Shot Clock in Professional Golf

[Steve Lang]

   Kalen,  i'd promote just the shot being tagged, that'd be enough statistics to draw attention and then folks could parse things down to tee shots, approaches, recovery, putts and go nuts.  A xx second rule is arbitrary and capricious (a term Jason may comment on), but a independent monitoring stat is just that.  Infer what you want, there just needs to be a slow play discussion sparked on a broad basis.

[Tim_Cronin]

If anyone needs a shot-clock of sorts it's the broadcasters. CBS did a slightly better job than the norm by cutting away from slower players to show action on other parts of the course, then returning when the poke was finally ready to play.
Everyone knows who the dawdlers are. If TV was proactive, and never stayed on any player who was dithering around during his/her routine, it would create the illusion that all the players were moving around the course at a good pace. 
The viewers at home would 'see' more action and quicker play, which is an immediate positive, and that combined with better enforcement of the existing rules pertaining to slow play would eventually get the times down on Tour. It wouldn't even change the time slotted for viewing, events could still end when scheduled just by moving the starting times for all players ahead.

Frank Chirkinian was a master at this for CBS, better than Lance Barrow, his successor, and he had to be in the days before each camera was hooked to a DVR. Chirkinian would hop from shot to shot, sometimes using a split-screen, and it had the effect of making the most static of sports active.


Chirkinian could hang a player out to dry, too. Remember Bill Britton? Britton was a snail, and Chrikinian teed him up one day on the 13th tee of Butler National at the Western Open. It's a par 3 with water left and behind. Britton got to the tee and took a look. Chirkinian proceeded to roll a crawl of every Western Open winner from 1899. He ran it all the way through – about 80 names – and Britton was still mulling his shot.


Kalen, love the shot clocks. Augusta could put them up next to the group score boards, the "Thru 5" boards that dot the course. Green, of course!

[Jason Topp]

Good point Steve.  I read it takes hundreds of volunteers to run Shotlink.  Adding shot timing to each shot can't be much of a burden.

Except for training hundreds of volunteers to start the clock at exactly the same time as compared to a NFL or NBA game where you only have to train one person...

And I'm sure volunteers will be qualified to do such...without controversy.. 

Kalen - I agree that this is the shortcoming with my plan although I do not think the issue is insurmountable in a major championship.  Don't some of them have an official walk with the groups at least during the final two rounds?

[Kalen Braley]

Jason,

I believe they do, but it seems you'd have to have two officials and two shot clocks per group because each player could be far enough apart , (for example if one player was in the trees and out of sight) to not make it feasible for one set to do it accurately.

And just to clarify, I think the idea of timing the player is a good one, its the implementation that seems difficult to accomplish in a consistent and accurate manner.

[John Kavanaugh]

Since we are already burdened with calling penalties on our fellow players to protect the field why not add slow play penalties to the mix? At least its a rule that we can all understand, until the USGA writes the rule that is.