JERSEY CITY, N.J. – Slow play has again become a headline issue in recent months thanks to Brooks Koepka’s outspoken take on the subject, but the world No. 1 is hardly the only player who believes it’s time to end slow play.

On Wednesday at The Northern Trust, Rory McIlroy agreed with Koepka’s assessment of the pace of play on Tour and said it’s a problem that flows from the top down.

“It starts at our level because people try to emulate us,” McIlroy said. “I've heard stories of college events and how long they take. There's no reason why it should take that long. It has to be addressed some way.”

McIlroy explained that slow play on Tour is the byproduct of a poorly conceived pace-of-play policy and he added that the fix is extremely straightforward.

“The guys that are slow are the guys that they get too many chances before they are penalized,” he said. “It should be a warning and then a [penalty] shot. It should be you're put on the clock and that is your warning, and then if you get a bad time while on the clock, it's a shot. That will stamp it out right away.”

McIlroy is confident that Tour pros can adjust to a more strict enforcement of pace of play.

“We are not children that need to be told five or six times what to do,” he said. “OK, you're on the clock. OK, I know if I play slowly here, I'm going to get penalized and I think that's the way forward.”