golfrewind.com

JB is having a nice 2008 so far, and I must admit that I had never seen him swing a club before the FBR (which he won).

I know nothing about the man but this ... his preshot routine is the worst possible example for the amateur golfer. After watching him a bit, it seems his 'short routine' has at a minimum of 8 practice strokes, 4 short ones, and 4 long ones. I counted 12 before his shot from the 18th fairway, and the cameras panned away for a few seconds ... so it was probably about 14 practice strokes.

This is just not good for the length of our weekend rounds on the course. If JB has a great year, we might start seeing the 8 hour round at the local muni.

Hopefully, he'll start getting some 2 stroke delay of game penalties. At the very least, the PGA should not allow live footage of JB to be taken until after he has addressed the ball. Until then, the camera must be off.

It was so brutal watching him today ... almost as bad as watching Sean O'Hair putt.

Watching him at the FBR I was getting angry with all the practice strokes and walking all the way to the green and back before taking his 15 practice swings. He should have been hit with slow play penalties. I really can't watch this guy play at all.

Never noticed. He won the FBR in '06 as well.

Don't go letting Mike Weir or Ben Crane off the hook, either. Their pre-shot routines are right up there with J.B.

As much as it pains me to say it, there is an excuse in match play not to start your pre-shot before the other guy hits. The shot you plan to hit can depend highly on what your opponent does, so I expect match play with the pros to take even longer than the average stroke play competition. But, in stroke play where it is just you versus the course, these guys have no excuse. The TOUR has no excuse.

The LPGA Tour just slapped penalty strokes on one of their players last week:

- GeoffShackelford.com - They Penalize Slow Play On The LPGA*Tour!

If the PGA TOUR started doing this, it would get the player's and people's attention. It really shouldn't be this hard to get the players to play at a reasonable pace.

Now when Holmes is playing I switch channels this guy is the worst I have ever seen.
and the PGA needs to do something about it.

HAHA...yea he's been like that awhile..I've played some tourneys with him when he was still an am! He's a good guy though...Whatever works for him ya know!

Yeah, it does seem to work for him. And of course I would assume he's a good guy ...

but I think it is bad for the average golfer to see his drawn out preshot routine ... and in the end, surely he will hold up play and should deserve a penalty for it.

I don't think that he gets any more benefit from this excruciatingly long preshot routine than he might from one that is half as long. I don't mind it in match play ... but he takes just as much time in a stroke play tourney.

And I don't even mind that if the people showing it on TV would just cut to him as he addresses the ball instead of showing the whole routine every shot.

If the PGA and USGA decide it is ok, then ok by me, but don't show all that on TV. Too many average golfers think they can take several minutes a shot on the course to slow us all down.

I think you are getting a little carried away with the parade of horribles that might occur if we allow Joe Golfer to see his pre-shot routine on TV. Better not allow the networks to show Happy Gilmore on TV either, unless you want to see hockey stick putters and Crow Hop drives either

I would partially agree with OP that having a long pre-shot routine holds up pace of play, and may cause some amateur golfers to think that it's necessary, or a good idea, or acceptable.

This would be a good time for that commercial break.

But I also think that some of average golfers will still stick to their pre-shot routine anyway. It's kinda hard to have such a long pre-shot routine without getting the glare from your foursome, or shouted at by the people waiting at the tee-box.

After that movie, I actually saw one idiot doing the Happy Gilmore drive. When his driver head went farther than the ball, I couldn't even putt for laughing at him.
There really are people that believe that it if it takes J.B. (or any other pro) a dozen swings to get ready to actually hit the ball, that it will in some way help them improve their game. There are gullible people everywhere. How else does Jack Hamm's business continue?

The group I play with always gives me **** because I rarely take any practice swings especially on my driver. If I'm not feeling so confident on my iron play I'll practice swing it, but thats it.

I can pull out the Happy Gilmore drive without skyballing or skulling the ball, but only at the range to show off because it slices like crazy. If I could figure that out I would have a lot longer drive.

+1. People are not going to change their preshot routine because of what JB Holmes does. No big deal. When Sergio regripped his club 30 times a shot a few years back, no one started doing that.

The one thing that Holmes' routine will guarantee.... I will never be a fan of his. All that fiddling around drives me batty. If I ever had to play with him he'd likely end up wearing my 9 iron... that or I'd just walk on and leave him. I think I could play 18 in at least an hour less than he could. And comparing Mike Weir to him is an insult to Mr. Weir. I think that was half of Tiger's trouble through the first part of his round... just trying to modify his playing tempo to cope with Holmes' tomfoolery.

My club gives out mandatory pace of play penalties, so it really irks me that the PGA is so complacent about it.

I thought of this in response to another forum's thread. But, it got me thinking about how to really regulate the player time. The other thread thought about putting a giant shot clock behind each green, which of course, was pretty unilaterally shot down.

But, I was thinking that why not give every player 40 seconds a shot, let's say no pro should take more than 100 shots, so 40*100 = 4000 seconds, 66 2/3 minutes, let's just call that 70 minutes.

Give each player 70 minutes to make all their shots per round. Every time it is their turn, the player's clock starts (obviously some sort of time keeper will have to go with each group). They can have time outs when they need to get a ruling. But, otherwise, they can manage their own time. If they need to take a bunch of practice strokes to prepare for a tricky shot, then, they can use that time if they want. They'll have to play faster on other shots, though. Or if they want to take extra time to read a tricky putt, then they can. I like this plan because say they totally mess up one hole, say #10, taking more time that average, they can just make it up by playing the later holes a little faster. If the player goes over 70 total minutes, then they can "buy" some extra time by incurring a penalty stroke.

Also, if you look at the math here: 3 players in a group at 1 hour 10 minutes per player means 3 and a half hours of "play". Add time to walk between holes, maybe a few time outs for rulings, and voila! you have right about 4 hours!