Jack Nicklaus remains one of the most important figures in golf, with no one winning more majors than the 18 the Golden Bear secured during his career.

Jack Nicklaus helped transform the game at the peak of his powers in the 1960s and 1970s. He has set the standard for all of those who have come after him.But it seems that there are aspects of the current game which do not sit right with the 85-year-old.

Unsurprisingly, one of the issues Nicklaus feels golf needs to address in the coming years is slow play.

What Jack Nicklaus has said about tackling slow play on the PGA Tour

Pace of play has been a talking point throughout the season. Once again, there have been some painfully slow rounds in 2025. It does not take a great deal of disruption for a tournament to virtually grind to a halt.

The PGA Tour attempted to bring in several measures to help improve the situation earlier this year, including allowing rangefinders at some events.

But Nicklaus clearly believes that there are other issues which need resolving first.

Speaking in 2023, in a video from Fairways of Life, Nicklaus highlighted some of the factors which have caused slow play to become more and more prominent.

“They do have a problem on the tour today. The golf ball is a part of that problem. The longer the golf ball goes, the longer courses get, the more you have to walk, the longer it’s going to take. I don’t think that’s really good for the game. They’re now bringing the golf ball back a little bit. I think it’s a good start. It’s the first time they’ve done that ever. And so, we’ll see where they go with it,” he said.

“The golf ball’s part of that issue. Educating the players. It’s got to be equitable. They need to really make an example and stay with it, because it’s not very pleasant to watch somebody stand over the ball for half an hour.

“I think the caddies are part of the problem. The caddies are taking half the time: ‘well, the wind’s coming out of here, you’ve got to watch this here, see that tree over there, on the back of the green’. By the time they get through talking, I couldn’t hit a shot anyway. It would drive me absolutely out of my mind.”

When Jack Nicklaus was penalised for slow play during the early stages of his career

Despite his complaints, Nicklaus was not immune from getting caught out for slow play during his career.

As it turns out, he was called out in his earliest days as a professional.

And Nicklaus suggested that the incident taught him a very valuable lesson that he took with him over the remainder of his career.

“I was penalised at Portland, my first year on tour. I won the tournament. But Joe Black gave me the penalty and it was the best thing that ever happened to me. He says, ‘Jack, you can take as long as you want over the golf ball to play, but be ready when it’s your turn’. And I always tried to stay out of everybody’s way because I didn’t want to bother anybody lining up my putt while they’re lining up their putt. I felt like I was interfering with them so I stayed back,” he said.

“I was a young kid coming on tour. I didn’t want to start walking my yardages off and I didn’t want to bother somebody else. I took a while over the golf ball. He says that’s not the problem, the problem is not being ready to play. I realised after playing on the tour for a while that it’s also a courtesy to the other players in the field. And it’s not fair to do that.”

Unfortunately, in this current era, the margins are so small. Every player at the highest level is world-class, so they are all looking for what is going to give them an edge.

For the large majority, going without all of the information from their caddies would feel like a huge gamble. It also probably helps identify strengths and weaknesses within their game if they know all of the variables before they hit a shot.

A shot clock may be the way forward at some stage. But implementing that in a full field event would clearly be significantly harder than it is to use in TGL.