“If you're bored, fans will leave. It's a survival issue with the tour.”
Professional golf tours around the world have gone all out to reduce race time. This is no longer just a warning. “Slow game” is a factor that reduces golf and reduces game performance. The golf community has also tightened deadly penalties for professional golfers by announcing a “war for slow golfers.”
First, the American Professional Golfers Association (PGA) Tour and the American Women's Professional Golfers Association (LPGA) Tour plan provides a powerful and new system (KPGA) for improving gaming speed and the Korean Professional Golfers Association also Decided to add changes. The KPGA Tour is considering introducing a shooting clock system in the same way as the PGA Tour.
The Shot Clock system not only provides players with a significant reduction in time, but it also predicts that this is a new attraction for golf fans. In the United States Golf Association (USGA) and R&A Game Operating Manual Status, the first player should shoot in 50 seconds, while the next player should do it in 40 seconds.
The KPGA Tour will demonstrate the nature of hot men’s golf, aiming to reduce the average cycle time this year to less than 4 hours and 25 minutes this year. Last year, he also shortened the time and recorded 4 hours and 35 minutes.
The goal of shortening time is basically dual. The move is designed to ease tensions and prevent slow play, which is why fans leave and allows players who want to advance to the PGA Tour and Conferry Tour to adapt directly to the new stage.
Kwon Cheong-Won, chairman of the KPGA Tour Competition Committee, said: “The KPGA Tour players are so fast that only three players were given a bad warning for violating their 40-second dominance last year. However, we are considering an introduction He explained: “A shooting clock system makes the game even more exciting and creates an environment where players can demonstrate their skills while on other tours. “We are trying to introduce the systems needed for the KPGA Tour while making changes to global trends,” he said. ”
The PGA Tour, tested by the KPGA Tour, is the noisiest professional golf tour of the year, due to slow competition issues. The final day of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am Championship ended in third place, playing for over 5 hours and 30 minutes, while Farmers Insurance Open, last month, was criticized for spending nearly 6 hours on all 18 holes.
The longer the game is played, the ratings are decreasing. American Golf Digest reported that the number of viewers on American Express was nearly 19% lower than last year. To get rid of the image of golf for boring sports, the PGA Tour is not only considering introducing a shooting clock system, but also allowing distance meters, expanding fines, reducing FedEx Cup points, disclosing average stroke time per player, and operating video review center.
According to the Major League Baseball (MLB), the shooting clock system is expected to play an active role in reducing the game time of the PGA Tour. After introducing a pitch clock, MLB cut its average game time by nearly 30 minutes in 2023, which requires pitchers to throw the ball within a certain amount of time. As a result, ratings and attendance to the scene increased for the second consecutive year. The screen Golf League TGL, which introduced a 40-second shooting clock system, has also attracted many golf fans with its rapidity.
Most PGA Tour players are also very active in introducing shooting clock systems. “If you give a penalty when there is no hit for a certain period of time, the player's game speed will naturally increase,” said Ahn Byung-Hoon.
The LPGA Tour also prepares measures to eliminate slow races. The LPGA Tour announced on the 14th that “new rules related to race speed will be opened from the Ford Championship to open on March 28.” Previously, fines were more than 30 seconds from a given time. However, in the future, the standard will be strengthened, and if it exceeds 6 to 15 seconds, a fine will be imposed, and if it exceeds 16 seconds, a fine will be imposed. If it is within five seconds, there is only a fine.
The Korean Women’s Professional Golf Association (KLPGA) Tour is also actively responding to reducing time. The KLPGA Tour has launched a revised shooting clock system in 2023. Most importantly, the use of distance meters is allowed, resulting in a significant reduction in time per year. The average game time per round was investigated at 5 hours and 35 minutes until 2023, down to 5 hours and 14 minutes last year.
[Reporter Lim Jungwoo]
