It’s that time of the year again where the fine folks at Golf.com realease their annual anonymous player poll. This is our chance to find out what the Tour Pros really think while the players themselves get to keep their identies secret.
For the most part we got your run of the mill questions, like if the players like the PGA Championship moving to May (they do) and if they think Tiger will win again (they almost unanimously do). We also got some questions that very much peaked the interest of this scribe. To the poll we go:
HAS HAVING A SLOW-PLAYING PARTNER EVER HURT YOUR ON-COURSE PERFORMANCE?
YES: 78%
NO: 22%“A bunch of millionaires aren’t going to speed up by fining them 10K.”
DO YOU FEEL YOUR OWN PACE OF PLAY IS ACCEPTABLE?
YES: 100%
NO: 0%
What’s interesting about these set of questions, is almost 80% of the pros polled thought that their rounds were effected by slow play, yet nobody seems to be doing anything about it. Not only that, but 100% of those same pros had no issue with their pace of play. So clearly someone isn’t telling the truth here.
Next, we have this gem:
HAVE YOU EVER WITNESSED A FELLOW TOUR PLAYER CHEAT DURING A TOURNAMENT ROUND?
YES: 44%
NO: 56%“Multiple times. The Tour is a joke when it comes to enforcing the rules.”
“I’ve seen guys bend the rules and mark their ball improperly.”HAVE YOU EVER BROKEN A RULE AND NOT REPORTED IT?
YES: 0%
NO: 100%
Once again, we have a pretty significant number (almost 50%) saying that they have witnessed cheating on the course. Conveniently though, not a single one of those players has cheated themselves and not reported it. Hmmmmm.
Other numbers of note:
- 54% of Tour Pros have played a round hungover, including one who said, “I made the weekend on the number, shot 60 on Saturday with a hangover and won the tournament.” I’ll let you do your own investigating to figure out who that was.
- 97% of those survayed said they have tanked on purpose to miss a cut.
- A whopping, and somewhat shocking, 64% said they respected Brandel Chamblee’s opinions. Guess he has more fans in the locker room than we all thought.
If you would like to look over the entire survey, click here.
