In the middle of his second round at the European Tour’s Saudi International, Graeme McDowell granted Sky Sports an on-course interview that caused quite a stir. Despite the gentlemanly move for the TV network, which is, by the way, a broadcast partner of the European Tour, McDowell’s pace of play came into question immediately after.
McDowell is at 8 under after a second-round 68 at Royal Greens Golf and Country Club in King Abdullah Economic City in Saudi Arabia, and will enter the weekend two shots behind leader Victor Perez.
According to a report by the Irish Golfer, McDowell was approached by a European Tour rules official for incurring a “bad timing” after granting the interview at the fourth hole.
“I think I got a monitoring bad time which then turns into being officially on the clock,” McDowell told reporters.
“I just did an interview with Tim Barter (of Sky Sports), so I was 50 yards behind the guys; and I was up there and first to go and I had 215 yards into the wind. It was a difficult shot.
McDowell was deemed to have taken longer this his allotted 50 seconds, but was not dinged for it. The European Tour is using a new “four-point plan” to address slow play, meaning that if McDowell had logged a second bad time, he would have been assessed a one-stroke penalty.
McDowell said the interaction upset his rhythm for a few holes, but also acknowledged that “hey we gotta play faster. Slow golf doesn’t help anybody, doesn’t help the viewer. … and we’ve just got to play fast.”
Interestingly, the European Tour’s pace policy also allows for a player to call a “time out” once per round to buy himself some time. McDowell said he didn’t use that method because he thought his interview time would be taken into account.
How unfair is this? @Graeme_McDowell got a bad time because Tim Barter was interviewing him for @SkySportsGolf and left him 50 yards behind. Surely a bit of common sense between the @EuropeanTour and host broadcaster should prevail?
🎥skysportsgolf pic.twitter.com/CeONumeBWQ— Donal Doc GolfCentralDaily (@GolfCentralDoc) January 31, 2020
According to the Irish Golfer report, McDowell sought the Tour’s advice post-round about whether or not the warning would be officially registered.
McDowell has not won a European Tour event since the 2014 Alstom Open de France.
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