The Open Championship’s pace of play woes are starting to feel like a never-ending soap opera. Marc Leishman’s exasperated expression says it all – “Felt like we were on the golf course for about 12 hours… We’ve been on the course for three hours through eight holes.”  The brutal weather and links golf test have certainly contributed to the delays, but it’s hard not to feel that the players are also to blame, and Bryson DeChambeau is ready to do that.

He’s pointing fingers, specifically at the group in front of him, Thomas Detry and J.S. Olesen. DeChambeau was put on the clock on the 17th hole, and he believes it was a direct result of the delays caused by the group ahead. “He timed me on 17 after I striped the drive down there… We just kept losing time. They did that, and we just lost more time to the group in front of us, and they put us on the clock, which is unfortunate,” he said at The 153rd Open.

The Scientist’s solution? Time every player for every shot and penalize those who take too much time. “It’s very simple. It’s not difficult at all. You eventually time everybody for their whole entire round.” If only it were that easy. Despite this, DeChambeau thinks that timing every player for every shot would be fairer towards everybody. “If somebody is playing slower, the guy can go up to him and say, hey, man, you’re over par with your time.”

Well, DeChambeau’s optimism about a better system is infectious, as he said, “Once you start penalising individuals for consecutive over — taking too much time. I can tell you, first two rounds it was out of control, what I saw. That’s the way people play.” And, Bryson DeChambeau isn’t the only major winner warned for pace of play problems.

The 2025 U.S. Open Champ faced a ‘bad time’ at Royal Portrush

On Thursday, J.J. Spaun, the freshly crowned US Open winner, received a “bad time” on the 18th hole at Royal Portrush, with his group including Jon Rahm and Xander Schauffele on the clock. Spaun’s group was moving at a glacial pace, taking over five-and-a-half hours to reach the final fairway. As John Wood, the on-course reporter, noted, “I’ve been with them for five holes, and I have not seen a group in front of them.”

Spaun’s mistake? He went over his allotted 50-second time limit on his second shot on the par-4 17th. According to Charlie Maran, the R&A rules official, “J.J. would have had 50 seconds… to play [his approach] into the [17th] green because he was the first person to play… Unfortunately J.J. ran over the 50 seconds.”

This warning is just the beginning – if Spaun receives another bad time, he’ll face a one-shot penalty. And if he’s caught out again, the penalties will keep piling up. Even players like Justin Thomas are not safe from the slow-play plague. With players like DeChambeau already getting clocked and speaking out about the issue, it seems the R&A is taking pace of play seriously. Will stricter enforcement and penalties finally get the players moving at a brisker pace? We would love to hear your thoughts on the matter.