HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. – Observers will discover one thing is totally different at this week’s RBC Heritage.
The post-Masters celebration may have a stable discipline because the season’s sixth signature occasion, Harbour City Golf Hyperlinks will once more play to its diabolical greatest, and the winner will once more rank among the many week’s greatest ball-strikers. What might be totally different is delicate but important.
The Heritage is the primary occasion in a four-week, six-tournament stretch on the PGA Tour that may enable the usage of distance-measuring units (DMDs) within the circuit’s ongoing makes an attempt to hurry up play.
Using DMDs is a component of a bigger plan to deal with tempo of play — which was signaled out as a difficulty within the current Fan Ahead undertaking — together with an adjustment to the Tour’s coverage on timings beginning this week on the Korn Ferry Tour.
“They’re going to have an additional software of their toolbox for 4 weeks, and we’re all in favour of listening to, following that interval, how was it? Do you’re feeling it was useful? Do you’re feeling it helped you with tempo of play?” mentioned Gary Younger, a senior vice chairman of guidelines and competitions for the Tour. “I feel that’s an vital level to make about this. There’s a starting and an finish to it, after which we’re going to take that point to actually cram the information and try it.”
Gamers and caddies might be allowed to make use of DMDs however solely to determine “uncooked” distances, not slope or another info supplied by trendy DMDs. Violation of that rule will end in a two-stroke penalty.
The PGA Championship, which is run by the PGA of America, already permits gamers to make use of DMDs in the course of the event and the Korn Ferry Tour held an identical four-event trial in 2017, however officers hope to be taught extra about how utilizing DMDs could velocity up play.
“I don’t assume there was something concrete that got here out of [the 2017 trial] information sensible,” Younger mentioned. “There wasn’t a giant enchancment in round-time information, however this explicit work group felt that discipline dimension had lots to do with it and particularly groupings.”
Earlier this 12 months, the Tour established the “Pace of Play Working Group,” which incorporates Sam Burns, Adam Schenk and Jhonattan Vegas, to work with the Participant Advisory Council on pace-of-play enhancements.
“They felt throughout [two-ball] pairs it will be a battle to remain up a bit bit with the group forward of you,” Younger mentioned. “Ought to they begin to fall behind, they will shortly get a reference level and calculate yardage. It additionally could assist the teams which can be being timed sustain and make up time.”
PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan introduced Tuesday aggressive changes to the circuit’s pace-of-play coverage.
The DMDs trial is a part of a wider pace-of-play focus Tour commissioner Jay Monahan introduced final month at The Gamers Championship.
The Tour will even start testing a brand new coverage on the Lecom Suncoast Traditional on the Korn Ferry Tour this week, and it’s already began on the PGA Tour Americas. The adjustment will take away what has basically been a warning for a “unhealthy time” and can now apply a one-stroke penalty for a “first offense.”
Most gamers don’t anticipate the usage of DMDs to have a lot of an influence on tempo of play and world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler steered a extra apparent method to sluggish play.
“We’ve been utilizing [DMDs] on the PGA the final couple years. Is it going to assist tempo of play? Perhaps a couple of minutes. Will or not it’s something important? No,” Scheffler mentioned Tuesday at Harbour City. “This event, what impacts the tempo of play is strolling the golf course. I feel we’re enjoying twosomes all week, so it should go from a five-hour spherical to possibly 4 hours or much less.
“If you see the most important modifications in tempo of play, all of it comes from going from three guys to 2 guys in a pairing. It’s simply simpler to get across the golf course.”
Gamers and caddies anticipate utilizing DMDs when coping with pictures which can be properly huge of enjoying corridors and it’s tough to discover a reference level to make use of a yardage guide, in addition to a technique to verify yardages on method pictures and tee pictures on par 3s.
“I envision Tom [Hoge] standing within the fairway capturing [with a DMD] and I’ll be getting the numbers [traditionally] and we’ll do like we all the time do,” mentioned James Edmondson, Hoge’s longtime caddie. “I’ll use it after we’re off-line, however we’re nonetheless going to make use of the fronts and the backs and the carries [yardages] within the guide. In case you don’t try this I feel you’d get your sequence off. I feel in the event you don’t it’s going to be too totally different for guys. Stick to outdated habits.”
The Tour additionally plans to make pace-of-play information accessible to the general public however officers are nonetheless growing an inventory that addresses “common stroke time” with some context. For instance, if a participant averages 38 seconds to hit an method shot however that quantity will increase on Friday when the reduce is looming or Sunday when a title is on the road.
Officers count on to have that record developed throughout the subsequent month or two and it may very well be accessible to the general public as early as this season.
