Patrick Cantlay has fired back at accusations of slow play during the final round of The Masters, insisting he also “waited all day on pretty much every shot” as one of golf’s biggest debates has fired up again.
The world number four came under fire from Brooks Koepka, one of the most vocal critics of slow play on the fairways, for his speed, or lack of, during the final round at Augusta.
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“Yeah, the group in front of us was brutally slow,” Koepka said after finishing tied for second at The Masters.
“Jon [Rahm] went to the bathroom like seven times during the round, and we were still waiting.”
Even Cantlay’s playing partner on the final day, Viktor Hovland, appeared irritated and was seen doing his utmost to hurry things along.
However, the American put the blame on the group in front of him for the slow pace.
“We finished the first hole, and the group in front of us was on the second tee when we walked up to the second tee, and we waited all day on pretty much every shot,” Cantlay said.
“We waited in 15 fairway, we waited in 18 fairway. I imagine it was slow for everyone.”
Cantlay was also at pains to point out that the slow pace isn’t something that has arose in recent years, but has been around “for the last 10 or 20 years” and is largely down to the pressure of every individual shot.
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“Yeah, one thing that’s interesting sitting on the PAC [Player Advisory Council] is you get all the numbers and data,” Cantlay said.
“And rounds have taken about the same length of time for the last 10 or 20 years that they currently take.
“When you play a golf course like Augusta National where all the hole locations are on lots of slope and the greens are really fast, it’s just going to take longer and longer to hole out.
“I think that may have been what attributed to some of the slow play on Sunday, and then also when the wins is gusting and the wind is blowing inconsistently, that’s when guys will take a long time, too.
“I think that’s just the nature of playing professional golf, where every shot matters so much.”
Despite Cantlay’s claims, not everyone saw it as a collective issue, but one to do with the American himself more than anything.
The Telegraph’s Tom Cary described Cantlay’s putting style “like watching a 90-year-old approach a staircase”, such is the 31-year-old’s snail-like pace.
“And there is no doubt that it was Cantlay who was the major culprit [of slow play],” Cary wrote.
“Amateur Sam Bennett was also painfully slow on the day, but Cantlay took the biscuit.”
English golfer Eddie Pepperell also took a cheeky dig at Cantlay, who was heavily linked with a move to LIV Golf but turned it down.
“I think everyone on LIV should be happy Cantlay never signed,” Pepperell wrote on Twitter.
When it comes to slow play, players can be docked a shot by the match officials if they deem an individual is taking too long.
One brutal example of that was at the 2013 Masters when Chinese male Guan Tianlang, who was just 14 years old at the time, copped a penalty from officials for slow play.
But those penalties are few and far between, especially in the modern game, which is problematic in itself.
With Cantlay’s pace coming under the microscope, it has reignited the discussion surrounding slow play and how to be more stringent with punishments.
“Players know the rules on pace of play, but they also know that slow play penalties are so rarely doled out they can go about their business how they like,” Golf Australia’s Jimmy Emanuel wrote.
“They are also more than aware that if they are slow, there is at least a couple of other slow players in the field they can point to as creating the issue throughout the rest of the field.”
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Cary also took aim at the leniency on the slow play penalty at Augusta.
“Augusta National has rules about everything; from phones, to running, to sitting on the grass,” Cary wrote.
“But they chose not to apply one that has the potential to materially affect the sport.
“Golf is trying to appeal to young fans. It does not help when you could plant three new pine trees at the 17th at the start of the day, to replace the fallen ones, and expect them to be reasonably mature by the time the players reach that hole.”
“Examples must be made.”
So, how should players be penalised?
Well, according to Emanuel, there isn’t much point in handing out fines.
Instead, it needs to hit them where it hurts most.
“The only thing that will [speed up players] is being penalised on the scorecard, because in the modern professional game awash with eye watering sums of money there is no realistic way of hitting players in the hip pocket hard enough for them to notice,” Emanuel wrote.
He added: “The targeting of Patrick Cantlay is perhaps unfair given he is but one of many players with a lack of purpose when it comes to pace of play at times.
“Yet what it does highlight is the need for action, and that has to come from tournament organisers with a genuine interest in speeding up play and making tournament golf more watchable.”
