Tom Kim Is Too Slow, Rory's Responsibility For Scheffler's Insane Run, Protesters Just Want More Golf

The Travelers Championship certainly delivered the goods this weekend. While the birdie fest everyone expected did break out in Connecticut, we were at least treated to a playoff between Scottie Scheffler and Tom Kim. We also had protesters run onto the 18th green during the most pivotal point of the tournament on Sunday, and their PR spin after the fact was a masterclass.

With Scheffler finding the winner's circle yet again, it's time to pin even more blame on Rory McIlroy for the dominance we're seeing out of him. Nice guys don't always win, and McIlroy is a walking billboard for that phrase at the moment.

Another (signature) week has come and gone, time for a fresh edition of Par Talk.

Tom Kim's Pace Of Play Is A Very Real Problem

It's not often you can use the word ‘fun’ to describe a professional golfer, but that's certainly one of the first adjectives that comes to mind when you think of Tom Kim

He's a three-time PGA Tour winner, had his coming out party in the Presidents Cup, fell into a literal swamp at the PGA Championship, and only turned 22 years old less than a week ago. He spent all day Sunday at the Travelers Championship making small talk with Scottie Scheffler as if they were just out for a hit and giggle at a local muni and not competing for a $20 million purse. 

Tom Kim is cool, but man, he'd be a lot cooler if he wasn't the slowest player in the modern era.

Real golf fans have been aware of Kim's egregious pace of play for quite some time now, but Sunday afternoon provided a five-hour show many golf fans haven't been exposed to, and let's just say those fans noticed how brutally slow the young man goes about his business. 

The majority of players on Tour would fall into the ‘slow player’ category, but Kim's pace of play issue is the worst variety, as it doesn't have all that much to do with him not being at the ready or taking a ridiculous amount of time between shots. It's the fact that he stands over the golf ball for so long before taking the club back. Patrick Cantlay gets ridiculed for the same thing, but the amount of time Kim takes over a shot makes Cantlay seem like a fast player.

The style in which Kim plays is fun to watch as he's not a long hitter whatsoever and plots his way around the course with elite iron play constantly being outdriven by his playing partners, but that immediately gets overshadowed when he's taking 40+ seconds over the golf ball. It's all about being comfortable, which Kim certainly is out there, but someone has to be telling him that he needs to shave off a few seconds of his routine or he's going to lose more fans than he gains.

A Reminder That Scottie Scheffler Owes Rory McIlroy, Big Time

Scottie Scheffler went 363 days between wins until finally breaking that streak at the Arnold Palmer Invitational back in March. He did so with a new mallet-style putter in the bag after Rory McIlroy suggested he do so just a couple of weeks prior at the Genesis Invitational due to his inconsistency on the greens.

McIlroy literally said "I'd love to see Scottie try a mallet" during a post-round interview with CBS.

It's safe to say McIlroy wishes he had those words back.

Since McIlroy's suggestion, Scheffler has made 10 starts. In those 10 starts, he has won six times, with five of the six being signature events and the sixth being the Masters. If you take away his T-41 finish at the U.S. Open, Scheffler has lost to just 10 total players over the course of nine tournaments. He's earned over $20 million across that timeline as well.

Scheffler ranks 80th on Tour in strokes gained: putting so far this season. A year ago, with a traditional blade putter in the bag, he finished the season 162nd in the category.

Travelers Championship Protesters Just Want More Golf

Climate activists who disrupt sporting events in any fashion are among the worst humans on the planet and the Extinction Rebellion morons that ran onto the 18th green at the Travelers Championship on Sunday certainly fall into that category.

Having said that, they may have figured something out. Instead of simply bitching about the world coming to an end at any second due to global warming, they've spun their messaging around to strike fear in sports fans.

The group's slogan on Sunday was ‘No Golf On A Dead Planet,’ which is incredibly dramatic, but technically correct. Instead of bitching about oil, they're instead reminding everyone you can't play golf if the planet isn't alive.

A lightning strike at the Travelers on Saturday fell into the group's lap as a perfect excuse to push its cause. 

The group shared a press release, and while it was mostly garbage, one paragraph in particular stood out.

"Climate catastrophe threatens everything we love on this planet, including golf. Many tournaments have been canceled due to inclement weather. Golf, more than other events, is heavily reliant on good weather. Golf fans should therefore understand better than most the need for strong, immediate climate action."

Believe it or not, thunderstorms existed hundreds of years ago as well, meaning that golf tournaments have been postponed due to weather since the creation of the sport. 

By no means should anyone with common sense and decency respect the clown moves these protesters continue to make, but it's interesting to see them evolve into not just saying ‘global warming is killing everyone and everything’ into concise messaging like ‘if something doesn’t change you can't play golf with your buddies anymore.'