PGA Tour star comes up with a shame-based system to address slow play while rejecting shot clock

PGA Tour star Andrew Novak has come up with a creative way of addressing the slow pace of play which has become a recurrent issue this year. He suggested that instead of dropping field sizes, players should be “shamed” into quickening their paces.

Andrew Novak, who is an American professional golfer, has one Korn Ferry Tour win. He had a top-10 finish on the PGA Tour in 2023 and finished third in the Farmers Insurance Open in January 2025.

Novak, who is currently competing in the ongoing 2025 WM Phoenix Open, voiced his opinion on how the slow pace of play is affecting the competitions. In an online discussion, he agreed that while dropping field sizes and using shot clocks will help the issue, it doesn't ultimately fix the problem.

"Dropping field sizes will help but, I don’t- it’s not gonna fix the problem. Like there’s guys that just flat out take forever. They’re not ready, their process takes too long, they’re all over the ball too long and everything they do just takes too long,” the PGA Tour star said.

"Like, dropping the field sizes, all that’s gonna allow for is bigger gaps in between groups which means that like you’ll be able to move better within the round but guys aren't gonna actually speed up their processes. Adding range finders will help but adding range finders will probably help on maybe one or two shots a round,” he continued.

Novak added that the best way to get individual players to speed up their process is by creating a shame list that informs spectators of the time each player takes to make their shot.

"A lot of these proposals are not like full fixes of the problem. A full fix of the problem is literally gonna come down to individual guys speeding up their processes and I think personally, the best way to do that is a shame list… Post 'em, post how long people are taking… Let the fans– let them hear the outrage from the people. Let people chirp the players that are taking too long,” Novak added.

The PGA Tour pro also said that using a shot clock would be a great solution, but would also be “very difficult” to implement.

PGA Tour considers using rangefinders to improve pace of play

In an attempt to speed up pace of play, The PGA Tour has announced that it will consider testing the use of rangefinders (also known as DMDs or Distance Measuring Devices) during competitions.

According to golf journalist Dan Rapaport, this is one of the many initiatives the organization is putting in place to speed up the pace of play. He said via X (formerly Twitter):

“PGA Tour says they will test allowing players to use distance-measuring devices during competition. One of a number of initiatives to try to speed up play.”

At the moment, rangefinders are only allowed at the PGA Championship. However, the organizers will pick another event in the schedule where players will temporarily be allowed to use DMDs.