This week, the pressure is intense in Florida, as the final stage of the PGA Tour Q-School is currently underway, and only five will earn PGA Tour cards. But on Day 1 at the TPC Sawgrass’ Valley Course and Sawgrass Country Club, one player grabbed everyone’s attention not for his scores, but for all the wrong reasons.

A clip shared by Monday Q Info on X showed Theo Humphrey taking nearly 1.5 minutes to hit a single tee shot. He walked back and forth between his bag and the tee box, switching clubs repeatedly and even pausing to fidget with his towel. For many fans watching this, it was a shocking example of slow play. But for those familiar with him, apparently, this was nothing new.

Monday Q Info pointed out that this wasn’t a case of indecision but a “mental block” that Humphrey was facing. He has been open about facing difficulties with his mental health, in particular, being anxious and volatile on the course. “His anxiety results in the ‘yips,’ and he finds himself hovering or backing away from shots repeatedly,” Heavy Sports once noted.

Nevertheless, Monday Q Info continued to point out that “this video is actually pretty quick for him.” The more pressure Humphrey is under, the longer he takes, and apparently, he was over the ball for 3 minutes once. Sure, one-off incidents happen to everyone, but this has been a repeated pattern from Humphrey, and he needs to be penalized every time it occurs. While it’s unclear whether he was penalized for this, this incident comes at a time when the PGA Tour is already tightening its stance on pace of play.

Earlier in March, after constant complaints about slow play on tour, the PGA Tour formed a Speed of Play Working Group to collaborate with the Player Advisory Council to reshape the policy. The main intent was to develop a stricter and clearer pace of play system rolling out in 2025 on the PGA Tour Americas and the Korn Ferry Tour.

Under the revised rules, the first “bad time” now leads to an immediate one-stroke penalty, a significant change from the previous system, where penalties didn’t come until a second offense. A second bad time brings two strokes, and a third results in disqualification. Players are given 40 seconds to play a shot, with the first in the group allowed an extra 10 seconds.

And Humphrey is aware of all this, as this wasn’t the first time he was under the radar. At the 2025 Manitoba Open in August, an event he won, he received a one-shot slow-play penalty after ignoring a warning, which turned a birdie into a par; however, he handled it calmly.

While Theo Humphrey has been open about one of the reasons for his slow play, fans watching were outraged by what they were witnessing.

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Fans Outraged as They Demand Immediate Penalties from the PGA Tour

One fan demanded immediate action. “Penalize him. That’s ridiculous. Only Golf is afraid to do it. Penalize him 2 shots every hole until fixed. Soon it will be solved.” To many, the solution was simple. That penalizing him is the only way to go about it. Another fan was stunned by the sheer length of the pre-shot routine, calling it “the most ridiculous thing I’ve seen from a professional golfer.”

One fan was even more blunt, arguing that the punishment should go beyond a timing penalty. “Sorry. Auto DQ. You wouldn’t let anyone drive 35 mph on the interstate. Pulled over. Ticket. Take the driver’s license away. Don’t care if he’s the next Tiger Woods. Must be timed and DQ’d.”

The constant switching between clubs and being indecisive is not something very commonly seen on tour. But as Humphrey confessed, he has yips on the course that make him do it. But fans were anything but sympathetic.

Other fans imagined how they would react if they were stuck in the group. One wrote, “I’d 100% be the partner calling rules officials over to start the clock. Assuming they do the 60-second thing too.”

Another compared the scene to something staged for social media: “This is so insane that it looks like one of those fake ‘look who I got paired up with today’ videos, except it’s in a real professional event.”

Their frustration highlighted a growing sentiment that slow play isn’t just annoying, but it’s damaging the experience for players and spectators alike.