The PGA Tour is becoming the latest major sports league to turn to technology for help in modernizing and speeding up its on-course product.

With Major League Baseball seeing fantastic results from the implementation of the pitch clock in 2023, the PGA Tour is testing the use of distance-measuring devices (commonly known as rangefinders) at six events over a four-week period beginning Thursday at the RBC Heritage in Hilton Head and at the Corales Puntacana Championship.

Like baseball, professional golf has long struggled with its pace of play, often resulting in five-plus-hour rounds during tournaments—well above the standard four hours expected for playing 18 holes. During the first season of TGL, the indoor golf league co-founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, players praised the shot clock, which was new for a major golf competition.

MLB saw its average game time drop by four minutes last year with the pitch clock, after dropping by 24 minutes in 2023, the first year of implementation. The 2024 regular season average game time was two hours, 36 minutes—the league’s lowest figure since 1984.

The PGA Tour does not release specific data around pace of play, although that could change in the future. While the use of rangefinders is welcomed by many, it is not expected to have the same drastic impact that the pitch clock has had on baseball.

Brett Phelps / IndyStar

Cost of Doing Business

On the second-tier Korn Ferry Tour, players over the next three events will be assessed a one-stroke penalty for their first “bad time,” which occurs when a player exceeds the applicable time to play a stroke while being timed. Previously, a one-stroke penalty was not applied until a player was assessed a second “bad time.”

Similar to how MLB tested the pitch clock and other changes in the minor league before implementing them into the majors, the stroking policy could eventually make its way to the PGA Tour. 

That’s key because every stroke a player loses could mean missing the cut—and not getting paid at all for that tournament—or dropping a spot in the final standings, which can result in tens and even hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize money.

After the testing period ends for all of the above changes, a deep dive into the data could result in the PGA Tour implementing a new pace of play policy as early as 2026.

The National Hockey League’s Battle of Ontario has been revived after an absence of more than two decades, and new Senators owner Michael Andlauer is getting actively involved in the playoff battle against the provincial rival Maple Leafs.

Toronto clinched the Atlantic Division title Tuesday at the Sabres’ troubled KeyBank Center, marking its first full-season division championship in 25 years, setting up a first-round playoff matchup against the neighboring Senators. The two clubs met in the postseason four times between 2000 and 2004, with the Maple Leafs winning each time, but not since then. 

Andlauer, who paid $950 million for the Senators in late 2023 in a league record that has since been broken, vowed a very different outcome for what Maple Leafs goalie Anthony Stolarz was set to be “a bloodbath.” 

“I know we’ve had hard luck in the Battle of Ontario, but they’ve got a new owner right now,” Andlauer said about the Senators on Canada’s TSN. 

Bigger Themes

The Maple Leafs-Senators matchup, while potentially something of an undercard battle for U.S. viewers in a significantly reshaped NHL playoffs, has immediately become a dominant storyline in Canada. It also highlights a stark David-and-Goliath dynamic between the two clubs. Toronto is an Original Six NHL franchise, and despite not having a Stanley Cup title since 1967, remains one of the most popular and valuable sports teams in the world, and is set to be a foundational holding of the expanding Rogers Communications sports portfolio. 

The Senators, conversely, joined the league in 1992 as an expansion franchise, are back in the playoffs after an eight-year absence, and are still fighting for prominence—particularly against much larger NHL neighbors in both Toronto and Montreal. 

Andlauer, meanwhile, insisted that Senators home games against the Maple Leafs at Canadian Tire Centre will not be overrun by Toronto fans, in part due to planned presales to a still-expanding base of season-ticket holders.

“By the time it comes out to the public, it’s probably going to be 2,500-3,000 [available] seats. We can handle that, for sure,” Andlauer said. 

The provincial battle also has become a new rallying cry for the Senators after the club announced in January plans to play preseason games this fall in Quebec City, angering local fans in the process. 

College football’s spring transfer portal window opened Wednesday, and the numbers are staggering.

While the NCAA doesn’t publicly release how many players enter the portal, at least 3,200 names were in the system Wednesday afternoon, according to On3, and that number was growing by the hour. ESPN reported that more than 2,600 of those in the portal Wednesday were FBS scholarship players.

This transfer portal window closes on April 25, so there is still plenty of time for more players to enter and search for a new team.

It’s a perfect example of the adage—which is a source of frustration for many fans, coaches, and pundits—that in today’s college sports landscape, every player is a free agent every year.

In December, the winter transfer portal saw record movement on its opening day and concluded with some record NIL (name, image, and likeness) deals for top quarterbacks who switch schools, most notably Darian Mensah, who left Tulane to sign with Duke and receive a two-year, $8 million pact.

This week, the big story has been around former Tennessee signal caller Nico Iamaleava, who has entered the portal after a messy divorce with the Volunteers. Multiple reports suggested Iamaleava was seeking more NIL money from Tennessee, although a family friend refuted those claims to Front Office Sports. 

Carolina Blues

While spring practices are already underway, and in some cases over, for many top programs, adding players now can still boost rosters for the fall—if the price is right. 

One school in desperate need of more talent is North Carolina, which hired Bill Belichick as its new coach after the winter transfer portal had already opened. With more time to prepare for the spring window, the Tar Heels were expected to be a major factor in the portal.

However, UNC has “offered considerably less” money than other programs in the mix for some top players, sources told CBS Sports. That includes starting-caliber offensive linemen, who can reportedly command upwards of $500,000.

Belichick’s contract stipulates that $13 million in annual revenue sharing be dedicated to the football team, and UNC reportedly agreed to increase its NIL budget from roughly $4 million to around $20 million.