06-05-2025
PGA Tour to Experiment With Measuring Devices Aimed at Faster Play
There's an old adage: Don't look a gift horse in the mouth. Professional golfers will gladly accept any tool to help them play better.
Which brings us to measuring devices.
The PGA Tour is experimenting with letting its players use measuring devices for a limited time this week at its stops in Hilton Head and the Dominican Republic and Korn Ferry events to determine whether play can be sped up.
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With the Fan Forward initiative, fans are asking for faster play, and the PGA Tour wants to know if electronic measuring devices can aid that.
Some players in this week's RBC Heritage are using Vortex measuring Alex Miceli
Oddly, the PGA Tour wonders if yardage devices will help speed up play.
Is it a legitimate question?
Of course, the devices will benefit some players, and others will stick them in their bags and ignore them.
A similar experiment was conducted on the Korn Ferry Tour in 2017. Still, according to Gary Young, vice president of rules and competition for the PGA Tour, no concrete data emerged from the research.
Why do they believe in a different result this time?
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'There wasn't a big improvement in round-time data, but this particular work group felt that field size had a lot to do with it, especially groupings,' Young said. 'They felt that during pairs, when we were playing in pairs, it would be a struggle to stay up a little bit with the group ahead of you. So, this gives them that extra tool in their toolbox. Should they start to fall behind, they can quickly get a reference point and calculate yardage.'
If you're reading between the lines, none of this makes sense.
The Korn Ferry data showed little measurable difference in playing time, but did show some benefits, likely when players went so far afield.
What seems more plausible about this experiment is that the results, which can be read in many ways, will be used to justify the permanent use of measuring devices.
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The tour needs to show its fans it is doing something about slow play, and the use of measuring devices seems to make the most sense and is easily understood by fans.
Unfortunately, confidence in measuring devices speeding up play significantly is extremely unlikely.
In the Korn Ferry experiment, Young characterized the result as not a big improvement. According to him, the goal is to find measurable results from the experiment.
What is the difference between slight improvement and measurable results?
Again, according to Young, the definition of measurable results is a very low bar.
'I think any improvement in times would be a plus,' Young said when defining measurable results. 'That would be something that we would check and — that's checking a box and saying, yes, we see improvement there. That's one reason to keep them in play, possibly.'
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A low bar for improvement, checking boxes and giving fans what they want will more than likely equal adding measuring devices to players' arsenals in the future.
But the question remains: Why go through the feeble attempt of justification when you could add them now?
