Slow-play is becoming a recurring issue with the world\u2019s best golfers repeatedly complaining about the pace of play over the first two rounds at The Open being slammed as \u201cdiabolical\u201d.<\/p>\n
While there was some excellent golf on Thursday\u2019s opening round at Royal Portrush, it saw the usual grumbling with the agonisingly slow speed of play becoming a bigger challenge than the tricky links course itself.<\/p>\n
Home-town hero Rory McIlroy was joined by Justin Thomas and Tommy Fleetwood as late starters who hit their first tee shots just after 3pm, with it being past 9pm and the sun starting to set as they finished their opening round.<\/p>\n
His feature group was just one of many whose round was hampered by traffic and slow-moving groups, as the painful pace of play inevitably had detrimental side effects on the group\u2019s focus, flow and momentum.<\/p>\n
The numbers were harrowing \u2013 156 golfers, no split of the field between the 1st and 10th tee, six-hour rounds and at one point, five groups queuing on the 7th tee.<\/p>\n
And golfers were understandably frustrated, not for the first time.<\/p>\n
Marc Leishman of the faster LIV Golf Tour claimed: \u201cIt felt like we were on the golf course for 12 hours.\u00a0We\u2019d been on the course for three hours through eight holes.\u00a0That was tough to deal with, especially coming from somewhere where we play in under four and a half hours every week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scottish contender, Robert McIntyre, defended his home Major, citing a different factor as the cause:\u00a0\u00a0\u201cWe couldn\u2019t have gone any faster. I guess golf courses are too long.\u201d<\/p>\n
The thick, expansive rough at Royal Portrush combined with an array of errant tee shots resulted in the field spending a considerable amount of time wading through the trademark links conditions in a desperate hunt for their ball \u2013 a tougher hunt than most American courses.<\/p>\n
Englishman, Aaron Rai, another home nation hopeful, understood both sides of the problem, explaining:\u00a0\u201cIt was a little on the slow side. But naturally, with the challenging course, the pace of play is going to be a little bit slower than normal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Five-time Major champion Brooks Koepka argued the R&A should go one step further and should \u201cstart stroking guys\u201d with stronger penalties if taking too long.<\/p>\n
Golf podcast host, Michael McEwan, was less diplomatic in his response to the pace of play, tweeting on X: \u201cThe pace of play today has been diabolical. I get that it\u2019s a major, that there\u2019s a lot at stake and blah blah blah. But let\u2019s not kid ourselves, six-hour rounds are just s****.\u201d<\/p>\n
Why is play still so slow \u2013 are there any real answers?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a recurring story with players facing the same issues in many recent Major tournaments, especially the 2025 Open and U.S. Open, and little being done to limit the damage.<\/p>\n
In many American golf events, the field is split in half with groups teeing off simultaneously at the 1st and 10th holes.<\/p>\n
However, The Open hasn\u2019t employed this split and consequently, all 156 players had to wait their turn to tee off at Royal Portrush.<\/p>\n
While looking for a ball in the rough is perfectly legal and will inevitably slow down play, a big issue the sport is facing is golfers taking far too long to prepare and execute their stroke.<\/p>\n
Shot clocks or time limits have been suggested, but not implemented.<\/p>\n
New ideas such as the use of rangefinders to speed up shot preparation have been trialled, but there is yet to be a meaningful fix; whether we see a solution in 2026 remains to be seen.<\/p>\n