Patrick Cantlay Shares Thoughts On Shot Clock

The first year of the PGA Tour’s slow play crackdown has been an eventful one.  Although the idea of improving times has been criticized by players like Scottie Scheffler, it has also been praised as a long time coming.  There have been plenty of ups and downs; on the one hand, there have been penalties handed out.  On the other hand, events like The Open Championship dragged out longer than needed .  There have also been plenty of tools used to encourage faster play.  Patrick Cantlay saw one such tool in effect while playing at the BMW Championship.

What Is The Shot Clock?

The shot clock is a tool being used to encourage an improved pace of play.  Unlike the range finders at RBC Heritage, this tool is not for the players per se.  Instead, it is for everyone else on the field as a way to put pressure on the player to speed it up.  One of the suggested ways to get players to play faster was a form of public shaming for each shot.  Each player gets their own clock, and if they regularly take too long to make a shot, they get their name on the leaderboard of shame.  It was suggested when the initial unveiling of the crackdown happened, but it was just implemented for the BMW Championship.  Patrick Cantlay got to experience this new board of shame during the event.

How The Clock Affected Patrick Cantlay

Patrick Cantlay is a very careful player.  That is to say that he takes his time to carefully calculate his shots, even more so on the green.  To Cantlay’s surprise, he found himself on the slow play leaderboard and was called out for it by broadcasters during the event.  Cantlay would say that he felt singled out, despite everyone taking some time that week due to the rough condit ions of the course.  Cantly told reporters after the incident:

Cantlay said, “I know, I talked to a lot of guys last week. The course was playing really tough, so almost every group was behind time par.“

One reporter then said, “They chose you.“

To which Cantlay responded: “Yeah, obviously I’m not in control of the broadcast or what kind of stuff they put on there. But I’m not really worried about it. I’m trying to make the lowest score out there.“

With that last line, Cantlay is trying not to let the board of shame get to him.  Michael Kim thinks Cantlay is getting a bad rap.  He is by no means the slowest player on the Tour; his name just happened to be on the board during the match.

Cantlay On His Pace Of Play

Patrick Cantlay isn’t too concerned with speeding up.  He is more concerned with getting a better score in future events.  He will continue to play carefully at each event, calculating each swing in his head.  The way he felt singled out does tell that the shot clock and slow play leaderboard could work for certain players.  Especially when paired with a slow play penalty.  The slow play crackdown is still very much in an experimental phase, but it is showing signs of working.  Even if players say the clock isn’t affecting them too much, there is still that pressure.