It’s a miracle! No it wasn’t another shot heard round the world, nor was it an ace on a long par five. It was the the fact that professional golfers actually finished their rounds in under four hours. Yes, an eighteen hole round in about four hours is possible in professional golf.
The outside the box thinkers at The European Tour have their players not just running up against old man par or their fellow Euro Tour members but they have put those boys on the clock.
At the Shot Clock Masters in Austria the tour has implemented a running shot clock for each and every player. The first to play has 50 seconds to hit his shot and the rest of the group then has 40 to get their shot off when it is their turn to play. A one shot penalty will be added to the score if they exceed the time limit.
Officials have carts with large timers on them that ride close to the groups and the seconds are plainly viewable as they wind down. The players have no excuse of not knowing where they stand. It’s a great idea and even better than that, it worked.
The average Euro Tour time is 4 hours 48 minutes. The first round of the Shot Clock Masters averaged just 4 hours 8 minutes with several groups finishing in under four hours.
One of those sub-four hour groupings included the ultra slow Miguel Angel Jimenez. Now, Miguel is one of our favorites no matter what tour he tees it up on but as cool as he is he is very slow. Heck, if I was that cool I’d take my time to show off too but Miguel has the rep of a snail’s pace player.
But old dogs can learn new tricks and Miguel thrived under his NBA like shooting clock. He carded a five under 67 and is tied for second. Now that’s progress.
He was happy with his play and his speed. “I feel great, from my last round last week, I’m just continuing in the same mood,” he said. “I’m making good shots, making birdies and I enjoyed it very much.
“I made some birdies on my front nine, then I started making three-putts and I missed some chances. Then on the back nine it started working better.
“It’s been very interesting. It’s very important that you are ready to play, if not it will catch you. That’s the good thing, you are not wasting any time. It would be nice to have some more time to talk a few more words to your caddie but it’s nice, it’s definitely a positive experience.”
Not one player was penalized and while some admitted to thinking about the clocks early in their rounds the overall consensus was that the clocks were a great success and had them playing golf as it should be: in four hours!
Kudos to the European Tour for at least trying to shed some light on slow play. It is dragging this game down. Maybe this could turn out to be more than just a gimmick and hopefully translate into more golfers playing quickly.
If Miguel can do it …they all can.
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