The Open Championship is built for patience, but there is a difference between a demanding major and a day that drags on nearly six hours. At Royal Birkdale, that line seems to have been crossed more than once, and the players were not pretending otherwise. Tyrrell Hatton said his opening round on Thursday took in excess of five and a half hours, while Eric Cole described a second-round rhythm that was smooth only for the first six holes before the pace turned, in his words, "crazy slow."
That is the central story here: not that major championships are quick, but that this one has become a slog. Hatton said the conditions were perfect, which only sharpened the point. If rounds are already approaching six hours in good weather, the concern is obvious. His suggestion was essentially a shrug. He said he did not know how to solve it, and that is the uncomfortable truth hanging over the championship.
A major championship problem, not just a nuisance
Slow play is hardly new, especially in a field this large and under this much pressure. Major championships typically create longer rounds than the regular tour stops because everything takes more time: bigger fields, more on the line and more moments where players need to wait their turn. At The Open, the setting can make it even worse. The burned-out conditions at Royal Birkdale shortened the course and contributed to players waiting for greens to clear, adding more dead time to days that already felt stretched.
Cole gave the clearest example of how the pace can change in a round. He said his group had an extra 10 minutes because of the wave structure, and for the first six holes they did not wait at all. After that, the day slowed dramatically. He also pointed to the oddities of links golf, where rulings and the need to replay shots can build delays into the round. That is part of the terrain at The Open, but it does not make the experience any less grueling for the players.
Hatton’s comments framed the issue in an even broader way. He noted that the par-fives were reachable and that the day’s conditions were ideal, yet the rounds still felt long because there was so much downtime. You only need to concentrate when you get to the ball, he said, which is another way of admitting that tournament golf can become a long exercise in waiting, chatting and resetting before the next shot. In his own group, he said, the conversation was easy enough. The problem is that casual time does not make a six-hour round feel shorter.
No clear solution in sight
Cam Smith’s view was more accepting than frustrated. He said major championship venues are going to be long days and that this is simply what players should expect. He was not annoyed by the pace because, as he put it, everyone is just waiting for it. That is a fair response, but it also underlines how normalized the problem has become. Slow play at The Open is being treated less like a fixable issue and more like a fact of life.
That may be the most important takeaway. Fans have been frustrated by slow play on the PGA Tour in recent years, but the championship itself is not offering an obvious remedy. Hatton did not have one. Cole described the problem, but not a solution. Smith accepted the rhythm. So while The Open continues to produce all the drama players and fans expect, it is also producing rounds that test patience before they test skill. At Royal Birkdale, that may be the price of admission. It is not, however, a price anyone seems close to reducing.
