I would be careful about calling out Cantlay's shot from the railroad ties on 14 yesterday or Spieth's long-considered shot at Birkdale as the best examples of the slow-play epidemic. Those are two pretty extraordinary circumstances where I think it's reasonable to take some extra time to hit the shot. Exactly how much extra time, it's hard to say, but it's not really important to be precise on those circumstances because they are unpredictable by virtue of their extraordinariness.
The real problem is how long it takes so many players to play shots that are well within the big part of the bell-curve. Cantlay taking 1 1/2 playings of the Final Jeopardy! theme to hit a simple tee shot should not be acceptable to anyone with an interest in making the "product" of professional golf enjoyable and (most importantly to the ones overseeing it) commercially lucrative.
Even at the highest level, in tournaments where there are roving officials, an individual shot clock for each player is simply a non-starter. Who is going to carry the shot clock? My understanding is that there aren't usually enough rules officials to post someone with each group, and you would need at least one person dedicated to each group to oversee the clock, being the sole arbiter of when the clock begins on each and every shot. Different clock-watchers will inevitably start the clock at different times. It's close to impossible to see how it could work in an equitable way.
That being the case, an overall checkpoint system makes the most sense. The tournaments in which I've been subjected to it, you have a time par to complete each round. If you reach the established checkpoints late, you get warned, then penalized for repeat offenses. Very simple.
there are 20-50 people INSIDE the ropes at every PGA Tour event.
One of them can't keep a shot clock?
Major cop out.
Agreed that odd situations are not the usual slow play problems, but they do add up.
What Jordan Spieth did at Birkdale was very inconsiderate and should not have been allowed.(I fell asleep during the replay last night and missed Catlay's event, but 7 minutes is just TOO LONG.)
I'm sorry. but hitting it MILES out of position should not be allowed to be turned into an advantage for an oblivious player who has no self awareness of how long such a process takes.
Spieth has these "extraordinary circumstances" 3-4 times per round
Take your medicine more quickly and perhaps you'll learn to hit it better.
I once had a player who lost three balls and multiple searches for others(5 minute search each who then had to walk back each time, having not hit a provisional.)
We were behind and were on the clock- i had a good round going.
On 18, I was first to hit and it was a difficult tee shot, and I needed par to make the cut.
I backed off and took 47 seconds to hit the shot.(it was a time violation and I received my first warning, which I expected)
As we we were walking down the fairway he told me I really needed to pick pace, as that was the second time I had backed off in the previous 3 holes.
After the round I not so gently explained to him that my 70 had taken far less time than his 84, and that I had spent more time looking for his ball, and waiting for him to walk backwards, than I had spent cumulatively hitting all my shots.
Slow play takes many forms, and if we are not willing to go after the low hanging fruit, there's no way we'll ever get Joe 6 pack to not sit in his cart until it is his turn to hit.