Patrick Cantlay's pace of play defended by PGA Tour pro: "Nowhere close to being the slowest guy out here"

PGA Tour member Michael Kim has leapt to the defence of Patrick Cantlay. 

Cantlay has often found himself in the crosshairs of golf fans, analysts as well as current and former players over his pace of play. 

But according to Kim, much of the criticism is simply unfair. 

Kim offered a behind-the-scenes approach on X where he assessed his own performance at the Rocket Classic. 

He played alongside the American Ryder Cup star and argued that Cantlay's routine isn't as deliberate as what the cameras portray. 

"Patrick Cantlay gets a bad rap on being slow lol," Kim wrote. 

"He takes a bit extra over the ball which is when TV shows him but he takes no practice swings and [is] quick to the ball so in the end he's nowhere close to being the slowest guy out here."

Cantlay has been repeatedly singled out in recent seasons for what many perceive to be a glacial pace, with viral clips showing him assessing his options for several minutes before making a pass at the ball. 

A grumpy Brooks Koepka lashed out at Cantlay after the conclusion of the 2023 Masters. 

Koepka played in the final group alongside Jon Rahm at Augusta National and the pair took more than five hours to get round Augusta National. 

The five-time major winner complained about waiting on a 'brutally slow' Cantlay and Viktor Hovland to complete 'every hole'. 

"Jon went to the bathroom like seven times during the round," Koepka said. "And we were still waiting."

For his part, Cantlay acknowledged that he has been slower than average since turning professional but was quick to point out that he's never been warned for playing out of position on Tour. 

He added: "If you really wanted to make guys play faster, you would put the tees up and you would put easier hole locations and the greens would roll at 10 if you really wanted it to, and you hope it never blew more than 10 miles an hour. 

"When you get really trick days and the greens are really fast and the hole locations are on lots of slope, it's going to take a longer time to play.

"But like I've said before, rounds on Tour have pretty much taken the same amount of time for a number of years now and I don't think they're going to set up the golf course in a way, like I said, to make rounds go a lot faster."

The PGA Tour claim they are addressing pace of play issues. 

Rangefinders are likely to be permitted from next season and field sizes are being reduced.

Some high-profile names have suggested the Tour should 'name and shame' the slow players and issue penalty strokes when golfers rack up numerous bad timings.