Jack Nicklaus Says Today’s Golf Ball to Blame for Slow Play

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: July 29, 2013

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When describing the length of the Sunday round at the 1983 Kemper Open, former CBS announcer Ben Wright said something like "See those ducks? They were mere eggs at the beginning of today."

Slow play, until recently, was one of the least discussed and most annoying aspects of golf. Now, it's getting attention mainly because a 14-year-old amateur from China, Tianlang Guan, and a 21-year-old professional from Japan, Hideki Matsuyama, received penalty strokes for slow play at majors this season. In addition, the USGA has taken up the banner of eliminating slow play.

It's not uncommon for multiple groups to be stacked up on par-threes at PGA Tour events. But ironically enough, it's the six-hour rounds on Thursdays and Fridays at the U.S. Open, run by the USGA, that are the worst offenders every year.

Why is play so slow? No one seems to know for certain, but Jack Nicklaus has a theory.

"It's not just the players that cause the slow play," Nicklaus contends. "It's the difficulty of the golf course, the length of the golf course and the distance the golf ball goes, and you're playing a lot of golf course, and it takes more time."

Par has even changed as far as most tournament golf courses are concerned. The USGA used to have established lengths for holes. The longest par-three was supposed to be 155 yards. Par-fives used to start when a hole was 475. Everything in between was a par-four. Today, there are 220-yard par-threes and 500-plus-yard par-fours. And who-knows-what par-fives.

Nicklaus said difficult conditions, which could be anything from wind to high rough, can also cause play to slow. But he blames one thing in particular.

"The main culprit (in) slow play, to me, is the golf ball and the distance the golf ball goes," he said. "Golf, it used to take three hours, three and a half hours, British Open, you used to play the last round in three hours or less. Today they take close to fi...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Golf

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