Tag: Slow Play

‘Rounds could be just stupidly slow’: Unique corner of Southern Hills could slow pace of play to a crawl in PGA Championship

“We’re right in the firing zone. It is what it is.”

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TULSA, Okla. – This could be a problem.

That’s what Tiger Woods said as he looked over a corner of Southern Hills Country Club. On Sunday. When only one other golfer was in sight and just a small gathering of fans was in step with him.

Woods was eyeing his crystal ball and seeing traffic jams at what is sure to be a crowded section of Southern Hills during the 104th PGA Championship.

Crowded? Think the 405 in Los Angeles, Times Square during tourist season.

That’s because all of the following are within a big pitching wedge of each other – the green at the par-4 second, the tee box at the par-4 third, the green of the par-5 fifth, the tee box and green of the par-3 sixth, and the tee box of the par-4 seventh.

Now add a large chunk of the expected 30,000 fans attending each day.

And the 156 players who have to pass through the congestion.

PGA: Thursday tee times | Best bets | ESPN+ streaming

In other words, expect backups. And just imagine what it’s going to be like when the group of Woods, Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth gradually rolls through it during the first two rounds.

World No. 6 Viktor Hovland said he expects play “to be really slow” in that region of the course. That’s because players will have to wait before hitting shots for other shots to land or be struck. For instance, the tee box of the third hole is between the tee box and green of the sixth hole. So, Player A is ready to hit his drive on the third but he has to make sure no one is hitting a tee shot on the sixth and no balls are landing on the second or fifth greens.

Got all that? Pace of play, which is already on the pedestrian side, could slow to a crawl in this region. And that’s not taking into account Mother Nature, who is expected to deliver 20-25 mph gusts in the first two rounds. That certainly won’t speed up matters.

“I was very surprised to see the tee box on 3 moved all the way back there,” Hovland said. “Depending on where you put the tee on 6, it doesn’t really interfere that much. You still probably have to wait a little bit. But especially that corner could be really slow. If they are playing it all the way back on all of those holes at the same time, then it could potentially be really slow. But if they mix up on maybe one of those holes, they put it up, then I don’t think it could be as bad.

“But I guess we’ll figure it out.”

Tyrrell Hatton said pace of play could be “stupidly slow.”

“They are going to have to be fairly careful with how they set the golf course up because of where some of the tee boxes are,” Hatton said. “The rounds could be just stupidly slow, which at the end of the day no one wants. You want to get around in a reasonable time. Hopefully, they’re fairly smart with how they do that.”

And what happens when there are backups?

“Chat with your caddie, maybe have a chat with your playing partners,” Hatton said. “There’s really not much else you can do. It’s not like we’re allowed to go on our phone and scroll through Twitter and Instagram and all of a sudden you’ve lost half an hour and then you’re ready to hit again like you can do if you’re just playing with your friends and it’s pretty slow.”

Southern Hills Country Club
The No. 6 green and No. 7 tee at Southern Hills Country Club in Tulsa, Oklahoma. (Photo: Gabe Gudgel/Golfweek)

The tee box on the seventh hole could be home to long waits. And players dodging incoming missiles from the sixth tee. The sixth green and seventh tee box are so close that one could literally putt a ball off the sixth green to the seventh tee box without making a shoulder turn.

“It’ll be interesting with a back left pin on 6, in case somebody just tugs it,” said four-time major winner and two-time PGA champion Brooks Koepka. “We’re right in the firing zone. It is what it is. I can’t do anything about it.

“It’s the way the golf course is set up.”

Hovland said it could be downright unnerving.

“You don’t want to be thinking over the ball that, oh, is the ball going to land now, or now, or now,” he said. “You kind of want to get that out of the way and get ready for your shot.

“I’m sure the player on the tee would maybe communicate with a guy back on 6 tee to make sure he was going. But then that makes it go pretty slow. So we’ll see how that goes.”

Three-time major champion Jordan Spieth, who is looking to complete the career Grand Slam this week, mentioned two other sections of Southern Hills that could create chaos – the tee shot on the par-5 13th goes directly over the green of the par-4 12th, and the tee box of the par-4 fourth is within a chip shot of the tee box on the second hole.

“Major championship’s first two rounds play pretty slow,” said Spieth, who finished runner-up last week in the AT&T Byron Nelson at TPC Craig Ranch outside of Dallas. “I’m assuming the PGA of America will set up the golf course where you have pins more on the front of the green when the tees are back to hit over part of the green just for pace of play purposes.

“Last weekend was remarkably slow. So I don’t think we’ll go any slower than we did last weekend, and so I think it’ll actually feel just fine. I think those boxes were created for us to hit it in the areas that the course was designed to hit it in, and we got two different wind directions. So to have multiple options for tees where we hit it to those areas and play the golf course the way it’s supposed to be played, they need to be there.

“I think there’s a way to do it, and they’ll figure it out.”

Hopefully, not slowly.

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Maria Fassi dinged with two-stroke penalty for slow play at KPMG Women’s PGA: ‘I just don’t think that I deserved it’

After a penalty for slow play, Maria Fassi said she found it difficult to keep her head in the game in the second half of her round.

JOHNS CREEK, Ga. – As Maria Fassi made the turn at the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship, she was informed that she had incurred a two-stroke penalty for slow play. The infraction occurred on the par-5 18th hole (her ninth) at Atlanta Athletic Club’s Highlands Course, and a rules officials approached her shortly before she teed off on the first.

Fassi, who is playing on a sponsor exemption, was so fired up that she cried down the hole. The former NCAA champ said she found it difficult to keep her head in the game after that.

“One of the players in our group was pretty slow,” said Fassi. “I’m not going to be pointing fingers; I did go over time. I guess that’s the penalty.”

Fassi, 23, tried to contest it after the round, but said that a rules official told her that she took 50 seconds on her second shot, which is 20 more than allowed.

Fassi had 180 yards left for her second shot into the closing par 5 and 167 to cover the water.

“The wind should’ve been helping,” she said, “but it didn’t feel like it was helping. I hit my 6-iron 183, my 7-iron 172. We didn’t know what to hit, because they had to be a perfect 7 for it to get there. The six could’ve been too much, and bunker long wasn’t good.

“It was just the perfect in-between number for me with those circumstances.”

Fassi, who shot 77 and is 3 over for the tournament (currently inside the cut line), was in breach of Rule 5.6 while being timed by a member of the Rules Committee.

“Every other LPGA player will tell you, we know who the slow ones are,” said Fassi, “everybody knows it. The rules officials know it, and I’m not one of them. This time around I guess it was me … I just don’t think that I deserved it.”

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LPGA rookie Yealimi Noh hit with $10,000 slow-play fine at Kia Classic: ‘It’s hard to get over’

LPGA rookie Yealimi Noh was hit with a $10,000 slow-play fine from last week’s Kia Classic.

RANCHO MIRAGE, Calif. – Yealimi Noh tied for 61st at the Kia Classic and took home a $4,247 paycheck. But she actually lost money on the week after a $10,000 slow-play fine.

Noh, 19, said a rules official showed up mid-way through the front nine and hung around for nine holes. She received bad times on Nos. 10 and 12.

“I can’t appeal because it’s obviously my fault,” said Noh as she walked to the 1st tee during a practice round at this week’s ANA Inspiration.

Noh received her first pace-of-play fine in her first event as a rookie in 2020, the Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio where she tied for 35th.

“A couple rookies got fines,” said Noh. “Like OK, it’s a heads-up for us rookies to catch up or whatever.”

Because Noh received a pace-of-play fine in 2020, the fine doubled for 2021. If she has a clean slate in 2022, it will revert back to the original price of $2,500. (Because COVID-19 limited the number of events in 2020, the rookies from last year are still considered rookies this year.)

Noh, who is ranked 47th in the world, had a new caddie last week in Carlsbad, California, and said the she was taking extra time on her approach shots on Saturday because she didn’t hit the ball great in the second round. She forgot the official was even there.

It was especially difficult for the teenager to explain the lost wages to mom and dad.

“As much as I think about it’s a good learning experience,” said Noh, “obviously now I’m never going to do that again hopefully, which is good. It’s hard to get over; that’s a lot of money.”

The LPGA also handed out its first two-stroke penalty of 2020 to Robynn Ree for being out of position at least week’s Kia Classic. Ree missed the cut.

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PGA Tour to implement revised pace-of-play policy in 2021

The PGA Tour will take a step in combating slow play when its revised pace-of-play policy is enacted in January 2021.

The PGA Tour will implement its revised pace-of-play policy in January at the 2021 Sentry Tournament of Champions, according to a report by Golf Channel.

The Tour informed players Friday of the decision previously scheduled to be enacted at the RBC Heritage in April. The plan was derailed by the coronavirus pandemic and the Tour’s resulting 13-week hiatus.

The revised pace-of-play policy revealed in January will punish individual offenders rather than groups out of position as well as create a private observation list and penalties for “excessive shot times.”

The observation list of habitually slow players will include players who take longer than an average of 45 seconds to hit a shot over a 10-tournament period. The 10-tournament period is a rolling window to allow players the opportunity to improve their pace-of-play throughout the season. Players on the secret list will be monitored during rounds and given a 60-second limit on all shots.

Failure to adhere to the time limit will result in a “bad time,” prompting a warning from officials. A second bad time will result in a one-stroke penalty. Each additional bad time will incur another one-stroke penalty. The timing stops if the player goes two holes without a bad time.

The revised policy also increases fines for repeat offenders and those take longer than 120 seconds to hit a shot, otherwise known as “excessive shot times.”

The observation list is not expected to be made public.

“We’re going to focus on the individual habits of the slowest players and the slowest strokes and move in that direction,” PGA Tour senior vice president and chief of operations Tyler Dennis said in January. “These habits are believed to be a significant part of the overall negative perception that pervades the issue of pace of play.”

When the revised policy was introduced in January, Tour players largely applauded the changes.

“It’s been a problem since I’ve played golf. I’m 42 and all we’ve done is talk about it,” Paul Casey said at the 2020 American Express.

The 2021 Sentry Tournament of Champions will be held Jan. 4-7 at Kapalua Resort in Kapalua, Maui, Hawaii.

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Graeme McDowell gets slow-play warning after conducting live on-course TV interview

Graeme McDowell was approached by a European Tour rules official for being out of position after granting the interview at the fourth hole.

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.

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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PGA Tour’s new pace-of-play policy includes secret ‘observation list’

The PGA Tour will introduce an observation list, which won’t be made public, and penalties for “excessive shot times”.

The PGA Tour is changing its pace-of-play policy, effective at the RBC Heritage during the week of April 13.

The biggest shift is to time and punish individual offenders rather than strictly groups out of position. There also will be an observation list, which won’t be made public, and penalties for “excessive shot times” for players who take more than 120 seconds to hit a shot.

“We’re going to focus on the individual habits of the slowest players and the slowest strokes and move in that direction,” said Tyler Dennis, PGA Tour senior vice president and chief of operations. “These habits are believed to be a significant part of the overall negative perception that pervades the issue of pace of play.”

As a result, it should be more common for players to be penalized for slow play. Competitors will be slapped with a one-shot penalty if they get a second bad time in a tournament rather than the previous policy in which players were only penalized one stroke for a second bad time in a round.

Penalties will be costly

Fines and penalties associated with the policy have also been bumped up accordingly. Players still will receive a warning but those who receive a second bad time will be fined $50,000, and $20,000 for each additional bad time. For those caught having excessive shot times, they’ll be levied a $20,000 fine for the second violation, and $20,000 for each one after that the rest of the season.

Pace of play has been a longstanding problem that Tour officials have blamed on field size, using the analogy that there’s too many cars on the freeway. The subject drew increased headlines last season, and led to renewed efforts to make improvements.

The observation list

Players will be placed on the observation list if they average more than 45 seconds per shot. Each player’s historical ShotLink stroke data will be used over a 10-tournament rolling period to identify the slowest players on Tour. According to the data collected for the past 12 years, the slowest 10% of players take an average of 63 seconds for shots around the green, which is more than 25 seconds longer than that of their fastest 10% counterparts.

If a player finds himself on the observation list, he will be monitored during rounds and subject to a 60-second timing limit for all shots in absence of a valid reason, even when his group is in position. If this time is exceeded, the player will be timed individually even if his group is in position. All timing of strokes will be done by the Rules Official on-course and in-person. The observation list will be updated on a weekly basis. Players will be notified in writing or in person by a Rules Official that they are on the list prior to the start of competition.

60 seconds or less

“In looking at 60 seconds it was a sort of appropriate break off in the data and simple number to understand and we felt that metric as someone who was potentially being slow was a fair and reasonable way to value all the shots,” Dennis said.

A player will receive a warning for his first bad time. On the second, he will receive a one-stroke penalty. For each additional bad time, another one-stroke penalty will be given. The timing only stops if the player goes two holes without a bad time.

If any player in the field is observed by a Rules Official to take more than 120 seconds on a shot in the absence of a good reason for doing so, he will be given an Excessive Shot Time. Any player who receives two excessive shot times in a single tournament will also be placed on the observation list.

‘Without undue delay’

The Rules of Golf addresses pace of play, saying a player “must play without undue delay.” The Tour has adopted its own guidelines, implementing a pace-of-play policy in 1994, and have made nine significant sets of changes, the most recent being at the start of 2017-18. However, penalty strokes rarely have been dished out, with Glen Day being the last Tour pro to be penalized for slow play at the 1995 Honda Classic. Miguel Angel Carballo and Brian Campbell were penalized at the 2017 Zurich Classic of New Orleans, a team event.

The amount of time a player is permitted to hit a shot in groups will remain at 40 seconds, plus an additional 10 seconds for “first to play” situations. Any player who receives a bad time – regardless of whether they are on the Observation List or not – will receive a warning, followed by a one-stroke penalty for each additional bad time.

The Tour’s new policy isn’t designed to create a material change in the amount of time it takes to play a round, which on average takes 4 hours, 46 minutes (3 hours, 52 minutes in twosomes).

The new policy was voted on by the PGA Tour Players Advisory Council at a meeting in the fall at the Houston Open and the Policy Board enacted the changes during a November board meeting at PGA Tour headquarters.

The European Tour instituted its own new policy for this season. It goes into effect this week at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship.

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