ORLANDO, Fla. — Slow pace of play has plagued the PGA Tour and the LPGA for years, frustrating players, fans, and broadcasters alike. It almost reached a breaking point last week at the Farmers Insurance Open in San Diego, where CBS Sports’ Dottie Pepper expressed her frustrations about the final group needing three hours to complete nine holes.
“We are starting to need a new word to talk about the pace of play issue, and that is respect,” Pepper said on the broadcast.
“Respect for your fellow competitors, for the fans, for the broadcasts, for all of it. It’s gotta get better.”
Her comments were not directed toward the final trio of Harris English, Andrew Novak, and Aldrich Potgieter per se but more toward everyone playing in the final round. Every group played at a glacial pace, and the final round turned into a slog. It was hard to watch.
On Wednesday, the PGA Tour announced that it had assembled a task force to investigate pace-of-play issues, according to Doug Ferguson of The Associated Press. One possible solution is to permit rangefinders at all tour events, but only the PGA Championship allows players to use distance-measuring devices.
But 10-time major winner Annika Sorenstam, a fast player herself, says this idea would cause more harm than good.
[Rangefinders] will slow it down because you will want to double-check the number now. Did I push the button right? Did I hit the flag, or did I hit the tree behind it, or did I hit a pole behind the green?” Sorenstam said to SB Nation.
“Caddies always want to have ground yardage because that’s what they do. I don’t think [rangefinders] are gonna help. It’s more of a matter of keeping up with the group ahead and having a certain time. You know, the AJGA does a good job. When you play, and you get to Hole No. 4, you need to be at an hour, and then after 8 holes, maybe you need to be at 2 hours. We have to push it. If they don’t want to do that, minimizing the field hurts other people.”
In November, the PGA Tour announced a flurry of changes for the 2026 season, which includes diminishing field sizes. The tour felt that eliminating spots in fields would help officials space out tee times and, therefore, improve the pace of play.
Yet, the real issue is that the PGA Tour and the LPGA do not enforce anyone who violates the pace of play policies.
“Players want rhythm, caddies want rhythm, tournaments want rhythm, fans don’t just want to stand there,” Sorenstam said.
“It needs to be addressed. There needs to be some kind of ramification or something that stinks, like, you know what, I’m not going to do this again.”
Sorenstam then made a terrific analogy. She said that policing slow play should be like a child touching a hot stove. Once their hand feels the burn, they learn never to touch it again.
She feels the PGA Tour and the LPGA must follow that premise.
“The way they go about it today, there’s a warning, and then there’s a timing — that process, number one, is too long, skip a step. If you’re behind, which as a player you see, it’s not like you’re oblivious out there, you see it,” Sorenstam said.
“[Officials] should say, ‘Okay, you gained time.’ Then, from there, there shouldn’t be another step, and it shouldn’t be a fine. It should hurt more. A stroke, two strokes, whatever it takes. Maybe it’s some kind of suspension down the road or something, and then obviously, if it continues, you might want to consider a player’s eligibility.
“It’s not good for the tour.”
Something needs to be done.
Even Sorenstam’s round on Thursday at the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions, which features 32 LPGA pros and 51 celebrity amateurs, took much longer than needed. She played alongside World No. 1 Nelly Korda and former MLB pitcher Derek Lowe, two players who hit the ball a long way and play quickly. This group did not play slowly, yet it affected everyone.
But at the end of the day, as Pepper said at Torrey Pines, it comes down to respect. Something must be done, and implementing rangefinders is akin to slapping a band-aid on a gunshot wound. It won’t help.
Jack Milko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation’s Playing Through. Follow him on X @jack_milko.
