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Rory McIlroy has officially had enough of slow play – both as a problem on tour and as a topic of conversation.

Speaking to reporters ahead of this week’s PGA Tour season finale, the TOUR Championship, the four-time major winner made that point abundantly clear when asked for his thoughts on the new pace of play policy unveiled earlier this week by the European Tour.

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“I saw they released a four-point plan,” said the Northern Irishman, “but I only read the headline. I didn’t go deeper into it. I’ve had enough of the slow play stuff. I had two hours of it last week at the PAC [Player Advisory Council] meeting, and that came to nothing.”

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The issue has boiled to a head in recent weeks, particularly following high-profile incidents involving Bryson DeChambeau at The Northern Trust.

That prompted the PGA Tour to open a review into how it polices the speed its players at, followed in quick measure by the European Tour’s own revised policy.

As far as McIlroy is concerned, there’s a simple, straightforward and easily implementable solution staring everybody in the face.

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“If you want to speed up play, cut the field sizes,” he said. “I’m in
a privileged position that I can say that because I’m going to get into
a field of 30 or 70. Obviously, guys that are not quite in my position
would disagree with that.

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“[But] seriously, it’s like traffic, right? You get 156 in the field, and it’s hard to get those guys around quickly.”


author headshot

Michael McEwan is the Deputy Editor of bunkered and has been part of the team since 2004. In that time, he has interviewed almost every major figure within the sport, from Jack Nicklaus, to Rory McIlroy, to Donald Trump. The host of the multi award-winning bunkered Podcast and a member of Balfron Golfing Society, Michael is the author of three books and is the 2023 PPA Scotland 'Writer of the Year' and 'Columnist of the Year'. Dislikes white belts, yellow balls and iron headcovers. Likes being drawn out of the media ballot to play Augusta National.

Deputy Editor

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