'We Will Be Dealing With That Issue This Week' - Augusta National Chairman Fred Ridley Addresses Golf's Slow Play Problem

The topic of slow play has arisen before a shot has even been hit at the 2025 Masters, and this time it's the young players who played at the Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals on Sunday that have come under scrutiny.

If there's a hot topic being discussed in the game, you can bet that the Augusta National Chairman will be asked about it during Masters week - and there is no bigger debate in golf at the moment than the issue of slow play.

The Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals takes place in Georgia between the Augusta National Women's Amateur (ANWA) and The Masters, and is one of the feel-good stories of the week.

This year was no exception, as the competition saw some of the best junior golfers compete at the famous venue and demonstrate their abilities in driving, chipping and putting.

The golfers who made it as far as the National Finals earned their places following hundreds of events around the United States, with boys and girls categories in age groups of 7-9, 10-11, 12-13 and 14-15.

With current Masters champion Scottie Scheffler watching on, the players put on quite a display.

"I can definitely relate to the parents a lot more this time around," said Scheffler.

"I don’t think you can really understand the feeling until you become a parent for the first time but it’s a lot of fun to be able to come here and support the kids."

However, it didn't escape the attention of some people watching that some players were taking quite a long time over shots, something that Ridley was asked about on Wednesday, specifically one unnamed player who was using AimPoint.

"Well, I think that example really illustrates the problem and, unfortunately, these young people are looking to their heroes who play the game each week for a living as to how they're going to approach competitively playing the game," he said.

Ridley added that he did notice the player in question using AimPoint - a putting procedure that can be quite timely - and says it's something that will probably be addressed going forwards.

"It's interesting, but every phase of the competition has the same length chip and the same length putt, so it's really not necessary to pace that off.

"They know how many yards that is. But nevertheless that's what they were doing.

"I think it's safe to assume that next year at the Drive, Chip & Putt you will see some sort of time limitations placed on the competition."

Young players aren't exempt from being pulled up at Augusta. At the 2013 Masters, 14-year-old amateur Guan Tianlang was issued with a controversial one-shot penalty for slow play.

What's more, last year, Anna Davis was penalized one stroke for slow play during the second round of the ANWA, which saw the former champion miss the cut.

Talking about the issue of slow play across the game, Ridley added: "I think it's been a good thing that knowledgeable people such as Dottie Pepper have commented on this recently.

"She made the point, which I alluded to in my comments, about respect for others, including most particularly the people who watch the game, the fans.

"So I think maybe this might be a call to action that perhaps we haven't seen in the past.

"I've spoken about it a number of times. We will be dealing with that issue this week.

"I'm not going to tell you that I'm going to be happy with the results, but I think I am encouraged that the PGA Tour is doing some things, experimenting with some timing procedures that might be a little bit more aggressive than we've seen in the past."