JERSEY CITY, N.J. — Bryson DeChambeau has been described a number of ways—mad scientist, fiery competitor, quirky hat-wearer—but "fast player" is not one of them.

The notoriously deliberate 25-year-old sent anti-slow play zealots into a frenzy when video surfaced of him pacing off and needing more than two minutes to execute a 70-yard shot. It happened on the 16th hole during the second round of the Northern Trust.

The official PGA Tour rule is that a player has 40 seconds to play his shot, or 50 if he is the first of his group to play. The TOUR has fined players for violating those rules privately—Jordan Spieth confirmed that he was fined multiple times earlier in his career—but has handed out just one stroke penalty for slow play since 1995.

DeChambeau, who shot a second-straight 68 for a two-day total of 6 under, played alongside Tommy Fleetwood and Justin Thomas on Friday at Liberty National. The threesome needed 4 hours and 51 minutes to finish their round.

"It's definitely not getting any better," Thomas said of slow play after Thursday's round. "It's very, very hard...it's hard to make it better but fair. Everybody knows who the slow players are.

"But if you put the whole group on the clock and then a fast player gets docked, and they get penalized. It's tough. But the slow players know who they are, and they need to play faster."

Pace of play has emerged as a huge story this season, with a number of high-profile players voicing their opinions and calling for change.

"I think it's just gotten out of hand," world No. 1 Brooks Koepka said earlier this week. "It seems now that there are so many sports psychologists and everybody telling everybody that they can't hit it until they're ready; that you have to fully process everything. I mean, I take 15 seconds and go, and I've done all right. So I don't understand why they're taking a minute and a half."

This isn't the first time DeChambeau has sparked outrage over his pace of play. In January, he came under fire for taking 90+ seconds to hit a gap wedge at the Dubai Desert Classic.