Tag: Slow Play

‘It’s gotten worse’: Nelly Korda, Lexi Thompson blast LPGA’s slow play problem

“Just be ready when it’s your turn.”

NAPLES, Fla. — Nelly Korda plays so fast there are times that her caddie, Jason McDede, has to slow her down. There are many things to admire about the No. 1 player in the world, and the speed with which she plays the game hovers near the top of the list.

“I just always say, your first instinct is your best instinct,” said Korda, who’s fresh off her seventh victory of the season. “Just be ready when it’s your turn.”

The topic of slow play is nothing new, of course, but Lexi Thompson thinks the LPGA is only getting slower.

“I don’t really know why it’s gotten worse,” said Thompson, “but it has unfortunately.”

Korda and Charley Hull were part of a third round that finished in the dark on Saturday last week at The Annika driven by Gainbridge at Pelican. Two of the fastest players on tour were forced to suffer through a round that took five hours and 38 minutes. The tour went 51 minutes over its allotted TV window. In this case, Golf Channel extended coverage.

Nichols: Slow play continues to be a black eye for the LPGA. It’s time to shrink the field at The Annika

“I personally think it’s a pretty big issue,” said Korda. “I think it’s not good for the fans that come out and watch us. If it was me personally, I would be very, very annoyed watching for five hours, over five hours, five hours and 40 minutes, close to six. I just think it really drags the game down.

“I think that it really, really needs to change.”

When asked about slow play after The Annika, Hull offered a rather extreme answer to the problem, calling for repeat offenders to lose their tour cards. Korda shared a video of Hull’s comments on social media, as did PGA Tour player Max Homa.

“I’m quite ruthless,” said Hull, “but I said, listen, if you get three bad timings, every time it’s a two-shot penalty, if you have three of them you lose your tour card instantly. I’m sure that would hurry a lot of people up and they won’t want to lose their tour card.

“That would kill the slow play, but they would never do that.”

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Charley Hull of England and Nelly Korda of the United States prepare to play the first hole during the final round of The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican 2024 at Pelican Golf Club on November 17, 2024 in Belleair, Florida. (Photo by Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images)

After playing the weekend together at Pelican, Korda and Hull played a practice round on Tuesday at the CME Group Tour Championship in Naples. Not surprisingly, the topic of slow play came up again, likely during a long wait.

“She was talking and it’s like either a 5 or a 6, like you got two options,” said Korda. “It’s either wind is off your right or wind is off your left, wind is into, wind is down. You can’t – it’s just people just try to overcomplicate it.”

Korda echoes the thoughts of many when she says that the tour needs more rules officials. She’d like to see officials out with the first group, ready to prod. She’d also like to see more penalties given out.

“To be standing over a putt for two to three minutes, that’s ridiculous,” said Korda. “When a group in front of me is on the green and I’m in the fairway, I’m already getting ready. I’m getting my numbers ready, talking about the shot, so by the time it’s my turn, I already have my game plan. … People start their process a little too late and they stand over it too long.”

Thompson called Hull’s slow-play solution “aggressive” but said she didn’t disagree, noting rounds should never take more than four and a half hours.

“Something has to be done to quicken up the play out there,” said Thompson.

The tour’s most popular players have had enough.

Nichols: Slow play continues to be a black eye for the LPGA. It’s time to shrink the field at The Annika

Charley Hull has an admittedly ruthless idea to fix slow play on the LPGA.

BELLEAIR, Fla. — Charley Hull has an admittedly ruthless idea to fix slow play on the LPGA. Under Hull’s rules, two-shot penalties shall be given out more frequently and repeat offenders would “lose your tour card instantly.” She knows something so extreme would never happen, but the threat of Q-School would kill slow play for good.

“It’s ridiculous,” said Hull, one of the fastest players in golf, “and I feel sorry for the fans how slow it is out there.”

For the past three years, the check-writers of The Annika driven by Gainbridge at Pelican have asked the LPGA for a smaller field. It’s a matter of math, really. With 120 players in the field this time of year, it’s tough to get everyone around before the sun goes down. Even without weather delays.

And with the tour unable to rein in the issue of slow play, the ideal field for this week might be less than 100 players.

“These players are role models,” said tournament host Annika Sorenstam “You see the young girls out here, they’ve got to show how to play fast if they’re going to grow this game.”

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Nelly Korda of the United States plays her shot from the seventh tee during the final round of The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican 2024 at Pelican Golf Club on November 17, 2024 in Belleair, Florida. (Douglas P. DeFelice/Getty Images)

When Kaitlyn Papp Budde came to the demanding 18th on Friday at Pelican Golf Club, the lights from the driving range had been moved over to help light up the green. While that didn’t help her too much in the fairway, she didn’t want to sleep on that second shot over water. She hit her approach, and then woke up early on Saturday to finish up her round along with two others. For the second consecutive day, play spilled over to the next morning despite no interruptions in play.

The ripple effect meant that with tee times pushed back 30 minutes, stars Nelly Korda and Charley Hull came to the 18th on Saturday after the sun came down. Korda called it “poor planning” that they had to finish in the dark. Golf Channel’s TV window was slated to end at 5 p.m. and extended to 5:51 p.m. The final group teed off at 12:13 p.m. on Saturday. That’s a snail’s pace of five hours and 38 minutes.

“I think the pace has gotten slower and slower, even practice rounds,” said Sorenstam. “It’s gotten to the point where a lot of players don’t even want to play 18 and it shouldn’t be that way.

“It’s something the tour needs to address.”

With several players in this week’s field trying to secure their full cards for 2025, cutting down the field would take away an opportunity for those further down the CME points list. But with pace of play a worsening issue, the logistics of The Annika could be made so much smoother with a more limited field.

Justin Sheehan, the director of golf/COO at Pelican Golf Club who first dreamed up the idea of this event, wrote a note to LPGA commissioner Mollie Marcoux Samaan on Sunday morning, once again laying out the case for a smaller field. They’d love to have Sorenstam hit a ceremonial tee shot on Thursday, example, but there’s simply not enough time.

Two of the most popular players in the game were battling down the stretch on Saturday and all anyone on social media could talk about was the terrible pace of play and darkening skies.

“Common sense tells you if there’s not enough daylight, just don’t have as many players,” said Sheehan. “You don’t need to be a rocket scientist for that.”

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Carlota Ciganda of Spain plays her shot from the fifth tee during the third round of The ANNIKA driven by Gainbridge at Pelican 2024 at Pelican Golf Club on November 16, 2024 in Belleair, Florida. (Douglas P. DeFelice/Getty Images)

Spain’s Carlota Ciganda came into the week with a berth into the CME Group Tour Championship on the line. With a $4 million winner’s check up for grabs next week, the $4,000 fine she incurred for slow play might have been worth it as she nabbed the 60th and final spot in the field.

“I know I have to improve, and I’ll try to do that next year,” said Ciganda of her pace of play.

“I don’t think people understand how tough golf can be … mentally it’s a lot tougher than what people think. Golfers just drink some beers and play some golf, and we do this for a living. A lot goes through in your mind.”

Papp Budde, who was also hit with a slow-play fine this week, said she’d like to see the tour add more rules officials to its staff.

“Fines only do so much,” said Lauren Coughlin. “Some players are like, it’s worth it to take the fine. So I think the only real way is to penalize players.”

Missing the television window is always a problem, but even more so when network coverage is involved. Extended coverage typically moves off network to streaming or to cable on CNBC. LPGA sponsors pay low six figures for network coverage, only to have the end of a round or a tournament bumped to another station. That’s risky business.

The LPGA isn’t going to fix the slow-play issue overnight. But it can fix the race against daylight at The Annika in short order by shrinking the field. It’s important to provide opportunities for players, but it’s more important to safeguard the quality of the product.

In five short years, The Annika has quickly become one of the premiere events on the LPGA schedule. The power players involved here – Gainbridge, the Doyle family and Sorenstam – should be granted this request.

It’s for the greater good.

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Anna Davis misses cut at Augusta National Women’s Amateur after devastating slow-play penalty

Davis was notified several times during the round that her group was out of position.

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EVANS, Georgia — For a second consecutive year, past champion Anna Davis was hit with a devastating penalty at the fifth edition of the Augusta National Women’s Amateur. This time it was for slow play, and once again, she missed the cut.

Davis played alongside tournament leader Lottie Woad and Maria Jose Marin in the second round at Champions Retreat and was notified several times during the round that her group was out of position, said rules committee chair Jim Hyler in a tournament statement.

Davis, 18, received her first bad time after hitting her second shot on the fifth hole, and her second bad time after hitting her second shot on the 17th. She was assessed a one-stroke penalty, that was applied on the 17th hole, resulting in a bogey.

Davis shot 6-over 78 on a blustery day and finished at 4 over for the tournament, missing the cut by one stroke. The top-30 players and ties advance to the final round on Saturday at Augusta National Golf Club.

Some time after the round, a tearful Davis emerged from the clubhouse on Thursday afternoon with her father but was too emotional to talk to a group of reporters, though she did flash a smile. It was still too raw.

Just yesterday, Davis was laughing with reporters about the cards that were passed out on Wednesday morning explaining the rules for preferred lies.

Last year, Davis suffered a four-stroke penalty after she twice picked up the ball from the rough to start the first round. The rule restricts the use of preferred lies to “areas cut to fairway height or less.” She missed the cut by two strokes last year.

Davis, who couldn’t help but laugh when she saw the cards, talked earlier in the week about how much she has grown since winning the ANWA as a 16-year-old bucket-hat-wearing sensation. Winning at Augusta at such a young age, and then playing in several LPGA majors as a result, forced her to grow up a little faster, she said.

“I think I have seen myself grow,” said the Auburn freshman on Tuesday. “Just especially with the situation last year. I think how I handled it was good, and I think if you put me in that situation a few years ago it would’ve been a little different.

“I think if I was put in that situation now, I would handle it better than I did last year.”

Little did she know that another tough lesson would come so quickly.

TGL format takes page from basketball with shot clock, timeouts and referees

A 40-second shot clock will aim to slow play in the tech-infused golf league led by Tiger and Rory.

Like a leaking faucet, the slow drip of news from Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy’s new tech-infused golf league continued on Monday with more updates to its unique format.

Last week, TGL released its competition format, but this week the league announced that matches would feature a shot clock, timeouts and a referee. That’s right, slow play haters, a shot clock is coming to golf.

Players will have 40 seconds to hit a shot, or else a shot clock violation will incur a one-stroke penalty. Each team will have four timeouts per match, two for each session of play. Similar to the NFL, there is no rollover of unused timeouts, and teams cannot call consecutive timeouts during a single shot.

The league also stated a referee “with experience with timeouts, shot clocks, and the dynamics of team sports” will be on hand, which would hint at a basketball referee. A rules of golf official will also be in a booth to monitor the action. The referee and booth official will be responsible for managing and enforcing the shot clock.

“Instituting a shot clock and timeouts will help make matches entertaining, fast-paced, and exciting for sports fans,” said Mike McCarley, CEO and founder of TMRW Sports and TGL. “These elements also add another level of strategy for the players in how they approach team decisions similar to other sports,”

Six teams of four PGA Tour players will compete in 15 regular season matches, starting Jan. 9, 2024, followed by semifinals and finals matches all at a high-tech short-game complex that was purpose-built on the campus of Palm Beach State College in Florida.

The two competing teams will name their three players ahead of each match, and all six will be mic’d up during the competition. While some teams have already been announced, full team rosters, names, brands and front-office staff will all be announced later this year.

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Nelly Korda says rules regarding slow play in golf ‘should be enforced’

Slow play is an on-again, off-again subject in the game at all levels.

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Nelly Korda is grouped with Lydia Ko and Charley Hull for the first two rounds of the 2023 AIG Women’s Open in Walton Heath in Surrey, England.

And that’s quite alright with Korda.

“I love Charley, she’s so much fun to be around. I love playing with her. I’ve played a couple practice rounds with her. We’re pretty friendly,” she said during her Wednesday pre-tournament news conference. Then Korda touched on another important aspect of Hull’s game.

“She’s a fast player. I enjoy that.”

Slow play is an on-again, off-again subject in the game at all levels. Just two weeks ago, Carlota Ciganda was docked two strokes for slow play at the previous LPGA major, the Amundi Evian Championship. She was officially disqualified from the event after signing an incorrect scorecard when she refused to acknowledge the two-stroke penalty.

“I think at the end of the day, the Rules of Golf are the Rules of Golf and they should be enforced,” Korda said. “I really like Carlota. She’s a great person. I enjoy playing with her. I am a fast player, but I would say at the end of the day the Rules of Golf are the Rules of Golf, and it’s good that it’s being enforced.”

She said it can “throw off your rhythm as a golfer” to play with slow golfers. It can also be a drag for fans.

“I think it should be monitored. I mean, if I’m being honest, if I was a spectator and I was out here for 5 ½ hours to 6 hours, you know, it’s tough to watch, right. You want to watch a sport that’s continuously moving and not continuously stalling.”

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Carlota Ciganda refuses slow-play penalty, gets DQ’d from LPGA’s Evian major

The DQ was for signing an incorrect scorecard.

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Carlota Ciganda, a two-time winner on the LPGA and a five-time member of the European Solheim Cup team, was disqualified after the first round of the 2023 Amundi Evian Championship, the fourth LPGA major of the season.

The official reason was for signing an incorrect scorecard, but the situation arose out of a slow-play penalty assessed on Ciganda’s final hole of the round. The Spaniard refused to acknowledge a two-shot penalty, signed her card without adding the two shots, then was DQ’d.

Ciganda was 3 over after her round, not counting the penalty strokes. The penalty would have pushed her score to 5-over 76, and she would have trailed first-round leader Paula Reto by 12 shots.

Ciganda was playing with fellow Arizona State alum Anna Nordqvist as well as Celine Herbin. Officially Group 14, the threesome started on the 10th hole Thursday at Evian Resort Golf Club in Evain-Les-Bains, France.

When they got to the seventh hole, their 16th hole of the day, they were notified by rules officials that they were out of position.

After failing to make up time, the group was put on the clock on the eighth hole, their 17th of the round. On the ninth hole, Ciganda took too long to play and was assessed a two-stroke penalty per the LPGA’s pace of play policy.

As was her right, she appealed to the advance and lead rules officials but was denied, meaning the two-stroke penalty would stick. She opted to sign her scorecard without accounting for those two strokes. Ciganda was told if she left the official recording area having turned in a signed incorrect scorecard, she would be disqualified. The LPGA said she left of her own accord, leading to the DQ.

An LPGA spokesperson told Golfweek: “Rule 3.3b(3) states that if a returned score is lower than the actual score, the player is disqualified from the competition. The exception to this Rule does not apply because Ciganda was aware of the penalty strokes received and upheld before signing her scorecard and leaving the recording area.”

Ciganda tied for 12th in her most recent event, the Dana Open, following a tie for 20th at the U.S. Women’s Open and a tie for third at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship. She ranks 14th on this year’s money list with $876,447, and she is No. 31 in the Rolex Women’s World Rankings. She won both her LPGA titles in 2016.

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Slow play penalized at LIV Golf; Adam Hadwin’s wife calls out his slow play

Slow play penalties are rare on the PGA Tour. The last occurred at the 2021 PGA Championship at Kiawah.

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The slow-play police finally handed out a ticket on Saturday.

England’s Richard Bland was hit with the first slow-play penalty on LIV Golf during the second round of the tournament at Valderrama Golf Club in Spain.

At the 217-yard, par-3 15th hole, Bland took too long to play his tee shot. Here’s the explanation via a statement from LIV.

“In round two, the group of Dean Burmester, Sergio Garcia and Richard Bland were officially warned by a rules official after their 4th hole of the day (hole 8) where the group was out of position on the golf course as well as behind in relation to time par,” the release said. “After their 9th hole of the day (hole 13) the group, who had further lost position on the course, was officially timed by a rules official. In accordance with the LIV Golf League Pace of Play Policy, ‘A player has 40 seconds to play each stroke, with an additional 10 seconds if they are the first to play any stroke in the group.’

“On the tee of the 15th hole, Richard Bland, who was first to play, received a time of 84 seconds for his first stroke. This exceeded the allotted time per the policy. Bland was immediately notified by an official and assessed a one-stroke penalty. With the one-stroke penalty, Bland’s score of 4 on the par-3 15th hole resulted in a score of 5.”

Slow play penalties are rare on the PGA Tour. Jon Catlin, who plays regularly on the DP World Tour, was the most recent to be assessed one at the 2021 PGA Championship at Kiawah. But it has been under the spotlight this season despite pace of play being the scourge of the professional game for years. PGA Tour veteran Adam Hadwin noted that his wife, Jessica, called him out recently for his own slow play.

“[She said], ‘You look uncomfortable out there; you look like you’re deciding too much [and] taking too long,’” Hadwin told CBS during his post-round interview at the Rocket Mortgage Classic. “[She continued,] ‘It’s not just me. The fans in the crowd at LACC, apparently, were calling me out for it too.’”

Hadwin took note and on Saturday he tied the course record at Detroit Golf Club, shooting 9-under 63 to leap into contention for his second PGA Tour title.

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‘Nobody enjoys it and it’s not fair’: Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Lee Trevino and Annika Sorenstam address golf’s pace of play problem

“It’s not very pleasant to watch somebody stand over the ball for half an hour,” said Jack Nicklaus.

When Jack Nicklaus says slow play is a problem, you know the topic has officially jumped the shark.

Nicklaus was asked to opine on the pace of play of professional golf during a press conference on Saturday at The Woodlands in Houston ahead of competing in the Greats of Golf, a nine-hole exhibition played during the Insperity Championship on PGA Tour Champions.

“They do have a problem on the Tour today,” Nicklaus said. “The golf ball is a part of the problem. The longer the golf ball goes, the longer the courses get, the more you have to walk, the longer it’s going to take. I don’t think it’s good for the game. (The USGA and R&A have proposed) bringing the golf ball back (and reducing the distance it can travel). I think it’s a good start. It’s the first time they’ve done that in forever. We’ll see where it goes with that.

Nicklaus has long been a proponent of rolling back the golf ball but acknowledged that slow-play penalties are also overdue to be handed out.

“It’s got to be equitable,” Nicklaus added, “but they need to make an example and stay with it. It’s not very pleasant to watch somebody stand over the ball for half an hour.”

Slow play has made headlines recently after weather delays forced the Masters to go to threesomes and split tees in the final round and the glacial pace was exposed on TV. Brooks Koepka, who played in the final group, called out Patrick Cantlay, who also took his time on multiple occasions at the RBC Heritage the following week but pointed out that he was never put on the clock in either instances. Slow play has been a chronic problem in the game and rarely gets addressed in any meaningful way. But that wasn’t the case in Nicklaus’s rookie year.

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The Golden Bear always was a deliberate player but he learned early in his career that his pace of play was too slow. He was penalized two strokes during the second round at the 1962 Portland Open by PGA official Joe Black. Nicklaus still rolled to a six-stroke victory but he learned an important lesson that day.

“It was the best thing that ever happened to me,” Nicklaus said, noting that Black told him, “Jack, you can take as long as you want over the golf ball to play but be ready when it’s your turn.”

“I always tried to stay out of everybody’s way,” Nicklaus continued. “I didn’t want to bother anybody lining up my putt while they were lining up their putt so I stayed back. I didn’t want to start walking my yardages off. I took a while over the golf ball but that wasn’t the problem. The problem was being ready to play. I realized after playing on the Tour for a while that it’s also a courtesy to the field. It’s not fair to do that.”

Nicklaus also blamed caddies for being part of the problem.

“By the time they get through talking, I couldn’t hit a shot anyway,” he said. “It’s a problem.”

The Greats of Golf gathered on Saturday, April 29, 2023, at the Insperity Invitational and played a nine-hole exhibition. (Courtesy Insperity Invitational)

Gary Player echoed that sentiment. “It’s just not fair to the others to be taking the amount of time,” he said. “You are allocated a certain amount of time and you have to adhere to that or you should be penalized.”

Player noted that golfers have three practice rounds and then they spend too much time around the green doing Aim Point and studying their yardage books. “You didn’t see Bobby Locke, Ben Crenshaw or Tiger Woods doing that,” Player said.

“I read the green from 50 yards,” Lee Trevino added. “Keep staring at it while you’re walking you can see every curve on that green. Before you ever get there to read that putt you know exactly the direction it’s going.”

Annika Sorenstam said the problem with pace of play starts at the junior level.

“The juniors watch the pros and they see the Masters and see how much time the pros take and do the same thing,” she said. “I know the AJGA does a good job, but then they get to college and it all goes away and then they turn pro. I think it is a root problem from the beginning.

“Nobody enjoys it and it’s not fair. We’re running out of time, time is a precious commodity, right, so I think start at the very beginning and teach them to hit when you’re ready and go. The more we think, the more complicated it gets, right, so just hit and go.”

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Patrick Cantlay made an ace at the RBC Heritage, and all Golf Twitter talked about was slow play

Golf Twitter can be ruthless.

Patrick Cantlay is no stranger to success at Harbour Town Golf Links.

Last year, he lost in a playoff to Jordan Spieth. He came into this year’s tournament in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, as one of the favorites, and he’s again near the top of the leaderboard, in large part thanks to his tee shot on the par-3 seventh hole.

Cantlay hit 6-iron to the middle of the green and it released toward the hole located near the back. The ball rolled and rolled and rolled and then dropped. Boom. It was Cantlay’s third ace of his PGA Tour career, this one coming in the second round of the RBC Heritage. It moved him to 8 under.

He shot 6-under 65 on Friday and sits at 8 under for the tournament.

Cantlay’s name has been in the news for other reasons recently, mostly about slow play during Sunday’s final round of the Masters.

Cantlay responded to the slow play comments Tuesday, but that hasn’t stopped golf fans from calling him out.

Even Cantlay poked fun at it after his round.

Here are some of the funniest responses to Cantlay’s ace on Twitter.

2022 British Open: Pace of play of first round is ‘ridiculous,’ ‘insane,’ ‘just sad’

“It’s just a joke, isn’t it?” said reigning U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick of his round, which clocked in at 6 hours, 10 minutes.

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland – With apologies to the USGA’s sectional qualifying for the U.S. Open, the longest day of golf this year was the opening round of the 150th British Open at The Old Course.

“It’s just a joke, isn’t it?” said reigning U.S. Open champion Matt Fitzpatrick of his round alongside Tiger Woods and Max Homa, which clocked in at 6 hours, 10 minutes. “This just shouldn’t be happening ever in golf.”

Fitzpatrick nailed it, but he also conceded there was little to be done about it, given that with modern equipment seven of the par-4 holes are drivable, and the conditions had most everyone waiting on the tee to swing for the fences, often not even needing a club under a head cover.

“It’s the way the golf course is set up. It’s how firm it is. The way the golf course is designed. You’re crossing over a lot, and to get better angles and better lines, you’ve got to hit across all the fairways,” Fitzpatrick explained. “There’s nothing you can do unfortunately about it. It’s just sad more than anything. It’s just ridiculous.”

The morning wave turned in a brisk 5 hours and 30 minutes, by comparison. In the afternoon, there were some odd moments such as waving up Tiger’s group to tee off at the par-5 14th.

“Wait on the tee for a while and then they said we were going to hit up on them, and they let us drive, so, we hit our drive,” Homa said. “Then when we got up there, we waited 20 minutes for them to hit, which meant we had to wait another 20 after that for us to hit. It was very bizarre.”

Not just bizarre but the snail’s pace prevented players from finding any rhythm.

“I felt like everything was like choppy,” Homa said. “It was just an insane amount of waiting.”

The traffic jam got so bad that Homa’s group actually returned the favor and waved up the group of Jon Rahm, Jordan Spieth and Harold Varner III at the 18th. At that point, were they really saving time? But this happened on several other holes, too, including the fifth, seventh, ninth and 12th.

Rory McIlroy was the most diplomatic when asked about the stop-start nature of the round.

“I think St Andrews is that way,” he said. “There’s a lot of crisscrossing and waiting on other greens and waiting on greens to clear because the drivable par-4s.

So I think, especially the first two days when it’s the full field, it’s to be expected. It is what it is. Thankfully it speeds up over the weekend and two balls, and it gets moving a little bit more. But I think playing this tournament, you expect it to be that way the first couple of days.”

McIlroy, who waited 20 minutes on the fifth tee, sounded like a man in a state of bliss after shooting a 66. The old Tiger-ism ‘It is what it is’ rings hollow in this case; it is what it shouldn’t be. It doesn’t get dark until after 10 o’clock here and there’s no reason for daylight to be an issue. Yet, still players finished in the gloaming in front of abandoned grand stands.

Six hour-plus rounds? That’s both insane and sad, and it needs to be fixed.

As Fitzpatrick put it, it should never happen in golf.