Tensions Rise in PGA Tour as Tom Kim’s Colleague Makes a Brutal Demand After Calling Him Out for ‘Slow’ Play

Slow play remains a blaring problem on the PGA Tour, even in the 2025 season. It was the final round of the 2025 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, and things were heating up until one shot completely slowed the pace. On the par-5 sixth hole, Tom Kim took over a minute to line up his second shot. By the time he finally pulled the trigger, his shot sailed out of bounds.

It all started with a bomb of a drive – 301 yards down the left side of the fairway, putting him in a perfect position to reach the green in two. But after Justin Rose had already hit his approach, the camera cut to Kim, who was still deep in his pre-shot routine, long after Rose’s ball had come to rest.

Talk about a slow burn! Even Michael S Kim took to Tom Kim’s trolling and wrote, “He’s slow. Everyone knows that haha what else is there?” on his official X account.

Dottie Pepper also pointed out how slow play has been dragging out to be a dooming point for the PGA Tour. Even the week before the second Signature event, the final round Saturday of the Farmers Insurance Open in five hours, and 31 minutes. Well, that is long! It looks like Michael S Kim has a solution to this too. He took to X to set up a Q&A while facing a delay at the airport.

When asked how to speed up the pace of play, he stated, “Publish the top 10 slowest players each week”. Imagine the humiliation they would have to face!

He’s slow. Everyone knows that haha what else is there?

— Michael S. Kim (@Mike_kim714) February 2, 2025

But well, as it turns out, the PGA Tour is indeed putting in efforts, or at least trying to inculcate measures to get rid of the issue. But we must remember Rome was not built in a day. So, it will take some time.

PGA Tour suggests ways to omit slow play

From January 29, the PGA Tour has started implementing changes focused on reducing slow play. Ahead of the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am, a small group of reporters previewed them in hopes of helping improve the broadcasting. First, the Tour is experimenting with distance-measuring devices—rangefinders—to help players and caddies get quick shot distances during tournaments.

While the specific events where these devices will be used haven’t been revealed yet, Gary Young, the PGA Tour’s senior vice president of rules and competitions, mentioned they hope to test them across various events and field sizes.

And well, the Tour was way ahead of Michael S. Kim. They have also added a point of publicizing pace-of-play data for players using the ‘average stroke time’. This is the average time a player takes to make a stroke. Also, the much-needed penalties and fines for players violating slow play rules are finally in line, although not implemented in the AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.

But let’s see how it works out for the rest of the season. Stay tuned for more updates.

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