During the Open Championship, the ever topical subject of pace of play has come up once again. Speeding up the game has been the PGA’s goal throughout the year ever since they introduced the new rules to encourage speed. However, it hasn’t always played out as intended. At the Master’s, fans thought there could have been a penalty enforced, but in Peru, there was a penalty leveled against a player. This weekend, though, two players feel like things have been going very slowly. Matt Fitzpatrick and Justin Thomas both have their theories as to what happened during their times on the field. Matt Fitzpatrick On Pace of Play Fitzpatrick believes that the pace of play can be addressed on two fronts. With the rules officials, but also with the players. Fitzpatrick is also one of the faster players on the field, so he has a hard time comprehending how bad the issue has become as the rounds have extended to six hours during the major. He has called the issue ridiculous, but tries his best not to let it bother him. When asked what he would do to solve slow play, he initially said it was “impossible to answer,” but he did land on a player-side solution. “Yeah, I think it is a difficult one. But I think players probably speeding up a little bit probably will help the situation, but yeah.” Not much to it really. Just simply have the players speed up to fix the pace of play. In that same interview, he did suggest that course sizes were a bit too much. Landing on a similar issue that Scottie Scheffler had, with the real problem coming from the large courses that players need to walk across after each swing. Justin Thomas On Pace Of Play After the first round of The Open, Justin Thomas was completely worn out after a six-hour-long match. Thomas highlighted a lot of issues with weather conditions, making it difficult to shoot a straight line across the field. However, Thomas also pointed out the issue of the number of players. Specifically, there were just so many. “Yeah, it’s a lot of people in a golf tournament, and that’s going to create — I mean, a city that has a lot more population. Traffic is going to be a lot worse than it is in Pikeville, Kentucky; that’s just the way it is. Then you add the elements and add everything, it’s just going to be a long day.“ Others Weigh In Justin Thomas and Matt Fitzpatrick were far from alone. Many more players were just as frustrated with the pace of play during The Open. The other players often cited the same things as part of the issue. The weather, the number of players, and traveling across the field, a regular pattern was developing. The PGA did have a solution for the player count by just reducing the number of Tour Cards out there. A move that has proven to be controversial. It wouldn’t apply much to a major like the open, though, with players coming in from multiple leagues. To solve slow play in a major like this, the solution needs to either be a joint effort from the leagues involved or come from the governing bodies. Until then, only the players can help mitigate the issue.