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Day against life in the PGA Tour fast lane

It's a new year on the US PGA Tour, but Australia's Jason Day has raised an old subject as officials try to speed up the game.

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Source: AAP


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Asked why he got off to a slow start at the majors last year, Jason Day mentioned that he was going too fast.

That was all it took to start a new year in golf with an old topic - pace of play - that produced recycled arguments without practical solutions.

Day said he wasn't as deliberate as he should have been over the second half of the season.

"Obviously, everyone wants to speed up the game. That's a big subject in golf," Day said.

"In my opinion, I don't care so much about speeding up the game. I've got to get back to what makes me good.

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"If that means I have to back off five times, then I'm going to back off five times before I have to actually hit the shot."

It was only five years ago at Kapalua that slow play was all the rage.

Steve Stricker and Webb Simpson fell nearly two holes behind on the front nine of the Plantation Course. The final four pairings that week included Jonathan Byrd, Kevin Na and Ben Crane.

"Slow play is killing our sport," tweeted Luke Donald , at the time the No. 1 player in the world.

The PGA Tour policy allows a player 50 seconds if he is the first to hit a particular shot, 40 seconds for the others in the group. But they only are timed when their group is out of position - a par 3 open ahead of them, or a longer hole that is open before they have hit their tee shots.

"You look at Tiger, you look at Jack, those guys were deliberate - very deliberate," Day said..

"And you've got to do everything you possibly can. But if you're in position and you take a minute over the ball just to get what you need to ... that's fine. But if you're out of position, then everybody knows, 'Hey, we've got to move on.' I understand that."

Day said what caused him to speed up - a relative term, indeed - was pressure from the media and his peers. No one wants to be classified as a slow player.

Jordan Spieth doesn't want the reputation as a slow player.

But Spieth said he had no problem with Day doing what he thought would give him the best chance to win.


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