Jack Nicklaus Blames the Golf Ball for Slow Play
by Maura Hutchinson
As the debate regarding slow play continues on the PGA Tour, Nicklaus offered his own insight to the reason rounds are now pushing to the six-hour mark.
Telling Kathy Bissell of the Bleacher Report, “It's not just the players that cause the slow play. It's the difficulty of the golf course, the length of the golf course and the distance the golf ball goes, and you're playing a lot of golf course, and it takes more time.”
So why’s the 18 time major winner picking on the golf ball of all things? Nicklaus believes that the advances in the golf ball technology have so changed the dynamics of the game that golf courses have had to be designed to accommodate the power and straightness of these new balls. Resulting in longer courses and more difficult conditions.
While he acknowledges there are other factors, including player pace and the progressive design of other crucial equipment, the 73-year-old thinks the key to changing the game’s lengthy timing begins with the re-thinking of the golf ball.
“If we went back and left equipment alone but changed the golf ball and brought it back, you played a shorter golf course, not only from the Tour standpoint would it be good, but a shorter golf course all through the game would mean less maintenance cost, less cost to play the game, quicker play, less land, less fertilizer, less everything, which would make the game more economical.”