Thomas Bjørn – who led the Europe to victory in the 2018 Ryder Cup, in Paris – has joined the Euorpean Tour board, having chaired its Tournament Committee. Picture by GETTY IMAGES

THOMAS Bjørn has been appointed to the European Tour board as a non-executive director with immediate effect.

The 49-year old – who was nominated by the European Tour’s Tournament Committee – is the most successful Danish golfer in history, having also been the victorious Ryder Cup captain at Le Golf National in 2018.

Bjørn will bring important current player perspective to the board – 2020 is the Dane’s 25^th consecutive season as a European Tour professional, having made his first appearance in 1996.

During that time he also served as chairman of the tournament committee for a decade from 2007 to 2016, before stepping aside to concentrate on the build-up to his Ryder Cup captaincy triumph in France.

A staunch supporter of golf on the Continent and the European Tour throughout his career, Bjørn’s time as tournament committee chairman coincided with some of the most significant changes in the European Tour’s 48-year history.

The first one came in 2009 with the instigation of the Race to Dubai, a year-long campaign – which replaced the old Order of Merit – to crown Europe’s No. 1 golfer at Dubai’s season-ending DP World Tour Championship.

And after chairman David Williams took up the post in 2014 and Keith Pelley was appointed chief executive a year later, Bjørn’s tournament committee oversaw the establishment of the Rolex Series – the premium event category on the Tour’s international schedule.

Speaking after his appointment, Bjørn said: “I am delighted and honoured to be invited to join the board of the European Tour.

“I have lived and breathed the European Tour for the past 25 years and, in that time, I have always strived to do the best I could to progress both the Tour itself and its membership.

“The same will be the case on the board and I am looking forward to getting to work as soon as possible.”

Tour chairman David Williams said: “I’m delighted to welcome Thomas to our European Tour board.

“His stellar golfing career is well-documented, including his 2018 experience as a winning Ryder Cup Captain.

“He has always had our members’ interests at heart, and he will continue to do so on our board.”

Bjørn joins board at crunch time

THE appointment of Thomas Bjørn follows the death of former Euroepan Tour winner John O’Leary last month.

It comes at a time of great uncertainty for the professional game on both sides of the Atlantic.

While the PGA Tour announced a plan to resume its schedule in the USA from the middle of June – including the first four events being played behind closed doors – the European Tour is still contemplating what events it can salvage from the 2020 season.

So far nine events have been postponed – and which could still theoretically be rearranged later in the year – while another five have been cancelled completely, including the new event in Sweden – hosted by Henrik Stenson and Annika Sorenstam – which would have seen players from the Ladies European Tour competing alongside their male counterparts for one trophy and one prize fund.

The Irish Open – due to be held at the end of May – and July’s Scottish Open are two of the events the European Tour is most keen to resume, having said it will probably focus on producing a swing of events in the UK from September onwards.

The big question is if the BMW PGA Championship will still go ahead the week before the rearranged US Open at Winged Foot (September 17-20), if America requires a period of isolation for overseas golfers before they can compete in the USA.

Two other events planned for the UK are the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship – due to be played at St Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns from October 1-4 – and the Betfred British Masters, at Newcastle’s Close House.

The latter – which is being hosted by Close House’s touring professional Lee Westwood – is likely to be moved from early August to avoid a clash with the rearranged WGC-FedEx St Jude Invitational, at Memphis’s TPC Southwind (July 30-August 2).

The third scheduled WGC event of 2020 – March’s WGC–World Match Play in Texas was cancelled – was moved to the week before the new date for the USPGA Championship at San Francisco’s TPC Harding Park (August 6-9)

The switch became possibley after the cancellation of the Toyko Olympics, freeing up that week when the Gold Medal would have been contested for just the second time in 116 years, at Kasumigaseki Country Club.

Former European Tour winner John O’Leary (right), who was director of golf at Buckinghamshire Golf Club before his death in April. Picture by TRISTAN JONES

The post Thomas Bjørn accepts place on European Tour board after death of John O’Leary appeared first on Golf North.

Chief executive Keith Pelley says the European Tour has been leading the fight on slow play in the game of golf over the past four years – and intends to toughen its stance for 2020. Picture by GETTY IMAGES

EUROPEAN Tour chief executive Keith Pelley writes about the controversy over slow play on the European Tour and explains why the Tournament Committee and the board have decided to take firm action for the 2020 season.

MANY issues have affected the game of golf since I became chief executive of the European Tour – but none have been as recurrent as the topic of slow play.

It is the discussion that dominates dinner tables at tournaments and it is one of the main sources of frustration at all levels of the game. Rightly so, I might add.

While the intensity of these conversations occasionally diminishes, it is never long before it reignites, and I watched with interest the recent social media debate which flared up in the United States.

For us, the issue came to a head earlier this year when one of our senior players, Edoardo Molinari, posted on Twitter a list of players, who had received bad times and fines up to that point during the 2019 season – in a bid to “speed things up.”

I spoke to Edoardo shortly afterwards, and while I didn’t necessarily agree with his chosen method, he was entirely right to confront the problem and it prompted a discussion at the next tournament committee meeting, held at the Betfred British Masters, in May.

Thankfully, our Tournament Committee shared Edoardo’s belief that enough was enough, and they were prepared to make some hard decisions, accepting the need to be more punitive.

“We have the most aggressive monitoring policy in our sport, and we have issued shot penalties, but the past four months showed us finally that the time had arrived when players were willing to take a tough stance and we applauded that.”

European Tour chief executive Keith Pelley – on the problems of slow play

At that meeting we also determined there is a key fundamental difference between slow play and slow players – this is a key point to remember.

While we would all like to reduce overall round times, it was recognised that this can be impacted by several factors such as weather conditions and course set up, while for full field events, the sheer number of players on the course at the same time will always limit the pace of play.

Slow players, on the other hand, have become increasingly prevalent and problematic in our game in recent years – to the extent that we risk fans, both core and casual, switching off if we don’t do something about it.

The European Tour has been at the forefront of the assault on slow play for the last four years.

We have the most aggressive monitoring policy in our sport, and we have issued shot penalties.

But the past four months showed us finally that the time had arrived when players were willing to take a tough stance and we applauded that.

Slow play became a critical issue because our players wanted it to be. That moment was the door opening and the mandate we were given at May’s tournament committee meeting empowered our operations and rules team to present stronger, more robust recommendations.

We took a formal proposal back to the next Tournament Committee meeting at the Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open last month.

And following some fine tuning over the past six weeks, we yesterday publicly announced a four-point plan focusing on regulation, education, innovation and field-size reduction where appropriate.

This concrete strategy is more targeted towards slow players and more penal, including an immediate one-shot penalty for two bad times in a round and increased fines for players consistently ‘on the clock’.

I’m confident it will have a meaningful impact on combating slow play AND slow players, which is a more complex task that you might think.

Although superficially solving the pace of play conundrum would seem like an easy fix, golf’s biggest challenge remains the size of our arena, as an 18-hole golf course is equivalent to almost 90 football fields, with 156 players dotted around it.

Timing every player, on every shot, every week is a monumental, and costly, challenge.

We must also consider the complexities of policing more robust timing rules.

European Tour chief referee John Paramor and senior referee Andy McFee (right) discussed the problems of timing players with Keith Pelley

I recall our senior referee, Andy McFee, saying to me that timing is an art not a science.

He rightly posed the questions: “When do you start the clock? Is it when a player gets to the ball? When do you start timing the first player in a group?

“And how do you let them know you’ve started timing as they can’t tell unless there’s a visual clock on every single hole?”

These are all interesting points, however, I stress we are not using the challenges of the sport as an excuse not to tackle what is now golf’s biggest issue.

Another thing we have learned from studying this whole issue, is that playing slowly is habitual.

Most players aren’t taught to play the game slowly, it’s a practice they acquire, and one we have to try to reverse.

Our Shot Clock hole during the recent innovative GolfSixes Cascais in Portugal showed that players were ready and already thinking about their shots before they got to the ball.

They didn’t have the chance to second guess themselves, or overload themselves with information, and their performance benefitted as a result.

Our players have shone a spotlight on this topic and this is now the lightbulb moment for our sport.

But it is incumbent on all of us involved in golf to act.

The main Tours and four Major Championships have begun dialogue, but as the most powerful entities in global golf, we have to be united and consistent in fighting this battle if it is one we are to win. 

I do believe that with technology advancements down the road, there will come a time in the very near future when we will be able to time every player, on every shot, on every hole.

Until we are all ready from a technology perspective, our four-point plan has decisive, concrete action on how we can combat this issue right now.

•Read more about the European Tour’s four-point plan on combatting slow play here.

In 2019, there have been outbursts by Brooks Koepka who singled out J B Holmes for taking too long to play his final round of the LA Open at Riviera, while Bryson DeChambeau has also been attacked on social media for taking too long to play his shots.

The list of players who were timed for slow play by the European Tour in the first four months of 2019 released in a tweet by Edoardo Molinari condemning the problem, which Keith Pelley has taken up with the players representatives and acted upon

The post Keith Pelley: European Tour no longer tolerates slow play and will act on 4-point plan appeared first on Golf North.