HAMBURG, Germany (PA) -- The Deutsche Bank Players Championship in Germany and the U.S. Bank Championship in the United States had something else in common last summer besides the fact that both were sponsored by financial institutions. Their winners -- Ben Crane in Milwaukee and Niclas Fasth in Hamburg -- share an annoying propensity for slow play.
Fasth -- fast by name but certainly not fast by nature -- is an intensely deliberate player who discusses every aspect of every shot in minute detail with caddie Dave McNeilly -- who, coincidentally, worked for another notorious slowpoke, Padraig Harrington, for many years.
The time taken over each shot in his playoff win over Angel Cabrera was excruciating, not least for members of the TV commentary team vainly hoping to catch their Sunday evening flight from Hamburg.
A similar situation arose around Crane during his win in Milwaukee, and that followed another incident earlier in the season at the Booz Allen Classic, when playing partner Rory Sabbatini became so frustrated at waiting that he played out of turn and stormed to the 18th tee while Crane was still playing the 17th.
On the final day in Milwaukee, it was Scott Verplank's turn to experience playing with Crane in the final group, and he admitted the pace of play eventually got to him.
"Unfortunately, yes, it did bother me a little bit," Verplank said. "There were a few things about it that bothered me, but hey, that's my fault for letting it bother me."
One of the problems lies in the fact that when a group is deemed to be "out of position," the whole group is put "on the clock" rather than just the player who is the cause of the slow play.
Then the culprit can simply speed up slightly while the ground lost is made up and avoid a fine.
"We were on the clock there on the back nine," Verplank added. "I kind of pointed that out to him a few times. I think [the tour] needs to start singling out players. That's the only way to do it.
"I think he is trying to play faster. I like him and most people here do, but again, it's hard to watch," he added. "It's a good thing he's a great guy or he would be in trouble with the other players. Golf is a gentleman's game. It's about respecting your partners in the game."
As for Crane, he insists he is trying to speed up and remains friends with Sabbatini despite the Booz Allen incident.
"I'm trying to get to my ball faster and make sure when it's my turn to hit I'm ready to go," he said. "I've been talking to Stewart Cink's psychoanalyst once a week for about an hour.
"He's basically trying to help me train my mind to trust my body," he explained. "That's what's wrong, getting the information from my head to my hands."
And he has made progress. Toward the end of the 2005 season, Crane had shaved as much as 15 seconds off some of his shots.
"As everybody knows, I've taken my time over the ball to kind of get the 'What am I supposed to be doing here again?'," he explained. "I'm not there yet, but I've gotten more comfortable and I think I'm about 80 percent of the way there."
Crane is also aware that he is the subject of locker-room jokes and complaints, so there should be no repeat of what Fulton Allem did to a dawdling Bob Estes a few years ago.
After an excruciating round, Allem wrote "you are too slow" across his playing partner's scorecard.
Enough said.
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