]

If the end product is boring people to the point of not watching then TV companies will look at the ratings and decide that not enough people are watching to make them enough money. They'll stop showing the game.
Sponsors won't get airtime for their product or service
The amount of money coming from them will dwindle as they're not getting enough return
Then the prize money goes down and , eventually, players stop playing because they can't make enough money.
It all comes from us.
Will these massive corporations pump millions of dollars into backing golf tournaments if nobody is watching them?

None of that equates to "it's a golfer's job to entertain" in my opinion. They are there to win, and TV companies decided it was entertaining enough to put on TV. People want to see good golf, the odd slow golfer isn't going to make people turn off in enough numbers to capsize the whole industry. In a regular tournament they simply cut to other golfers and it's a non-issue.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

I can't believe people are even attempting to state sport is not there for entertainment . That is its sole purpose at professional level. If it's not entertaining then the followers dessert it, the sponsors and TV follow and then the money dries up. Any millionaire crown green bowlers, curlers etc? It has to be entertaining, period.

 

[Orikoru]

I can't believe people are even attempting to state sport is not there for entertainment . That is its sole purpose at professional level. If it's not entertaining then the followers dessert it, the sponsors and TV follow and then the money dries up. Any millionaire crown green bowlers, curlers etc? It has to be entertaining, period.

I'm saying it is not the golfer's job to make it entertaining. His job is to try and win. TV companies deem it entertaining enough to televise it and generate the money.

 

[sweaty sock]

A football anecdote: From a friend of a friend whos a retired premiership ref. He described his worst game. Inappropriate red card, then penalty he knew was wrong as soon as he blew, consolation penalty he gave for a non foul, cards flying in all directions, total dusaster of a game from refereeing stand point. Tuesday after the game Richard Scudamore calls ref to his offices in London. Ref, crestfallen, attends what can only be his sacking.

Turns up to the office, to be bowled over by an ecstatic Scudamore who described the match as 100% entertainment, and exactly what the 'product' should be.

Make of that what you will..

 

[Slab]

To win or entertain? Its semantics surely?

Sure their primary job is to perform but they can do so in a manner that entertains or they can do so in a manner that bores/depresses even annoys viewers

Its up to them

Incredibly what recent posts have done is to conveniently take the focus away from the players who are too slow that's its not entertaining, & instead try and define a players purpose/job!

(slow player now just sits laughing his rocks off at us cos he's getting off scot free)

 

[sweaty sock]

I'm saying it is not the golfer's job to make it entertaining. His job is to try and win. TV companies deem it entertaining enough to televise it and generate the money.

Look at the Golf royalty though. While all exceptionally talented. All 100% entertainers. Pat Reed cant even get a hat sponsor.

 

[Imurg]

I'm saying it is not the golfer's job to make it entertaining. His job is to try and win. TV companies deem it entertaining enough to televise it and generate the money.

In my opinion that's a very shortsighted Pro Golfer..
Professional sport of any flavour is only there because we want to watch it.
If, for whatever reason, we suddenly don't want to watch it - bang goes Professional sport and it just becomes an ordinary bunch of people playing.
Playing quite well but still ordinary.
Admittedly it would take a mass turn off to persuade TV execs to not televise a particular sport but they're in it for the money too.
If they're not making money, because ratings are down, they'll show something else.
Golf is inherently dull to watch as it's a slow game anyway.
Test match cricket flows quicker than golf.

 

[slowhand]

I'd ban all yardage/greens books and personal notebooks, and issue each player with a standard GPS watch that shows distances to the green and hazards, with a pin sheet for the day. Look at you wrist, pick a club, go

 

[USER1999]

In the UK, we are lucky (?) We get golf on Sky, a dedicated channel. In the States, the broadcast is split, and is on sports channels sharing airtime with other sports.
This does not allow for over runs. The schedule has to be kept to, and they don't put in slack, because they would lose viewers.
It is not unheard of for the end of the tournament to jot be broadcast, because it will over run. The reasons it over runs? Slow play.
Long term, this must make it less attractive to watch, broadcast, and advertise. Players who are active now are probably in a golden era for prize money and fame, and as custodians of this, are doing a poor job. I can only see it reducing going forwards, the only question is from when?

 

[Swinglowandslow]

And as for the rule that someone in a hazard is closer to the hole no matter if they are dropping a mile away..... where did that come from?!

The R and A .?

?. Know what you mean though. I find it interesting, all these obscure rules.
If I have it right, then where your ball finishes up in a hazard, is where it is deemed to be when deciding who "is away" first. . ?
Where you have to play the next shot from is irrelevant?

Don't see the logic as to why the R &A decided on such a rule, but a good one for quiz night!

 

[Swinglowandslow]

There were some interesting suggestions regarding how to speed up play including one I’ve never heard before, from Paul McGinley, I think it was.

His suggestion was doing away with greens books, his rationale being that the players spend an age studying them before then spending an eternity reading the putt anyway. His argument was that, quite aside from the use of books virtually doubling the time taken on each green, reading greens is an integral part of the game, so the players shouldn’t get the assistance provided by them. Could be some merit in that.

As for yesterday, I lost interest after the semi-finals so missed out on the really slow stuff. Can’t say I’m a lover of all the faffing about, but I’d rather tolerate that than watch no golf at all.

I do agree with that, about the greens books. Furthermore, I would ban any books by the player or the caddie. As someone has said, the player can use a watch for distances, and that's it.
And no caddie on the greens either to give opinions or assistance.
On the green , the player is on his own.

 

[Swinglowandslow]

Yet look at their pay cheques. Obviously the market forces show their pace of play is fine.

Yes, at the moment. But like all entertainment endeavours, the amount the public pay to watch/listen, whatever, always lags behind the current level of excellence,or style ,of entertainment.
If the entertainment starts to falter, so does the paying by the public start to wane.
Few "stars" of yesteryear quit at the top.

You can bet that Dell, the PGA, Sky etc have discussed or will be discussing the comments etc re slow play ............and whether it will affect their incomes?

 

[apj0524]

Why the hell did the PGA allow the Slow Play yesterday, it was painful to watch.

By all accounts they didn't just loose a hole to Kuchar and Perez they lost several, I just don't get it, it was a bloody two ball after all

What I don't really get is being on the M&C Committee at my club I am aware of the constant messages coming from EG and our Golf Union about slow play potentially killing the game but its difficult to try and enforce this message when it the accepted norm in Elite golg.

 

[Deleted member 29109]

I do agree with that, about the greens books. Furthermore, I would ban any books by the player or the caddie. As someone has said, the player can use a watch for distances, and that's it.
And no caddie on the greens either to give opinions or assistance.
On the green , the player is on his own.

Why bother with a caddy at all?

Allow the players to use a trolley and a laser range finder, then make them do everything themselves.

 

[howbow88]

Nope. Their job is not to entertain us. We choose to watch them. We don’t have to.

Whilst I absolutely get your point, if people stop watching them then their purses will steadily come down...

Either way, the only way to solve this is for the guys in charge to put in measures to speed things up, or start heavily penalizing players.

If there was a guy at work who kept doing his job far slower than everyone else, you would try to encourage them to keep up. If being nice didn't work and their speed became a serious issue, in the end you would have to go down the disciplinary route...

Taking away green books and possibly banning lines on the ball (I hope not, as I use one!) might be the place to start.

 

[howbow88]

A football anecdote: From a friend of a friend whos a retired premiership ref. He described his worst game. Inappropriate red card, then penalty he knew was wrong as soon as he blew, consolation penalty he gave for a non foul, cards flying in all directions, total dusaster of a game from refereeing stand point. Tuesday after the game Richard Scudamore calls ref to his offices in London. Ref, crestfallen, attends what can only be his sacking.

Turns up to the office, to be bowled over by an ecstatic Scudamore who described the match as 100% entertainment, and exactly what the 'product' should be.

Make of that what you will..

Is all of that a true story?! The bit with Scudamore sounds wildly unrealistic...

 

[Slab]

I just read that the LPGA dolled out a slow play fine (10k) to one of its newer players last week (Yealimi Noh) actually it says its her second slow play fine in a year of playing on lpga tour
The fine is twice her prize money earnings for the week

 

[Orikoru]

Honestly though, how bad would it have to get before enough people stop watching to make a difference?? The average golf fan has no idea which players are slow because the TV coverage clips that out and only shows them hitting the ball. It's only from what we're told on social media about who's the slowest, for the most part.