Peter Malnati, besides being a member of the PGA Tour, also serves as a Player Director on the Tour Policy Board (and consequently, a member of the Board of PGA Tour Enterprises alongside Jay Monahan, Editor’s Note).
Pga, results
It is in this capacity that Malnati, on the sidelines of The Players Championship, which is currently in its final round (with the American player still on the course, Editor’s Note), wanted to address the “hot” topic of slow play on the Tour.
Both the first two rounds of the tournament went over time due to darkness.
For the completion of the second 18 holes, the last two players who were missing, Ryo Hisatsune and Ben Silverman, teed off at 7:38 AM (local time) after their last hole was suspended at the request of Silverman, who wanted to play his third shot on the 9th with “ideal lighting.”
The Canadian player needed a birdie on that shot to make the cut, but ended up with a bogey.
Result: Both he and the Japanese player missed the cut.
Total time taken: 12 minutes.
It is from incidents like this (or like the much-talked-about incident of Rory McIlroy’s drop on the 7th hole in the first round, Editor’s Note) that the Director takes inspiration to talk about the still unresolved issue of slow play.
“It’s interesting.”
“Playing on the PGA Tour really takes too much time.”
“But when you’re on a course like this where every little mistake puts you in a spot on the field where you have to think very carefully…”
“On the PGA Tour, we need to play faster. We should be able to do it this year when we have perfect weather with 144 players on the course.”
“We should be able to do it, but there’s a balance to be struck.”
“We want to have challenging courses that are demanding for the world’s best players, but when you achieve something like that, you create situations like the one that involved Rory McIlroy – a 10-minute discussion for a drop in a group of fast players.”
“I hate that it takes so long to play on the Tour.”
“Like all PGA Tour players, I want to play faster, but I also want to continue to do so on courses like this, and I want them to remain as challenging as they are now.”
“Is it a problem? Maybe, but I prefer to tackle this course, rather than making courses easier to solve the problem.”
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