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J.B. Holmes the latest to bring PGA TOUR’s slow-play problem to light

By Brandon Raper

SAN DIEGO, CA - JANUARY 28: J.B. Holmes plays his shot from the fifth tee during the final round of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines South on January 28, 2018 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
SAN DIEGO, CA - JANUARY 28: J.B. Holmes plays his shot from the fifth tee during the final round of the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines South on January 28, 2018 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images) /
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J.B. Holmes doesn’t deserve all the hate he’s getting for his slow play on the 18th hole at the Farmers Insurance Open. But it does bring to light the PGA TOUR’s long-overdue need to address these problems.

J.B. Holmes faced a tough approach shot on the final hole of the Farmers Insurance Open on Sunday. He was two shots out of the lead, needing eagle to even have a chance at a playoff. At the end of an already brutal day, he had no idea of the firestorm he was about to cause.

Shifting his club selection several times, Holmes was clocked at a mind numbing four and a half minutes before pulling the trigger. Worse yet, he did all this while playing partner Alex Noren was facing an approach shot with a potential winning birdie opportunity.

Worse than that? He laid up. Allow me to repeat myself, in case you didn’t get that.

J.B. Holmes, four-time TOUR winner and one of the most powerful hitters in all of golf, LAID. UP.

Perhaps none of this matters quite as much today if Noren hadn’t airmailed the green, making par and falling into a three-way playoff with Ryan Palmer and Jason Day. A playoff, of course, which Day would win in a surprising Monday finish.

As it was, though, social media exploded, with almost everybody firmly against Holmes.

Daniel Berger might have made the best point of all here. Not every player is slow, but too many get away with dragging down an entire round. I get that this is a high profile, pressure-packed situation with hundreds of thousands of dollars on the line, but there has to be a breaking point.

The solution to slow-play is simple, but will it ever happen?

In reality, there’s no reason for any twosome to ever take more than three or three and a half hours to get around. Threesomes, perhaps four hours. Give the final group an extra half hour since they’re not holding anybody up behind them. That’s less than two extra minutes per hole, so it won’t kill anybody.

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Then, it’s time to legitimately test a shot clock, like the European Tour has been slowly working towards. The Shot Clock Masters, coming in June, will give the first player in a group 50 seconds to play their shot, with 40 seconds for each following player. Two timeouts will be granted for more challenging shots.

The majors, of course, will largely be able to set their own rules, since they’re not run by the TOUR itself. And really, if we can limit the exceptions to the Spieth-esque driving range scenarios, they won’t feel as brutal when they do take an excessive amount of time.

Will it happen any time soon? Probably not, honestly. But Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan has an opportunity to make a change that can help pro golf for years, long after his tenure atop the sport has ended. Perhaps, given the proper nudge, the clock won’t be a necessary fixture once players figure out how to police themselves.

Next: Waste Management Phoenix Open power rankings

There are bigger issues in golf, but few have such a simple solution readily available. J.B. Holmes messed up, but if this is what it takes to get the problem fixed, so be it.

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