Feb 4, 2018 By Mike Dudurich for The 4 min read

There will be no waffling here.

There is no room for discussion on the subject.

I sat through the excruciatingly long final round of the Farmers Insurance Open last Sunday and, despite Torrey Pines being one of my favorite places in the world, I thought the round was never going to end.

And no, that feeling had nothing to do with the impending telecast of the Grammys, which I watched none of.

It took over six hours for the final group of the day, Alex Noren and J.B. Holmes, to play 18 holes of golf. For sure, the players in front of them played a (slow) part in the proceedings but the object of my rant is not aimed at them.

The performance by J.B. Holmes on the final regulation hole is the target here. Faced with a pressure-packed but highly doable approach shot to the green, Holmes took four minutes and 10 seconds to finally pull the trigger.

What I typed there was corrected. Four minutes and 10 seconds. A loose translation of the rules of professional golf is that a shot is expected to be executed within 40 seconds (or maybe 60). That’s considerably less than 250 seconds.

I’ve seen and heard that Holmes’ procrastination was his attempt at “freezing” Noren, hoping to throw him off and gain an advantage in the closing moments. Phooey, I say. Holmes isn’t smart enough to pull off a mind game tactic like that.

No, this is a guy who was quoted several years ago as saying he didn’t care about pace of play, he’d play when he was damn well ready. His justification for that was he was playing for millions of dollars and wasn’t going to rush.

I, too, won’t apologize for my feelings on this subject.

J.B. Holmes is wrong, both in his attitude and his thinking. He’s not out there playing with his buddies where there are no rules. The PGA Tour definitely has a pace-of-play issue, one that trickles down to your course and how you play the game.

But he ignores that and, despite being a member of a Ryder Cup team, one of the longest players in the game, he stands out in the fairway, 238 yards from the pin, unable to decide whether to go for the green or lay up. He needs an eagle 3 to tie clubhouse leader Jason Day but said he was waiting for the wind to die down before hitting his five wood.

He eventually chose to lay up short of the pond in front of the green and hit that shot very poorly, finding the left rough. Holmes didn’t get into the playoff and wasn’t at all apologetic about his actions.

I wouldn’t have expected anything different from him, but certainly expected new PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan to offer a serious rebuke on Monday. Instead, he defended Holmes, saying his actions came “in the heat of the moment” and reiterated his belief that the tour does not have a slow play issue.

Some of Holmes’ fellow players on the PGA Tour weren’t buying any of that. He was ripped on social media by the likes of Brooks Koepka, Luke Donald and several others. Koepka even threw in a different perspective, suggesting things like that makes for a very uncomfortable viewing experience for fans and could have a negative experience in terms of viewership.

It’s a shame a clown like Holmes ruined what was a definite fantastic finish to a really good golf tournament.

It’s equally shameful the new commissioner of the PGA Tour didn’t take the opportunity to be a voice in something that threatens to lessen the popularity of the PGA Tour when it’s flying high.

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Do you have an interesting story about your club or course or an individual who has done something special, let me know? Send your story ideas to mike.dudurich@gmail.com.

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Mike Dudurich is a freelance golf writer and hosts The Golf Show on 93.7 The Fan, Saturday mornings from 7-8 during golf season. Follow Mike on Twitter at @MikeDudurich