Latest news with #FanForward
Yahoo
21 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Highlights: the Memorial Tournament, Final Round
Focus points of PGA Tour's Fan Forward initiative Andy Weitz joins Golf Today to discuss the focus points of the PGA Tour's Fan Forward initiative, including the stance on a player's obligation to speak to the media and the future of the FedExCup Playoffs. 18:52 Now Playing Paused Ad Playing
NBC Sports
21-05-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Focus points of PGA Tour's Fan Forward initiative
Andy Weitz joins Golf Today to discuss the focus points of the PGA Tour's Fan Forward initiative, including the stance on a player's obligation to speak to the media and the future of the FedExCup Playoffs.
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
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. Advertisement 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? Advertisement '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. Advertisement 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.' Advertisement 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?
NBC Sports
01-04-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
PGA Tour establishes 'Speed of Play Working Group' to help implement pace-of-play changes
During last month's Players Championship, PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan outlined moves the circuit plans to take to address pace of play, a hot-button topic according to the Fan Forward initiative. Players learned more about those adjustments in this month's 'GreenSheet,' which was sent to Tour members earlier this week. The Tour has established a 'Speed of Play Working Group,' which includes Sam Burns, Adam Schenk and Jhonattan Vegas. It will work with the Player Advisory Council on pace-of-play improvements, and this week's memo encouraged players to contact members of the working group 'if you have any ideas you would like discussed.' As Monahan outlined at TPC Sawgrass, the Tour will experiment with the use of distance-measuring devices at tournaments played between the Masters and PGA Championship. The Tour will also begin testing a new policy at the Lecom Suncoast Classic on the Korn Ferry Tour later this month, 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.' '[The test] will allow us to gather data to help determine if this measure would change player behavior and have a positive impact on pace of play,' the memo read. Monahan also announced a plan to begin 'publishing speed-of-play-related statistics later this season,' but there were no additional details in this month's GreenSheet. According to Tour officials, the exact data the circuit plans to release is still being developed.
NBC Sports
11-03-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
PGA Tour unveils changes to pace of play policy
ORLANDO, Fla. – Driven by the Fan Forward initiative and a steady drumbeat of criticism over slow play on the PGA Tour, commissioner Jay Monahan announced Tuesday aggressive adjustments to the circuit's pace of play policy. In his annual address to the media at The Players Championship, Monahan outlined the new initiatives that include the publishing of 'speed-of-play-related statistics' and the testing of a new policy on the Korn Ferry Tour that will include penalty strokes for pace-of-play violations. 'I think what's important is when you go back to the commentary that you've heard around Fan Forward and you just look at the commentary generally, we're listening to our fans and we're responding, and clearly this is something where they would like to see improvement,' Monahan said. 'You know, it's easy to identify the problem. It's a little bit harder to find the solution, just given the depth and breadth of everything that goes into pace of play. But we are committed to finding the right solutions and making progress on that front.' Monahan said the policy board supports the changes as well as the members of the Player Advisory Council during a meeting last week. The plan also includes testing range finders during competition rounds at six Tour events later this season. The move to make pace-of-play data available publicly is a dramatic pivot for the Tour, which has resisted singling out slow players for decades despite little improvement in the overall pace on Tour. 'The conversation that we had with our board, the conversation we've had with our player directors, looking at average stroke times, this is not done so from the standpoint of negativity; there's also a really positive element to this,' Monahan said. 'They're celebrating the players that are playing faster and improving, and at the same time there's giving players the information that they need to have to be able to improve in the eyes of not only how they're competing but also in the eyes of our fans.'
