Brooks Koepka, Rory McIlroy blast officials for pace of play: 'Figure it out and penalize somebody'
Pace of play is a hot topic for professional and recreational golfers alike.
Nobody likes standing at the tee box while the group in front of them takes 10 minutes pushing their balls around the green. Nobody likes watching a playing partner stand over an approach shot instead of hitting it.
While it can be maddening for even the weekend golfer, it’s a subject of consternation for some of the PGA Tour’s top pros, notably Brooks Koepka and Rory McIlroy.
McIlroy: ‘We are not children’
The two that will be paired together for the opening rounds of this week’s Northern Trust railed against slow play while talking with the media Wednesday and put the onus on Tour officials to make a change.
“For me, I think the guys that are slow are the guys that get too many chances before they are penalized,” McIlroy told reporters. “So it should be a warning and then a shot [penalty].
“We are not children that need to be told five or six times what to do. Okay, you’re on the clock, okay, I know if I play slowly here, I’m going to get penalized and I think that’s the way forward.”
Koepka, the Tour’s hottest player and also one of its fastest, has previously chided officials for not having “the balls to actually penalize” slow players.
Koepka: ‘Figure it out and penalize somebody’
He did not hold back on the topic on Wednesday while also calling out officials to penalize players.
“What I don’t understand is if I hit in the water, I have to take a penalty stroke,” Koepka said. “It’s in the rule book. And then you have 40 seconds to hit a shot. That’s in the rule book, too. So I don’t want to take a penalty shot. They are all in the rule book. So figure it out and penalize somebody.”
Be like Brooks
It’s easy to just walk up to the ball and hit it, right? Just ask Koepka, who’s used that strategy to win four majors since 2017.
“I mean, I take 15 seconds and go, and I’ve done all right,” Koepka added.
While Koepka continued his call on officials to start penalizing players, he appears to have stumbled on the real solution to slow play.
Everybody should just be Brooks Koepka.
More from Yahoo Sports:
