If you can’t beat ’em, shame ’em.
That seems to be the PGA Tour’s latest strategy to cut down on the scourge of slow play in the pro game, and on Saturday at the BMW Championship, those efforts took on a new light in the form of a revealing new TV graphic.
The graphic arrived for the first time during Saturday’s Golf Channel coverage of the third round from the BMW Championship, showcasing hole-by-hole stats for pace of play for the Patrick Cantlay/Shane Lowry pairing. The Cantlay/Lowry pairing’s pace of play was of specific interest to the Golf Channel crew, as rules analyst Mark Dusbabek explained, because the two players had just been placed on the clock.
“The Lowry-Cantlay group is going on the clock right now to be timed,” Dusbabek said as the graphic unfurled over the screen, revealing both players’ approximate pace relative to time par over the previous six holes. “They were warned on the fourth hole at plus four, they’ve lost three minutes since then. The hole is open in front of them. They’re now plus seven. So we’re going to try to get that group back into position and get everybody going here.”
The PGA Tour has been more transparent about pace of play as the 2025 season has progressed, following what Tour officials told a group of journalists at the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in late January. At the time, Tour officials said they hoped transparency would provide a better grasp of the true scope of the pace of play problem in pro golf — which is often overstated by the volume of play at many full-field events — while also providing ample social pressure on Tour pros who were frequent offenders of slow play.
On Saturday, for what is believed to be the first time in PGA Tour history, the graphic showcased two slow players in the act of slow-play — allowing Dusbabek to explain the PGA Tour’s protocols for enforcing pace of play. The decision provided a fascinating glimpse into one of the peculiarities of everyday Tour life, as Dusbabek explained how Lowry and Cantlay’s round was distinguishably slower than their Tour counterparts.
“There’s the pace of play chart. It’s a huge issue here,” Dusbabek said. “So you can see Steve [Burkowski], what I explained there, they’re plus three and a half [minutes]. They’ve continually lost time along the way. Now we haven’t picked them up earlier because of situations that were going on in front of them with the groups in front of them. So now that they’ve gotten to plus seven [minutes], that hole, the 12th hole, has opened up in front so now we’ve had no choice but to push that group along.”
After Tour officials placed Lowry and Cantlay on the clock, the two golfers completed the rest of their round without issue, with neither player incurring the mandatory two “bad times” — or unnecessarily long shot-times — that would necessitate a one-shot penalty. All the while, fans watched at home with the knowledge that both players were playing behind the expected pace.
The graphic falls in line with broader PGA Tour policy changes involving pace of play, including on the PGA Tour Americas, where the Tour is experimenting with a new rule resulting in a one-shot penalty for the first “bad time” during a tournament round. The hope is that the increased emphasis will result in more efficient tournament play, which will help to improve the entertainment value of golf competition while also helping to narrow the competitive disparity sometimes felt between players in “fast” or “slow” groups.
In Saturday’s instance, the graphic amounted to little more than a public slap on the wrist for the two players showcased, but provided fascinating theater for those watching at home.
In other words, another victory for the Shame Game.
