How to finally solve slow play? Oh, is it Nelly Korda, some experts have thoughts

NAPLES, Fla. — Angel Yin, one of the professional golfers, says he felt like he was being put to sleep, although the pain reliever was certainly not his golf, or the golf course he was playing.

It was an effort by other people, whose names are kept secret, but it's fair to say that they made visible blades of grass sprout under him as the game flourished.

“When I first went out on tour, I was able to take a nap,” Yin said.

“It was terrible.”

Yes, the topic here is slow gaming, whose name tells you everything pretty much: Gaming is slow – and that can be frustrating. It was seen last weekend, at Annika's LPGA tournament, where the golf was overturned, the rounds went past five hours, the professionals fought against the darkness – and Charley Hull, who is a victim and not a perpetrator, came out with some of his thoughts on the matter.

“It was crazy,” he began. “I'm not very sympathetic, but I said, listen, if you get three bad times, – every time it's a two-shot penalty – if you have three of them, you lose your tourist card immediately; go back to Q-School. I'm sure that would speed up a lot of people and they wouldn't want to lose their travel card.

“That would kill a slow game, but they never will.”

When asked if it was a problem, Hull continued.

“It's ridiculous and I feel sorry for the fans how slow it is over there,” he said. “We were outside for five hours and 40 minutes yesterday. We play four balls at home, on a hard golf course, and round in three and a half hours, four hours.

“It's really crazy.”

Of course, this is nothing new. You've read about this before. Raised on both the women's tour and the men's tour. There are also fines and penalties for strokes, but here we go. At this point, you can just call SP and people will know what you mean. So you ask yourself: How, and how, has this not been resolved?

Helluva question.

Ahead of this week's CME Group Tour Championship season finale, some of the LPGA's best and brightest entered Hull's thoughts. They were asked if underplaying was a problem, and how they would solve it if they thought it was.

Contrary to the title, the answers came quickly.

Is playing slow a problem?

“So I have my own ideas,” Yin said when asked. As did Nelly Korda, Lexi Thompson, Lydia Ko and others. And obviously, Hull.

We will try to start well. For Yin, there has been some progress, or maybe that was just a low bar(s) to clear. After last week, the memory is also fresh, so you expect the answers to sound very surprising. Time has not healed the wound, so to speak.

Then again, as noted above, here we are again, and the players didn't ignore that. Ruoning Yin said last week it was “very bad.” Jeeno Thitikul said last week's five-and-a-half-hour rounds were “too much.” Thompson argued that rounds should not exceed four-and-a-half hours – and said the problem was getting worse.

Korda said if he was a fan he would be upset.

Notably, he is one of the fastest players on the tour – and it is here that perhaps we can find solutions.

“Jason actually has to slow me down sometimes,” the world No. 1 said of his caddy, Jason McDede. “I don't know. Just as my first instinct is to think very well. You see it, you hit it.

“Today with Charley – Charley and I played together today and, three rounds in a row, we practiced. He was talking, and it's like 5 [iron] or 6 [iron]like you have two options. Either the wind is coming from your right or the wind is coming from your left, the wind is in, the wind is down. You can't — people just try to make it too difficult.

“I always say that your first instinct is your instinct, I would say. Just be ready when it's your turn.”

Then there is Ko.

One of the more thoughtful travel concepts, he said the issue has its layers.

“Nobody, even if you're a big golf fan, nobody wants to be there as long as possible,” Ko said. “At times like last week, it was a really tough golf course with fast greens and rough greens.

“Even if you play well but you hit one shot out of the area, it will take more time than someone hitting the middle of the green with two putts. And even two putts around a golf course like the Pelican didn't come easy.

“Yes, it depends on the situation. The US Women's Opens tend to take longer because we have a bigger field. It is truly one of the toughest tournaments we play all year.

“It's just like that on a case-by-case basis.”

Certainly. But can that be solved?

The last word here is Ewing's. This week is the last. He is retiring.

And next year at this time?

“I'm going to be bouncing around in a golf cart when I retire,” he said.

Then he continued.

“You know, it's been a conversation since I've been on Tour. I think it's a problem for some players. You have your fastest players and we all know who they are.

“I don't have the answers, but it's difficult to play with sometimes, and I'm sure it's very difficult for law enforcement. Every year at the end of the year, guys, how are we going to make this better?

“You know, people play for a living so I understand why people take their time. I think there's a line we have to draw.”

How do you solve slow play?

Let's try. Let's draw that line.

What do you say, Angel? It's down to you.

Look at the gaps, Yin said.

“Because we wake up and go to the box and it's already late and we're in the morning,” he said. “So how can that fall on the player? And that goes back to where I think we can improve as a tour, a small issue. I can't point fingers too much, but there are certain types of people that I feel should be able to manage that better. I think the easiest way to point fingers without thinking too much about it is to play it slow, but it takes a lot for the schedules to match, and if the schedules don't match, then we're just sitting in a hole. And I think that's where he shows up. At the US Open, we had a slow hole where there were four top seeded teams there. But that's also because the apron didn't really make sense [position]. …

“Nelly got a 10, I think. So things like that. It has nothing to do with the player. I'm sure Nelly is moving very fast. If you draw drops and do this and that, there is nothing we can do about it.”

Jeeno?

Thitikul talked about the clock in every hole.

Lexi? Ruoning?

It seems that Hull were not completely misplaced. “I think Charley is better than me at this,” Yin said.

“Yes, his was an aggressive speech,” Thompson said. “I'm not against it. It must be done. Something needs to be done to speed up the game there, whether it's penalties or whatever. It needs to be done because we need to play fast. The fans don't enjoy being there for five and a half hours because of the heat.”

Nelly?

Punishments, sure. But he wanted to go back to his original idea, mentally.

“Standing over a putt for two to three minutes, that's ridiculous,” Korda said. “If the team in front of me is green and I'm on the field, I'm preparing myself. I get my numbers right, I talk about shooting, so when it's my turn, I already have my game plan.

“Since I'm already hitting — I'm hitting behind the person who just hit in front of me. I think people just need to be – people overanalyze, one, and I think people just need to get ready quickly.

“People start their process too late and stand on it too long. Also, I think we need more people on the floor to monitor the pace of play. I don't think we have enough people to monitor it.”

Lydia?

In short, some understanding.

“Honestly, I think the biggest thing is just the situation,” Ko said. “If it took a long time last week, I think there are two things. The golf course was tough, and the second thing was that there were players trying to get their card or get into CME.

“So like all these situations, I think, play a role. It doesn't mean, oh, yeah, then you have to take a long time or you can't take a long time. I just think those are variables to consider if we have longer than normal cycles.

“I don't know how long it took, but I was lucky to be able to serve on the LPGA board and be the director of players for three years. Before that time, I thought things and said things. Why would they make such a decision? After serving on the board, I realize that there is more than meets the eye.

“I believe that everyone is doing their best, and as players, we will always do our best to try to keep up with the pace of the game. I don't know if one technique or method will make the circuit 30 minutes faster.”

So where do we stand now?

Are things resolved? Are they intractable? Maybe someone is listening.

There is at least one other answer, of course.

A little sleep.