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Love: Pressure mounting on PGA to address slow play

Commentary

The world of golf has been in an uproar during the past week over the subject of slow play.

It’s not the first time it’s come up, but it really exploded after a couple of videos were posted on social media showing the Bryson DeChambeau taking way too much time on two different shots during last weekend’s Northern Trust Championship.

DeChambeau was lambasted on Twitter and other sites, not only by golf fans but by fellow professional golfers as well. Though he isn’t the only slow-play offender, he quickly attempted to defend his actions before eventually acknowledging he would do his very best to improve his pace of play.

The PGA Tour does have some guidelines in place to penalize players for slow play, however, the penalties are typically only monetary. It’s been decades since any member has been penalized strokes for slow play, and I’d be surprised if it happens any time in the near future.

I do believe, however, that the PGA will start to make some changes. I say this because the best players in the game today — Brooks Koepka, Rory McIlroy and Rickie Fowler, to name a few — are fast players, and they are pushing for change.

It’s not like the past several decades when the slow-paced Jack Nicklaus, or even the methodical Tiger Woods, ruled the golf world. The top players of today are pushing for change, and they’re not shy about voicing their opinion.

Just ask DeChambeau, who received the brunt of slow play criticism.

Before the end of this year, I predict we’ll see a new set of concrete guidelines for pace of play introduced by the PGA Tour.

Wobby Hoover

It’s great to see Merrill “Wobby” Hoover still involved in the local golf scene.

The 1983 Park Hills club champion has staged a courageous battle against cancer over the past 45 years and for many years could be found working as part of the Park Hills’ staff in and around the pro shop.

This year, however, he’s spending most days running the shop at Knisely’s Golf World driving range in Newry. Despite his 68 years, and considering his health battles, “Wobby” still has one of the best swings in Blair County.

Unusual DQ

Mark Wilson is a little-known professional golfer who many golf fans would be surprised to know has won five PGA tournaments. At 44 years old, he is coming to the end of a career distinguished by hard work, grit and integrity.

It was Wilson’s integrity that was on full display a couple of weeks ago when the University of North Carolina graduate noticed something was amiss after his third round of play in the Barracuda Championship.

Wilson was using a green-reading booklet produced just a few of years ago during the first three rounds of that event. The problem was that the PGA Tour had set out new guidelines just last year limiting the scale that these books could use.

Wilson’s older version slightly exceeded the new scale, and he only realized the problem after the third round, on Saturday evening. Being the stand-up guy he’s always been, Wilson reported the infraction to Tour officials Sunday morning, disqualifying himself from the tournament and forfeiting any prize money he was due.

Kudos to Mark Wilson for doing the right thing when absolutely no one realized he had done anything wrong.

Love covers local golf for the Mirror. He can be reached at gltr777@atlanticbb.net.

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