‘It’s gotta get better’: CBS analyst scolds pros for growing concern
Dottie Pepper at the 2023 Masters
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Everyone’s talking about it, but no one seems to be doing anything about it.
CBS Golf analyst Dottie Pepper, for one, has had enough of it.
The issue is slow play on the PGA Tour, and, at this week’s Farmers Insurance Open, the grind — as usual — was fully on.
Saturday’s final round at Torrey Pines started off hot (well, not really) when the final group of Harris English, Andrew Novak and Aldrich Potgieter took a full hour to play the first three holes, drawing the attention of CBS’s Jim Nantz.
Most reasonable observers agree that a round of golf should be completed in four hours or less. If the final group Saturday had called it quits after four hours, they would have completed only 12 holes.
To be fair, conditions were brutal on the South Course, an already brawny 7,566-yard test that was playing in near 30 mph gusts. The $9.3 million purse also meant pros were going to take their time with every shot. But still, a 5-hour-and-45-minute pace? Most fans would likely agree that’s, well…outrageous.
And it’s a long time to ask someone to sit in front of their television and watch golf.
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On Saturday, Pepper, laid into the sluggish pace as English’s group started their back nine, nearly three hours after they had started the round.
“You know, Frank, I think we’re starting to need a new word to talk about this pace of play issue, and it’s respect,” she said to her CBS colleague, Frank Nobilo. “For your fellow competitors, for the fans, for broadcasts, for all of it. It’s just gotta get better.”
Nobilo responded with two words: “Well said.”
Pace of play had been a hot-button issue all week after last week’s final round at the American Express went 30 minutes beyond the scheduled coverage. The popularity of the TGL’s shot clock also has brought attention to the deliberate nature by which the pros go about their jobs.
Then, on Monday, Justin Thomas penned a letter to his fellow pros urging them to give more access and insight to PGA Tour broadcasts to help keep the Tour’s dwindling viewership engaged.
When Thomas wanted players to give more access and insight, he probably didn’t mean for players to do it by giving viewers more of a broadcast.
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