When you’re good at something, you take a little pride in it, right? Maybe even flex a little? Well, LIV Golf is doing exactly that. The Saudi-funded league is often criticized but let’s give credit where it’s due. It seems LIV has cracked down slow play, something the PGA Tour has been struggling badly with.
The first round of LIV Golf Riyadh 2025 wrapped up on Thursday, February 6. And how did it go? Smooth and fast. So fast, that LIV wasted no time bragging about it on Instagram, posting that the round took just 4 hours and 24 minutes to complete. The caption? “From start to finish. ⏱️” And of course, fans ate it up—some celebrating, others throwing not-so-subtle shade at the PGA Tour.
One user took a direct shot, writing, “Woah. PGA average time is 4 hours 21 minutes 🤦♂️” That has to sting. Just recently, at the WM Phoenix Open, the first round was suspended at 6:13 PM due to darkness—because, well, they just ran out of daylight. That’s where things are at now. And this isn’t some one-time thing.
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At The American Express, the final round was a snail’s race. Harris English, Andrew Novak, and Aldrich Potgieter took nearly three hours just to finish nine holes at Torrey Pines. LPGA icon Dottie Pepper had zero patience left, venting on-air: “I think we’re starting to need a new word to talk about this pace-of-play issue, and it’s ‘respect’ — for your fellow competitors, for the fans, for broadcasts, for all of it. It’s just got to get better,” she said. She is right. Slow play indeed gets on the nerve. Not just for the fans watching, but also for those, who prefer to finish their round on time.
On the sixth hole on the final day of the AT&T Pebble Beach, Tom Kim took a long amount of time to line up his second shot. The shot ended up going out of bounds, forcing Kim to take a penalty stroke. One of the commentators stated, “He took an awful time to do that.” The other commentator then added that the out-of-bounds shot, “was not worth the wait.”
Another fan kept it simple: “Decent flex 💪” Well, why not? LIV has every reason to flex right now. One fan even went as far as tagging the PGA Tour’s official Instagram account, writing: “Hey @pgatour… any thoughts?”
Jay Monahan might need to start brainstorming some solutions because, the slower the game, the more frustrated the fans get. And with viewership already taking a hit, the Tour can’t afford to lose any more interest. Then came one of the most brutal burns of all, “Shots fired.” One fan even asked: “Is this good or bad for everyone else?”
For the players lagging, it’s definitely a wake-up call. And then came another savage comment: “Add another 30 minutes alone if Patrick Canltlay was on LIV.” Cantlay’s name is practically a meme at this point when it comes to slow play. His 38-second average shot time is just under the maximum limit, and fans haven’t forgotten his 2023 Masters disaster—where he and Viktor Hovland took nearly five hours to finish their final round.
The PGA Tour is struggling. During the American Express and Farmers Insurance Open, the events had final rounds stretching past five hours, and fans were checking out. Case in point? The American Express final round pulled in less than half its 2024 audience.
Now, with LIV (and even TGL) pushing faster, more exciting golf, the Tour can’t afford to keep dragging its feet—literally. At this rate, the PGA Tour might need stricter penalties and real enforcement to keep up. Because while LIV is speeding ahead, the Tour’s biggest problem is slowing it down.
Golf-slow play is a never-ending saga
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Most recently, Charley Hoffman decided to address the elephant in the room, releasing a memo that took a hard look at the criticism the Tour has been facing.“We’ve taken a lot of heat over the past few weeks about slow play,” Hoffman began. “And yeah, it’s an issue—for our fans, for us as players. Cutting down field sizes will help, but only by a few minutes a day. As players, we still need to make a concerted effort to speed up.”
He didn’t stop there. Hoffman acknowledged that the pace of play has been a problem for decades, adding that players need to take personal responsibility: “Golf is a tough game, and when conditions get extreme, it takes time to play it the right way. We all need to take responsibility to be ready when it’s our turn to play and have the awareness to realize that we are out of position and speed up even before the rules official shows up.”
Hoffman wasn’t alone in his frustration. Paige Spiranac joined the conversation, posting a blunt rant on X: “I hate slow play. I just despise it. I am on the extremist end of hating slow play.” Charley Hull, Tiger Woods, Rickie Fowler—all of them have voiced their frustration with the Tour’s snail’s pace problem. So what’s the solution? Well… there isn’t one—at least not yet.
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Jay Monahan has tried to push fixes, but nothing has stuck. Limiting field sizes? That idea gained criticism. Allowing rangefinders for faster distance calculations? Still no major impact. Meanwhile, the LIV Golf team is sitting back and laughing—because they’ve already cracked the code. Their rounds are shorter, their broadcasts are snappier, and their pace of play isn’t a weekly debate.
So the real question is: When will the PGA Tour finally catch up? What do you think? Let us know in the comments
