PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. -- In an effort to speed up play on the PGA Tour, major championship winners Collin Morikawa and Justin Thomas say they'd like to see data of how long it takes a golfer to make a shot made public.
Commissioner Jay Monahan said Tuesday that the tour plans to make average stroke time available later this season, but he wouldn't go as far as to say whether the names of slow golfers would be revealed. The tour acquires that data from Shotlink.
Morikawa, who is fourth in the Official World Golf Ranking after finishing second at last week's Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill in Orlando, Florida, said he was in favor of publishing slow golfers' names and data.
"I think it should be released," Morikawa said at TPC Sawgrass ahead of this week's Players Championship. "I don't know why you wouldn't want it to be released. I think after talking to some guys, I think you just have to start ... giving guys actual penalties, whether it be strokes or FedEx Cup [points].
"What I've learned is that monetary fines are useless. We make so much money, and some guys frankly could care less about [them]. I don't know how much the fines are, but whatever X amount they are, I think they care more about playing good golf and making sure they make the playoffs. That's where it hits hard."
Monahan said the PGA Tour is "committed to addressing the speed of play" and would begin publishing speed-of-play-related statistics later this season. The tour will also test a new speed-of-play policy on the Korn Ferry Tour and PGA Tour Americas starting April 14, which will include assessing penalty strokes for slow play.
PGA Tour caddies and players will also be testing the use of rangefinders to acquire shot distances quicker at the six PGA Tour events between the Masters and the PGA Championship. The distance-detecting devices will first be used at the RBC Heritage at Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, and the Corales Puntacana Championship in the Dominican Republic on April 17-20.
Monahan said the PGA Tour policy board and Player Advisory Council fully supported the measures from the player-led Speed of Play Working Group.
The tour said the speed-of-play data will "illustrate the intersection of pace of play and performance, aligning these statistics with course conditions, weather, hole locations, competitive context (i.e., performance of players in contention or near the cutline) and other advanced metrics."
"We're excited to learn more about the impact of increased transparency and accountability through these efforts," Monahan said. "I think what's important is when you 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."
At the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, PGA Tour officials suggested they'd also disclose fines and penalties for players who violate slow-play rules, although Monahan didn't address that potential policy Tuesday.
"I see no issue with [releasing the names and data]," Morikawa said. "I think what is there to hide, right? If you're slow, you know you're slow. I mean, if you don't know, then there's an issue. To me, there's no issue with letting it out, right? It's only going to make things better because then you're either going to have a target on you, put a little more pressure and hopefully you pick it up, or you get penalized. Like, it's very simple."
Thomas also said he was in favor of releasing the stroke-play data publicly.
"If we put it in the locker room or put it out, which would obviously end up getting out, but nobody wants to be known as that," Thomas said. "I mean, I'm the first to admit ... I'm on the slow side of players. It bothers me, but I've talked to many officials about it. Like, I want to know why I'm slow because obviously the first thing that any slower player thinks is that they're not slow.
"I never want to be the guy that gets paired with somebody and that person is like, 'Oh my gosh, I have to play with Justin; he's so slow.' Because I know guys that I get paired with [slow guys] and I'm like, 'Oh my gosh, I have to play with so-and-so; they're so slow.' And it's not a good feeling because you know you're going to be on the clock, you know, and that's not fun."
Thomas said smaller fields at signature events like the Genesis Invitational have helped speed up play because golfers are paired in twosomes on the weekend, rather than threesomes used in the past.
"The difference it makes [between] twosomes and threesomes and the amount of people in the field, it's a big deal," Thomas said. "So, I think that we're making progress, but at the same time, it can always get better. It's just finding the fine line of improving it and making sure that it's improvement that's needed, while not jeopardizing the game and just the reality."