After the final pairing took nearly three hours to complete the first nine holes at Torrey Pines, CBS Golf Reporter Dottie Pepper cuts straight to the chaseoffering some cold, hard facts about the state of the game.
“We’re starting to need a new word to talk about the pace of play, which is respect,” Bieber said on the broadcast.
“Respect your fellow competitors, the fans, the broadcasts, all of it. You’ve got to get better.”
Unlike the LPGA, rounds on the PGA Tour have turned into complete records. Often times, it takes professionals nearly six hours to finish rounds, a fact that bores golf fans away — no wonder the Tour has been struggling with TV ratings for over a year now.
It’s not like streaming can do anything either. During weekend rounds, where tee times depend on leaderboard position, producers and directors have few choices about what to show as the day progresses. That’s why you see a lot of “bonuses,” which is the TV term used when showing a player who taps the final hole. Viewers will also see a lot of scenic shots or extended views of player reaction, hopefully alleviating the slow gameplay.
This week is no different. However, there is another issue that has reared its ugly head: a lack of star power. With no familiar names on the leaderboard, why would the average golf fan want to tune in to this week’s game? Farmers insurance is open? Ludwig Aberg, Hideki Matsuyama and Jason Day are the three stars who could have made things interesting on Saturday, but none of them came close to competing.
instead of, 4-time winner Harris Englishthird-year pro Sam Stevens, and fourth-year pro Andrew Novak — the latter two have yet to win on Tour — are vying for the title on a Torrey Pines South course that has produced more bogeys than birdies. This is no disrespect to these three players either, all of whom have great stories of their own. But the reality is that they won’t attract much interest from the wider sporting world. Given the fact that the popularity of YouTube golf has skyrocketed, as well as the playing of the game itself, what would stop the average fan from tuning in to golf? Bryson DeChambeau 60 Minutes Video Full of action instead of watching a 6-hour final round of a quiet PGA Tour event with random pros? That’s the dilemma facing the PGA Tour, and it unfortunately doesn’t look like it’s going away anytime soon.
Jack Melko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Play Through. Follow him on X @jack_milko.
