PGA Tour golfer makes sarcastic YouTube comment in fierce debate

PGA Tour winner Ben An has suggested 'at this rate' lots of professional golfers will quit their job and pursue a career on YouTube as he offered his thoughts on slow play. 

An made the claim on X in response to a post by golf journalist Kyle Porter after the conclusion of the Farmers Insurance Open. 

The final group of Harris English, Aldrich Potgieter and Andrew Novak took five hours and 39 minutes to complete their fourth round at Torrey Pines' south course. 

By the time English tapped in for par to secure his fifth win, a number of golf fans on social media appeared to have lost their rags completely and switched off. 

CBS' veteran on-course commentator and LPGA hall of famer Dottie Pepper was fed up with what she was watching. 

Pepper urged the PGA Tour players to have more 'respect' for fans, players and broadcasters. 

Porter claimed the Tour 'has a lot of problems right now'. 

"Foremost among them might be that it's a lot more fun and entertaining to watch your favourite YouTubers play fascinating courses for 40 minutes than it is to watch Andrew Novak and Sam Stevens duke it out at Torrey for 400 minutes," he wrote. 

An saw the post and interjected: "At this rate, all the pro golfers are going quit their job and be a YouTuber. 

"Golf always has been 5+ hour coverage. 

"As we get younger audiences, it's hard for them to be entertained for that long. 

"Whereas YouTube, you can skip certain sections or watch shorts. 

"What's wrong with have English, Novak and Stevens in contention? The views? 

"It's not changing unless Tiger is in contention these days."

An has a point. 

For example, Woods' debut in TGL an average audience of 919,000 on ESPN.

That figure dropped 32 per cent a week later when the big cat wasn't involved. 

An contended that even if you were to have a group made up of the three quickest players on Tour that they'd still take at least four hours to play 18 holes. 

Another X user pointed out to An that whilst a round taking more than four hours is acceptable, it gets 'out of hand' when groups reach the six hour mark. 

"Right but it happens at the majors and people still love it," he wrote. 

An did agree that there needs to be fewer commercials on telecasts. 

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