On November 18, the PGA Tour Player Advisory Council stamped its approval on a series of unpopular changes. The modifications, to be applied in 2026, will make the tour more competitive and apparently improve the pace of play. There are, however, few takers. Among the many left unimpressed is also one Hank Haney.
The 69-year-old swing coach, who worked with Tiger Woods between 2004 and 2010, winning 34 PGA Tour titles and eight majors, hasn’t explicitly written a long essay berating the Tour. But his pithy response to a tweet from Ryan Ballengee says more than what an essay could reveal.
Ballengee, the owner of Golf News Net, wanted the PGA Tour to be more severe in imposing slow-play rules. Instead of fines, Ballengee wants stroke penalties. And that too publicly in full view of the audience.
He tweeted, “[P]rofessional tours need to penalize slow players publicly with strokes, not privately with fines. Make slow players into pariahs. They’re ruining competitive golf, all the way down to juniors.”
Haney was never a fan of recent changes. Previously, the veteran golf coach said the tour’s ulterior motive was to “have more money to pay the top players.” Today, in response to Ballengee’s tweet, Hank Haney simply wrote, “Very good point.” The 69-year-old clearly is not letting the PAC off the hook.
Very good point https://t.co/SL0WlawWqo
— Hank Haney (@HankHaney) November 20, 2024
Why the PGA Tour’s latest changes are not a fix for slow play
Firstly, it should be noted that the PGA Tour had broader goals in mind as well. Improving the product, making it more cutthroat, etc. However, they have, ironically, also shoehorned ‘pace of play’ into it. This year, almost every tournament had at least one round that was postponed due to lack of daylight.
PAC’s rationale was that reducing the field size would somewhat solve the problem as fewer players would tee off. While that makes sense on paper, it’s not a guarantee for curbing slow play. There is no impetus for PGA Tour pros to speed up their game.
Interestingly, there was a proposal to impose fines for ‘Excessive Average Stroke Time.’ A golfer whose average four-round stroke time was more than 12 seconds of the field average would’ve received two warnings. They would’ve been fined $5000 for a third violation and then $10,000 for each subsequent violation. It appears that this particular change is still under discussion.
Sadly, the PGA Tour has banked on fines to crack down on slow play (and players). To little effect. This is why the policy not only comes up short of punishing slow play; it doesn’t even address the actual issue. In fact, former major winner Lucas Glover dubbed the latest proposals as nothing short of an insult to their intelligence. Moreover, Charley Hull has vouched for harsh penalties in the LPGA Tour as well. But then who is listening?
