Four hours and 46 minutes.
That was the PGA Tour’s average round time during the 2025 season. A figure that may have improved slightly on the previous few years but still highlights one of golf’s most persistent problems.
That’s pace of play.
Plenty has been made of distance ruining the professional game. The proposed golf ball rollback has been a hot topic in curbing the ever-increasing distance gains off the tee by the elite tour players.
But does the game have a more pressing issue to solve?
Speaking on the latest episode of the Your Golf by NCG Podcast, Jack Backhouse highlighted his belief that slow play has become a bigger issue than distance. He argued that the golf has the means to fix it but questions if they are prepared to use them.
“I tell you, a bigger issue I think than how far the golf ball goes is pace of play,” he said.
Despite the PGA Tour announcing their quickest average round on tour across a season since 2022, there is arguably still improvements to be made.
The PGA, in part, credited the reduction due to a cut in field size. It was pointed out that signature events with around 72 players averaged approximately three hours and 52 minutes. But Backhouse believes this is still too high.
“It’s embarrassing, like I genuinely think it’s embarrassing. If you told me every week it was going to be four and a half, I wouldn’t play. I actually wouldn’t play golf, I just wouldn’t do it.
“The junior golf tours are brilliant for the game. However, it’s been known that in some of these local junior golf tours, where kids are playing in three balls, like five and a half hour rounds, six hour rounds.
“It would be so harsh to be out there giving slow play penalty shots to 12-year-olds, but I’d do it 100%. It sets a horrible precedent that it’s okay to go out and do that.
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“There isn’t a single golf club, in England, I’m certain where people think it’s all right to play golf, and it takes more than four hours. I don’t believe that that to be true.”
Club competitions taking over four and a half hours isn’t uncommon. Backhouse believes there needs to be a change of culture to help bring that time down.
One solution was the wider use of rangefinders and distance measuring devices.
“I do think they should be trying to increase pace of play,” he added.
“If distance to measuring devices saves 10 minutes across a round of golf, then we should be doing it. The idea that rounds are taking five hours is like it’s bad, it’s bad to watch.
“If it was policed like once, just police it really strictly once, and then set the precedent of everyone’s going to get panic shots if everyone’s playing too slowly, then it would all change.
“Name and shame, penalty shots, and even to the point of, if you’re the known slow player, you can’t play in Saturday medals until like 4pm.”
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