Xander Schauffele defends slow pace of play
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Xander Schauffele (left) and Patrick Cantlay during the pro-am prior to the Zurich Classic of New Orleans.
PHOTO: AFP
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LOS ANGELES – When it comes to the debate about whether the pace of play is too slow on the PGA Tour, Xander Schauffele said to follow the money.
“We’re not playing like the local muni (municipal course) that sort of the average Joe compares our time par to,” he said on Wednesday.
“We’re playing for a couple million – you know, US$3.6 million (S$4.8 million for first place last Sunday at the RBC Heritage).
“If you’re going to spend an extra minute to make sure you put yourself in the right spot, we’re going to do it. That’s just the nature of our game and our sport.”
Schauffele and Patrick Cantlay – who admits to being “definitely slower than average” – are the defending champions of this week’s event on the PGA Tour, the Zurich Classic of New Orleans, which uses a two-man team format at TPC Louisiana in Avondale.
They were asked on Wednesday about the comments of Englishman Matt Fitzpatrick, who won the RBC Heritage but complained about the pace of play.
“I think they give us way too much leeway to get round,” Fitzpatrick said on Sky Sports.
“If you’re in a three-ball, in my opinion, you should be round in four hours, four-and-a-half absolute maximum. You’re talking five (and) 15, five-and-a-half (hours) at some venues, and it’s appalling.”
Fitzpatrick added that repeated attempts to address the subject with officials in the sport have failed to produce action.
Cantlay has been used by others as an example of a slow player, but he was unsure how the PGA Tour would make changes that would effectively speed up a round.
“The times that it’s taken to play rounds has been pretty much the same for the last 10 or even longer years,” he said. “So trying to speed it up, I’d be curious to know how they’d want to do that.”
With Fitzpatrick’s comments, Schauffele said that it is up to the PGA Tour to “take a stance”.
If enough players complain, he said, the Tour can require faster play, but the difficulties of a given course and the conditions also need to be considered. REUTERS
