Luke Donald tees off on slow play on the PGA Tour -- and it's only January

With several of the slowest players in golf teeing it up at the PGA Tour’s season-opener in Hawaii, it’s not all that surprising that pace of play became an issue just one tourney into the 2012 year. Perhaps somewhat more surprising was the reaction of one of the preeminent no-shows to the snail-like stroll of many golfers at the Hyundai Tournament of Champions.

World No. 1 Luke Donald, one of many stars with official victories in 2011 who chose to eschew the tour’s kick-off event -- maybe because they hoped to finish in time for the HSBC Golf Championship in Abu Dhabi in a little more than two weeks -- offered his assessment of the contest from afar.

"Sounds like slow play is already an issue the 1st week of the @PGATOUR season and it’s 2 somes," @LukeDonald tweeted Monday about the turtles sluggishly making their way around the Plantation Course at Kapalua. "Sort it out please...."

Renowned slowpoke Ben Crake pokes fun at his snail-like pace of play (Video: YouTube)

When the Associated Press’ Doug Ferguson chimed in with his observations, it became clear that notorious slowpokes Ben Crane, Kevin Na, and Webb Simpson were not the most conspicuous culprits this week. Indeed, eventual winner Steve Stricker and final-round playing partner Jonathan Byrd were the guys who would have frustrated even Saturday morning hackers hoping to play through.

After he took out the stopwatch on Byrd and timed him at a minute and 25 seconds for one shot, @dougferguson405 tweeted on Monday how "utterly shocking" it was that "Byrd (and Stricker) put on clock."

ESPN analyst Paul Azinger chimed in, noting that it was not as if the problem of slow play were anything new. "issue was raised at most player meetings i’ve been to since my rookie year..1982," 12-time tour winner @PaulAzinger tweeted.

Donald offered one reasonable solution to the problem. "If u r second to putt, why not read your putt while the player 1 is reading his," he wrote. "30 secs saved there = 35 mins saved for the round #simple"

Last year’s tour player of the year, however, ended up throwing in the virtual towel.

"I could rant all day long," he typed, "don’t think anything will ever change as the slow players don’t realize they’re slow."

That’s not quite true. Crane, who’s earned his well-deserved reputation from years as a creepy-crawler, even made fun of his notoriety in one of his many videos.

But while the tour likely fines players for their slow play (we can only imagine, since the folks in Ponte Vedra have taken oaths of silence about any real or imagined penalties), Donald conceded that in the end it was up to the participants to pick it up.

"Can't really blame the officials, not enough of them to govern," he tweeted. "Responsibility lies with the players and their caddies"