Slow pace of play has plagued the PGA Tour and the LPGA for years, frustrating players, fans, and broadcasters alike. It almost reached a breaking point last week at the Farmers Insurance Open in San Diego,

There always seems to be an inflection point each professional golf season, during which the slow play problem dominates the discourse on the PGA Tour. The issue isn’t a new one. It’s an age-old problem in the pro game. Everyone knows it: Golf can crawl.

PEBBLE BEACH, Calif. — The PGA Tour is taking a hard look at whether to allow rangefinders and publicize violations as part of a comprehensive study on pace of play and other enhancements to the game that have come out of a survey of 50,000 golf fans.

If you want proof that time is, indeed, a flat circle, there's no better evidence than golf's slow-play debate. PGA Tour players, commentators, and fans talk about this issue every single year. And yet nothing ever seems to change.

Among the changes that will be tried out: testing the use of distance-measuring devices, publicizing pace-of-play data for players, and disclosing fines and penalties for slow-play violators.

Byeong Hun An says giving players penalty shots is the way to "definitely" help with slow play on the PGA Tour