Masters chairman Fred Ridley, in his annual pre-tournament address Wednesday, expressed such concern about slow play he almost went as far as suggesting a shot clock of sorts.
There was a moment in Augusta National’s “Drive, Chip & Putt’’ competition for kids when one of the competitors used “AimPoint’’ to measure up a putt, taking some time to do it.
Ridley noticed it and said it was “an example that really illustrates the problem,’’ adding, “Unfortunately, these young people are looking to their heroes who play the game each week for a living as to how they’re going to approach competitively playing the game.
“I think maybe this might be a call to action that perhaps we haven’t seen in the past,’’ Ridley went on. “We will be dealing with that issue [slow play] this week. I’m not going to tell you that I’m going to be happy with the results, but I think I am encouraged that the PGA Tour is doing some things, experimenting with some timing procedures that might be a little bit more aggressive than we’ve seen in the past.
“As it relates to the Drive, Chip & Putt, I, too, noticed exactly what you noticed. Every phase of the competition has the same length chip and the same length putt, so it’s really not necessary to pace that off. They know how many yards that is. But nevertheless, that’s what they were doing.
“I think it’s safe to assume that next year at the ‘Drive, Chip & Putt’ you will see some sort of time limitations placed on the competition.”