Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Lee Trevino, and Annika Sorenstam were asked about the recent hot button topic of slow play after complaints at the 2023 Masters Tournament.
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Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Lee Trevino, and Annika Sorenstam were asked about the recent hot button topic of slow play after complaints at the 2023 Masters Tournament.
22 Comments
He blamed Caddies!
I dont beleive that caddies sould be alowed on greens reeding greens for the players. There laying on grass then walking kneeling that all takes time . Plus its the player should only read greens would speed up play. Nobody reads my greens for me.
Jack is correct about the ball. They should scale the ball to balata distances.
Gary Player. The guy who fought Apartheid?
Not the golf ball, it's the fitness of the players, who do lots of gym work to improve their power and ability to maintain it. Rolling back the golf ball, will punish the wrong people, those who are not the longest hitters on tour. The big hitters, will still reach par5's in two, but the rest will be left behind due to their physical abilities being lesser mortals. It's not caddies either, it's players and caddies not making proper use of their time from the moment they reach their ball. This is where they could shave plenty of time on multitudes of golf rounds at the pro rank levels. Slow play has been a creeping virus for decades, It's nothing new.
The new kids / current kids on Tour need to listen to the wisdom of these Legends. What they say is spot-on.
If you want to speed it up, put a countdown clock on every hole, have it change colors green, amber, red. When it hits red they get a stroke.
When these guys talk about golf, I listen…….
Why do they have to wait till they're on top of the ball to even begin planning the shot? Especially if they're in the fairway, they can assume a good lie and be looking at wind, pin position, error patterns. By the time they reach the ball, all they should need is a club and a number, and if no one else is ready, take the shot.
5+hr rounds are unacceptable in any capacity, even competition. HIT IT AND CHASE IT
Too much of the time is lost on the greens – player stares at the line from multiple angles, caddie stares at the line from multiple angles, player straddles the line and does the toddler waddle along the line, caddie straddles the line and does the toddler waddle along the line … it's way out of hand. Take the caddie out of the game some – especially on the greens. Place the onus of lining up the putt on the player. We never saw the greats doing that nonsense – they would read the line, make a decision and commit to it and make the stroke. As Gary Player said, there have been lots of great putters who didn't have to go through all of that and they didn't consult every inch of a putting line with their caddies because they were professional golfers. On the greens is where the time is lost, and they aren't even by and large great putters at that.
Don’t agree on the ball issue. That aside, believe that in this day and age, everything in a PGA / DP tour event can me measured. This includes who is playing at what pace in a given round. You can’t use one round to make a decision but over the course of a season / half a season, the Tour should be able to tell a player to speed up or lose their card. I think leaving this to Referees on the course is unfair. You’re asking someone to walk up to one of these top pros and give them a penalty. Whilst I appreciate that this has happened, it’s certainly a lot easier for the Referee not to do it !
Hand the issue back to the Tour. It’s their ‘product’ that’s under threat.
Caddies can't go on the greens – no summit conferences on the greens between the caddies and players
Man, I will be happy when Jack is either gone or they start using a feathery again. He has been going on and on about the ball for soooo long.
That was at the insperity in the woodlands tx. I saw them play that day. Last Saturday. Jacks getting up there but Annika and Gary still got mad game.
The caddie player interaction is ridiculously long
nice to hear Bob Charles being mentioned arguably the greatest lefty.
I could listen to these guys all day.
Jack – "When its Trevino's turn to play hes already on his backswing."
Lee – " I play fast because we didn't pay green fees, we slipped on the course." 😂😂
This is the first time i disagree with jack and what hes saying, ball has zero to do with slow play.
Guys on tour have no respect especially putting
How ironic that Jack is complaining about slow play when people emulating him is one of the things that causes it.