'Start Stroking Guys' - Koepka Calls For More Slow Play Penalties On PGA Tour

Brooks Koepka has called for the PGA Tour to hand out pace of play penalties in order to speed up the game.

Rounds on the US-based circuit regularly take more than five hours, meaning play on Fridays often spills over to Saturdays, even when there are no weather delays. Koepka has always been renowned as one of the quickest golfers on any of the professional tours and slammed the pace of play during the final round of this year's Masters after he lost out to Jon Rahm.

He now plays in the LIV Golf League but was asked what could be done to speed things up on the PGA Tour ahead of the 2023 PGA Championship.

"There's a lot of guys out here that take their time," Koepka said. "I think it is a problem. Technically in the rule book it says you have 40 seconds to hit your shot. I think that's what it is. If you are taking over, technically you're breaking the rules, right?

"Honestly, I would start stroking guys. If you are going to take that long, you have to get stroked. There are certain circumstances where the wind switches, something like that, it's understandable, but taking a while is I just think unnecessary."

Major League Baseball recently introduced a pitch clock in order to alleviate the same issue, with Koepka adding that "it would be interesting to see" golf trial a similar approach.

"I think you saw DP [World Tour], they did a shot clock event," Koepka added. "I think it was a couple of years ago, if I'm right. I can't remember if anybody got clocked for it, but it would be interesting to see. I know if you follow guys around with a stopwatch this week, there will be plenty of guys that are over time and stuff like that, but I can't remember the last time anybody was stroked.

"I remember the little kid at Augusta. I don't know if anybody has been stroked since. That's kind of the most recent one I can think of. There are some guys that probably definitely could be stroked."

Turning attention to this week and despite admitting he "choked away" victory at the Masters, Koepka comes into the PGA Championship as one of the favourites to lift the Wanamaker Trophy. He followed up his T2 at Augusta National with a T5 at the LIV Golf Tulsa event as he looks to force his way into Zach Johnson's Ryder Cup plans.

"It would be awesome to represent the United States," Koepka continued. "Anytime we do it, it's always fun. But I'm not focused on it. It's not, like, my first thought when I go play well this week. If I handle my business out here, everything will take care of itself. 

"If you win, go second, first, first, first, it would be kind of tough not to pick, right? If you go handle business, I feel like I should be fine. But it's not up to me. It's up to Zach and what goes on. I just play my best and see what happens from there, but I would love to play for him."