The conversation of slow play reared its ugly head at the PGA Tour’s flagship event on Friday as Rory McIlroy vented to the media about the “epidemic” slow play has become on the PGA Tour.
After shooting a second-round 65 to take a share of the 36-hole lead, McIlroy met with the press and was asked about the pace of play over the first few days of the event.
“The fact that someone didn’t finish yesterday, just being through daylight savings and the tee times and someone had to come out today because there wasn’t enough light to finish, I mean, that’s unacceptable,” McIlroy said. “This is 5:40 after our tee time. I get that it can take five hours to play out there, but it shouldn’t take any over that.”
Anirban Lahiri was forced to return to the 18th green on Saturday morning to putt out and complete his second round after darkness halted play.
“They don’t do anything about it. It’s become somewhat of an epidemic on Tour,” McIlroy said. “Honestly, I think they should just be a little tougher and start penalizing shots earlier and that would be an easy way to fix it.”
Rory on why pace of play is so slow: “Because they don’t do anything about it…It’s become somewhat of an epidemic on Tour.” He added that it was “unacceptable” play didn’t finish before dark yesterday. Amen ?️⛳️?
— Brian Wacker (@brianwacker1) March 16, 2019
McIlroy played alongside Matt Kuchar and Phil Mickelson the first two rounds. The group needed five hours and 20 minutes to complete their second round at TPC Sawgrass.
