Charley Hoffman wrote a letter to his fellow PGA Tour gamers addressing gradual tempo of play and different points inside the ranks.
The letter, which was shared on social media by Golf Journal on Sunday night time, follows the lead of Justin Thomas, whose memo final month implored golfers to be extra accommodating to the game’s broadcast companions as a method to attach with the followers and enhance tv viewership.
“We have taken loads of warmth over the previous few weeks about gradual play,” Hoffman wrote within the letter. “And yeah, it is a problem — for our followers, for us as gamers. Slicing down subject sizes will assist, however solely by a couple of minutes a day. As gamers, we nonetheless have to make a concerted effort to hurry up. Tempo of play has been a problem my whole 20 years on Tour, and it was a problem 20 years earlier than that.
“Golf is a troublesome sport, and when circumstances get excessive, it takes time to play it the fitting manner. All of us have to take accountability to be prepared when it is our flip to play and having the attention to comprehend that we’re out of place and pace up even earlier than the foundations official exhibits up. We do it on a regular basis, we simply should be extra conscious of it!”
Hoffman, 48, is a four-time winner of the PGA Tour, along with his final victory coming on the Valero Texas Open in 2016. He has served a number of phrases on the Participant Advisory Council and twice served on the higher-level coverage board of the PGA Tour.
“We have now a accountability to work with our broadcast companions — whether or not that is doing on-course interviews or simply giving followers a greater have a look at what we do on the market,” Hoffman wrote within the letter. “However simply as we assist them, we’d like to verify our Tour and our gamers are being correctly highlighted. We’re the perfect gamers on the planet competing on the perfect tour on the planet. That ought to at all times be the main target — showcasing the thought, ability, ardour, and competitors that makes our sport nice.”
He commented about restricted alternatives for golfers to play their manner into signature occasions, pledging as a Participant Advisory Council member to observe how the AON Swing 5 is included within the course of.
He was extra essential of gamers decreasing their PGA Tour participation but discovering time to play within the new TGL (which options 24 gamers) and different non-tour occasions.
“If we really care about strengthening our Tour, we needs to be supporting as many PGA Tour occasions as we are able to,” Hoffman wrote. “A lot of you retain saying you wish to play fewer occasions, but you continue to make time for TGL, Race to Dubai, and different non-PGA Tour occasions, and that is going to proceed no matter subject dimension.
“One of the best competitors occurs when the perfect gamers go head-to-head in a deep, aggressive subject — not in small, limited-entry occasions that depart deserving gamers on the skin trying in. This Tour was constructed on open competitors, the place anybody with the sport to compete has an opportunity to show it in opposition to the perfect. That is what has made our Tour particular for generations, and we have to preserve pushing for that.”
