It was a case of same old, same old at the Sony Open in Hawaii as the first full field event of the PGA Tour season saw play suspended for darkness with several groups still on course.
This came shortly after five-time PGA Tour winner Camilo Villegas, who served as Chairman of the PGA Tour’s Player Advisory Council for the latter half of 2024 and now becomes one of the Player Directors on the Policy Board, called for ‘consequences’ for players that breach the slow play guidelines.
Prior to retaining his full PGA Tour playing rights in late 2023, Villegas competed in several 156-man Korn Ferry Tour events earlier in the year and recalled slow play being a particularly galling issue.
“I’d go into player dining, order an omelette, send (KFT president) Alex Baldwin a picture and say I’m eating breakfast at the turn,” Villegas said, referencing occasions when he found himself waiting behind two groups by the ninth tee.
“She’d send an emoji with hands on head.
“With a 156-man field we can’t enforce pace of play. In 2026, when that is not the case, we need to enforce it.
“One of the questions I asked is, how many guys are averaging above time on their shots?”
The Colombian is adamant that his tenure as a Player Director will be marked by a proactive approach to improving the PGA Tour as both a spectacle and in terms of player experience, and is keen to both learn from the experienced board members and to put his own views forward.
“Obviously some of the people sitting in this board meeting are members of many other boards and businesspeople, and they’re very involved with sports and different leagues,” he said.
“And I’m really looking forward to learning from them, and I’m really looking forward to just kind of giving my honest feedback, opinion, and adding my two cents.”
Among the ideas that Villegas is suggesting to speed things up are to have players who consistently slow things down be shamed as the consequences in place are clearly not working.
“The way I see it, those guys are breaking the rules,” he said. “There needs to be consequences.
“I think their names should be posted in the locker room in font 30, and Michael Kim brought this up a little while back, their caddie should wear a fluorescent orange bib. Make them feel bad.
“That’s not the way this game should be played. The Tour’s never going to do that. I wish they did.
“We had the balls to do the changes last year so maybe we do have the balls to enforce pace of play a little better.”
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