‘Shut up and get out the way!’ Major champ makes surprise accusation in slow play row

A former Open Champion has had enough of professional golf’s snail pace – and says he knows what’s causing it.

A former Open winner has had enough of professional golf’s snail pace – and says he knows what’s causing it.

Slow play continues to be the scourge of professional golf, with tournament rounds sometimes dragging on for six hours or more – and one major champion thinks he knows why.

The Open Championship at Royal Portrush was a perfect example. The golf was brilliant viewing, but it took an age.

Marc Leishman said it took his group three hours to get through the first eight holes. By the end, he groaned, it “felt like we were on the golf course for about 12 hours”.

Now, one former Claret Jug winner has revealed what he thinks is the main culprit.

Speaking on The Smylie Show podcast with PGA Tour winner Smylie Kaufman, 1991 Open Champion Ian Baker-Finch said the obsession with precise yardages and endless discussions between players and caddies are what’s killing the pace of play.

“It is so annoying to me on television,” said Baker-Finch. “I’ve been watching it for 30 years and it’s got worse and worse and worse. How can you hit the shot in 40 seconds if the caddie talks for two and a half minutes?”

The Australian contrasted today’s ultra-detailed preparation with the more instinctive approach of his playing days. Back then, he says, yardages were scribbled on a scorecard, based on simple landmarks.

“We’d go to a course, write down one thing on each hole – maybe a pine tree lined up with a white stake – and pace it out. 152 yards. That was our yardage book. Jack [Nicklaus] was really the first guy to take more detailed notes. Everyone else just went by feel: ‘I hit 7-iron here yesterday, looks like 155, whatever.’”

Now, Baker-Finch says, “we need decimal points for how exacting these players want to be” – and the result is painfully slow golf.

“Shut up. It’s 110 yards. It’s a gap wedge. Don’t be long because it’s too fast down the hill,” he vented. “You come to a par-three tee and they take two minutes talking. You’ve played it the last three days. You know it’s a 5-iron to the back pin, 6-iron to the front pin. Choose a club, get out of the way, let me hit the shot.”

The 64-year-old lamented how “golf has gone from a four-hour game to a five-and-a-half-hour game” and that such protracted rounds are now deemed “acceptable”.

Baker-Finch’s comments come amid renewed debate about pace of play at the game’s highest level, with fans and many pros calling for stricter enforcement of time limits.

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