Latest news with #DMDs
USA Today
10 hours ago
- Sport
- USA Today
PGA Tour gives pace-of-play updates, data to be posted publicly for first time
The PGA Tour has crunched the numbers from its testing of distance measuring devices earlier this year and other policy changes and the results are in: Play sped up! The findings also match up with the returns of a survey of 153 players and another 144 caddies. According to the study, 82 percent of all players and caddies reported using DMDs. 'The majority of players believe that the overall speed of play improved, and we see that the majority of players feel that their individual speed of play improved,' the Tour reported during a Zoom call with members of the media on Wednesday. 'Three-quarters of the players on both tours support the use of DMDs being permitted on a permanent basis on our tours.' While it is hard to nail down how much of a savings of time the use of DMD's will result in – every player is different, courses are different, and weather and other factors all contribute to pace of play – it is safe to say that the use of DMD's won't make play any slower than it already is. 'The noteworthy trends from the analysis of the ShotLink data has shown that approach shots and all par-5s have been trending faster and the period of time in which DMDs were permitted when we also know or have seen in the data that the shot times for those shots within 40 to 60 yards of the green were faster as well,' the Tour said. 'That's actually 4.9 seconds faster for those shots from the fairway and 5.1 seconds faster for those shots from the rough.' The Tour's Video Review Center also is proving to be a timesaver. The study found they've shaved about a minute off the response time of every ruling and helping to slice about five minutes off the average round time. 'You take that 20 times during a tournament, that's five minutes per round, so that's been a big advantage for us,' said Mark Dusbabek, the Tour's lead TV rules and video analyst. None of this should come as a big surprise. But the Tour felt a need to conduct empirical evidence it will bring to the Player Advisory Council for their review. 'Those of us who sit out there each day and watch these players in the field of play, we saw a mixture of the DMD usage, whether it be the player using the DMD himself or a caddie working the numbers as well as working the numbers in the book. But the bottom line is it seemed like the process was going quicker,' said PGA Tour senior vice president of rules and competitions Gary Young, who noted that the number of players using the devices also was largely expected. 'I think it's a recognition of a generational change in the sport where we have younger players now coming up who have just been using these devices day in and day out as they play the game, and it doesn't surprise me that 70 percent plus are saying that they'd really like to see DMDs.' Young also revealed the change to the rules for docking penalty strokes for pace of play, which was implemented on the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour Americas but not on the PGA Tour, had its desired effect, too. Under the revised Pace of Play Policy, which is in place for the remainder of the 2025 Korn Ferry Tour season, the first offense of a 'bad time' will now result in a one-stroke penalty. Under the previous policy, a one-stroke penalty was not applied until a player received a second 'bad time.' 'They went from having 10 bad times during that time period on the Korn Ferry Tour to simply one bad time with this change in policy,' he reported. 'There's a sense of urgency that's developed on the player behavior side. They do not want to get on the clock, and if they are on the clock, they want to get off the clock as quick as possible.' The PAC for both the PGA Tour and Korn Ferry Tour will make recommendations to the Board, who ultimately will determine whether any such rule changes go into effect. Young said he would expect approved changes to be implemented for next season, but it's possible they could go into effect sooner. One immediate change that will be a boon to fans is the Tour will begin posting pace of play course and group data in real time on PGA for the first time. 'For the course data itself, this will include average time for the field to play each hole and will include front nine and back nine times and overall times, and this will be located in the course and hole stats page at the round you look at group data itself, this will have turn and finish times,' said Billy Schroder, the Tour's senior vice president of competitions and special projects. 'This will be included on PGA from this point forward, and really what we're looking at here is we know within the ShotLink system there is a lot of data and the trick and the skill is to find a strategic plan to bring this to light for the fans so it enhances their enjoyment of the competition, how do we tell a better story of what's happening on the golf course for the fans' enjoyment.' This is the first visible evidence of the Tour's commitment to be more transparent about pace of play and share with the public what players are guilty of being slow pokes. Andy Weitz, the Tour's chief marketing and communications officer, said the Tour's pace-of-play problem is one of the first areas it is tackling as part its fan-forward initiative. 'It's an area we're committed to addressing on behalf of those fans as well as our players and our partners, and we know there are a lot of things that go into the speed of play equation, but we're committed to finding the right solutions and tackling it from every angle,' he said.
NBC Sports
23-05-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Distance-measuring devices receive 'mixed review' as PGA Tour evaluates test period
FORT WORTH, Texas – Last week's PGA Championship was the final event in a five-week, seven-tournament test period that allowed players to use distance-measuring devices during competition rounds in an attempt to address pace of play on the PGA Tour, and the results from the experiment were mixed. 'Honestly, not really,' Rickie Fowler said when asked if rangefinders helped pace of play. 'In certain situations if you were off-line, it makes it a little easier. Certain circumstances it helps speed up that shot, but the last few weeks I'd stepped off my number, [caddie Rick Romano] would shoot it, so our process didn't change. 'I can see [the decision to continue the use of distance-measuring devices] going either way. Everyone at home, using a distance-measuring device, its part of their normal routine. But the history and tradition of the game, where you step off the numbers. I don't have a specific opinion which way it should go.' The test period began at last month's RBC Heritage, and even though the PGA Championship wasn't officially part of the experiment, the PGA of America has allowed the use of distance-measuring devices (DMDs) in its championships since 2019. Although the Tour is still sorting through the data and there are no clear conclusions, most involved in the test period agree on at least one thing – they didn't hurt pace of play. 'I don't know that we can definitively say that it improves pace of play and I think that's why we felt it was really important to stop allowing them to use them; we called it a test period for a reason,' said Gary Young, the Tour's senior vice president of rules and competition. 'They've had this shiny new toy for awhile; if we take it away from them we are more likely to get feedback. Like, hey, we really felt like that helped us and in which way did it help.' The Tour planned to send players and caddies a survey following the test period, and the Player Advisory Council is set to review the data and the general response from the members at a previously scheduled meeting next week at the Memorial. Young spent much of the early week at Colonial Country Club talking to players and caddies about distance-measuring devices and he said he received a 'mixed bag' of responses. 'A lot of them feel like it's what separates the really good caddies from the so-so caddies out here, the ability to calculate those angles properly,' Young said. 'And then you had the other side who said, if this is about speeding up play then we should be using them.' Young said opinions on the use of DMDs varied generationally, with veterans generally not supportive of a rule change that would permanently allow them compared to relatively younger players who have been conditioned to use rangefinders during tournament rounds. 'Personally, I don't like it, I like pacing my yardages and a little more old school, but I understand why we are trying to do it, trying to shave a couple of minutes off a round,' Camilo Villegas said this week at the Charles Schwab Challenge. 'But at the same time if we shave two or three minutes is that our goal? I don't know. I'd like to get back and analyze the data and look at the numbers. See what happened.' Most agree the two areas DMDs helped were on wildly off-line shots where there were few reference points, and for shorter shots which normally require either the player or caddie to pace off the distance. Young said officials plan to look at individual player speed-of-play averages during the test period and DMD usage, whether it was just used either by a player, caddie or both. What remains to be seen is whether DMDs had a significant impact on pace, which has become a priority for the Tour following feedback from fans. Many players and caddies doubt DMDs will make a significant difference and some worry a permanent policy change could even hurt pace of play. 'We definitely saw that it was an extra step in the process rather than reducing the steps,' Young said. 'I would say the ones who are not in favor of it think that this did nothing more than add an extra step.' Anecdotally, Young said there was an incident on the Korn Ferry Tour – which held a similar test period with DMDs as well as a dramatic change to the secondary circuit's timing policy – where a player received a 'bad time' because they were using a distance-measuring device. 'The player's group was being timed and it was because he went back to shoot the distance [with a rangefinder] a second time that caused him to go over his time,' Young explained. 'That would be a negative to having them. However, some would say that while their group was being timed, DMDs helped process that information quicker.' While the membership is split on whether DMDs could actually help pace of play, the consensus among players is the change to the timing policy on the Korn Ferry Tour will have a greater impact. The new policy allows for a one-stroke penalty for the first 'bad time.' The previous policy assessed a one-shot penalty for the second 'bad time.' A player receives a 'bad time' when they exceed the allotted time to play a shot, which varies depending on where the shot is played and the order of play. '[The Korn Ferry Tour] has definitely seen both an improvement to their pace of play and they've seen less timings taking place,' Young said. 'It was really important that we stop the DMD usage and continue with the pace-of-play policy change to determine which one was having the bigger effect.' Pace of play on Tour – which has always been slow, at best – further became a talking point earlier this season at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am when Golf Channel's Frank Nobilo called out Tom Kim during the final-round broadcast. After Kim took more than a minute to hit his approach shot into the par-5 sixth hole, Nobilo said, 'It was not worth the wait.' The pushback from the media and public appeared to resonate with the players, as well as the looming threat of more sweeping pace-of-play changes. 'We have seen our pace of play improve across the board ever since this came to a head at Pebble Beach. I would say, pretty much, we have been playing faster,' Young said. 'Now, why is that? Some of it is just a little more awareness from the players that something else could be coming down the line that they don't want. I'm sure they heard all the talk about things like a shot clock and I think their opinion is that doesn't belong in our sport.' Whether distance-measuring devices or even more impactful changes belong on the PGA Tour remains to be seen, but the DMD test period did prove that change is coming.
Yahoo
15-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
PGA Tour begins allowing distance-measuring devices at RBC Heritage
HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. – Observers will notice something is different at this week's RBC Heritage. The post-Masters celebration will have a solid field as the season's sixth signature event, Harbour Town Golf Links will again play to its diabolical best, and the winner will again rank among the week's best ball-strikers. What will be different is subtle yet significant. Advertisement The Heritage is the first event in a four-week, six-tournament stretch on the PGA Tour that will allow the use of distance-measuring devices (DMDs) in the circuit's ongoing attempts to speed up play. The use of DMDs is part of a larger plan to address pace of play — which was signaled out as an issue in the recent Fan Forward project — along with an adjustment to the Tour's policy on timings starting this week on the Korn Ferry Tour. 'They're going to have an extra tool in their toolbox for four weeks, and we're interested in hearing, following that period, how was it? Do you feel it was beneficial? Do you feel it helped you with pace of play?' said Gary Young, a senior vice president of rules and competitions for the Tour. 'I think that's an important point to make about this. There is a beginning and an end to it, and then we're going to take that time to really cram the data and take a look at it.' Players and caddies will be allowed to use DMDs but only to identify 'raw' distances, not slope or any other information provided by modern DMDs. Violation of that rule will result in a two-stroke penalty. Advertisement The PGA Championship, which is run by the PGA of America, already allows players to use DMDs during the tournament and the Korn Ferry Tour held a similar four-event trial in 2017, but officials hope to learn more about how using DMDs may speed up play. 'I don't think there was anything concrete that came out of [the 2017 trial] data wise,' Young said. '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 and especially groupings.' Earlier this year, the Tour established the 'Speed of Play Working Group,' which includes Sam Burns, Adam Schenk and Jhonattan Vegas, to work with the Player Advisory Council on pace-of-play improvements. 'They felt during [two-ball] pairs it would be a struggle to stay up a little bit with the group ahead of you,' Young said. 'Should they start to fall behind, they can quickly get a reference point and calculate yardage. It also may help the groups that are being timed keep up and make up time.' THE PLAYERS Championship 2025 - Previews Time to reveal names and enforce strokes? Tour unveils pace-of-play policy changes Advertisement PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan announced Tuesday aggressive adjustments to the circuit's pace-of-play policy. The DMDs trial is part of a wider pace-of-play focus Tour commissioner Jay Monahan announced last month at The Players Championship. The Tour will also begin testing a new policy at the Lecom Suncoast Classic on the Korn Ferry Tour this week, and it's already started on the PGA Tour Americas. The adjustment will remove what has essentially been a warning for a 'bad time' and will now apply a one-stroke penalty for a 'first offense.' Most players don't anticipate the use of DMDs to have much of an impact on pace of play and world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler suggested a more obvious approach to slow play. Advertisement 'We've been using [DMDs] at the PGA the last couple years. Is it going to help pace of play? Maybe a few minutes. Will it be anything significant? No,' Scheffler said Tuesday at Harbour Town. 'This tournament, what affects the pace of play is walking the golf course. I think we're playing twosomes all week, so it will go from a five-hour round to maybe four hours or less. 'When you see the biggest changes in pace of play, it all comes from going from three guys to two guys in a pairing. It's just easier to get around the golf course.' Players and caddies anticipate using DMDs when dealing with shots that are well wide of playing corridors and it's difficult to find a reference point to use a yardage book, as well as a way to confirm yardages on approach shots and tee shots on par 3s. 'I envision Tom [Hoge] standing in the fairway shooting [with a DMD] and I'll be getting the numbers [traditionally] and we'll do like we always do,' said James Edmondson, Hoge's longtime caddie. 'I'll use it when we're off-line, but we're still going to use the fronts and the backs and the carries [yardages] in the book. If you don't do that I think you'd get your sequence off. I think if you don't it's going to be too different for guys. Stick with old habits.' Advertisement The Tour also plans to make pace-of-play data available to the public but officials are still developing a list that addresses 'average stroke time' with some context. For example, if a player averages 38 seconds to hit an approach shot but that number increases on Friday when the cut is looming or Sunday when a title is on the line. Officials expect to have that list developed within the next month or two and it could be available to the public as early as this season.
NBC Sports
15-04-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
PGA Tour begins allowing distance-measuring devices at RBC Heritage
HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. – Keen observers will notice something is different at this week's RBC Heritage. The post-Masters celebration will have a solid field as the season's sixth signature event, Harbour Town Golf Links will again play to its diabolical best, and the winner will again rank among the week's best ball-strikers. What will be different is subtle yet significant. The Heritage is the first event in a four-week, six-tournament stretch on the PGA Tour that will allow the use of distance-measuring devices (DMDs) in the circuit's ongoing attempts to speed up play. The use of DMDs is part of a larger plan to address pace of play — which was signaled out as an issue in the recent Fan Forward project — along with an adjustment to the Tour's policy on timings starting this week on the Korn Ferry Tour. 'They're going to have an extra tool in their toolbox for four weeks, and we're interested in hearing, following that period, how was it? Do you feel it was beneficial? Do you feel it helped you with pace of play?' said Gary Young, a senior vice president of rules and competitions for the Tour. 'I think that's an important point to make about this. There is a beginning and an end to it, and then we're going to take that time to really cram the data and take a look at it.' Players and caddies will be allowed to use DMDs but only to identify 'raw' distances, not slope or any other information provided by modern DMDs. Violation of that rule will result in a two-stroke penalty. The PGA Championship, which is run by the PGA of America, already allows players to use DMDs during the tournament and the Korn Ferry Tour held a similar four-event trial in 2017, but officials hope to learn more about how using DMDs may speed up play. 'I don't think there was anything concrete that came out of [the 2017 trial] data wise,' Young said. '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 and especially groupings.' Earlier this year, the Tour established the 'Speed of Play Working Group,' which includes Sam Burns, Adam Schenk and Jhonattan Vegas, to work with the Player Advisory Council on pace-of-play improvements. 'They felt during [two-ball] pairs it would be a struggle to stay up a little bit with the group ahead of you,' Young said. 'Should they start to fall behind, they can quickly get a reference point and calculate yardage. It also may help the groups that are being timed keep up and make up time.' Rex Hoggard, The DMDs trial is part of a wider pace-of-play focus Tour commissioner Jay Monahan announced last month at The Players Championship. The Tour will also begin testing a new policy at the Lecom Suncoast Classic on the Korn Ferry Tour this week, and it's already started on the PGA Tour Americas. The adjustment will remove what has essentially been a warning for a 'bad time' and will now apply a one-stroke penalty for a 'first offense.' Most players don't anticipate the use of DMDs to have much of an impact on pace of play and world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler suggested a more obvious approach to slow play. 'We've been using [DMDs] at the PGA the last couple years. Is it going to help pace of play? Maybe a few minutes. Will it be anything significant? No,' Scheffler said Tuesday at Harbour Town. 'This tournament, what affects the pace of play is walking the golf course. I think we're playing twosomes all week, so it will go from a five-hour round to maybe four hours or less. 'When you see the biggest changes in pace of play, it all comes from going from three guys to two guys in a pairing. It's just easier to get around the golf course.' Players and caddies anticipate using DMDs when dealing with shots that are well wide of playing corridors and it's difficult to find a reference point to use a yardage book, as well as a way to confirm yardages on approach shots and tee shots on par 3s. 'I envision Tom [Hoge] standing in the fairway shooting [with a DMD] and I'll be getting the numbers [traditionally] and we'll do like we always do,' said James Edmondson, Hoge's longtime caddie. 'I'll use it when we're off-line, but we're still going to use the fronts and the backs and the carries [yardages] in the book. If you don't do that I think you'd get your sequence off. I think if you don't it's going to be too different for guys. Stick with old habits.' The Tour also plans to make pace-of-play data available to the public but officials are still developing a list that addresses 'average stroke time' with some context. For example, if a player averages 38 seconds to hit an approach shot but that number increases on Friday when the cut is looming or Sunday when a title is on the line. Officials expect to have that list developed within the next month or two and it could be available to the public as early as this season.
