DP World Tour star tears into slow play rules: ‘The system’s broken and punishes the wrong people’
Last updated:
TG columnist Andrew ‘Beef’ Johnston explains why the authorities need to use a bit of common sense when it comes to dishing out slow play punishments.
I see the topic of slow play is in the news again.
They were racking up six-hour rounds at the Farmers Insurance Open, which led to Dottie Pepper calling it a “respect” issue – not only for fellow players, but for broadcasters, for fans, for everyone.
In response, Rory McIlroy came out and said we need smaller fields. And the PGA Tour are now saying they’re going to allow rangefinders. I’ll come back to that.
My view is that the system they have in place is broken.
The slow players know how to work it, so they go slow, slow, slow, while the whole field behind them loses ground. Then, when they get told they’re being monitored, suddenly they turn into Usain Bolt!
A ripple effect occurs further back so the players behind them start losing ground – and they’re the ones being watched and put on the clock.
If you’re a quick player but you’ve had to adopt a slower rhythm to suit the rest of your group or the general pace of play, it can be so difficult to get back up to speed.
I had a situation in India a couple of years ago where, because we’d lost ground on a tough golf course, we were being monitored. I found myself in a fairway bunker with a tree overhanging it, and I realized I had too much loft in my hand. I swapped my 9-iron for an 8 and chipped out. Then the referee came bowling over to me to tell me I’d got a bad time.
After my round I asked to see my other times. Twenty seconds, 19 seconds, 24, 19, 18 – all literally half the times we’re allowed to play at. I’m not a slow player and yet I was the one being penalized for playing slowly.
There just seems to be no common sense when it comes to the slow play rules.
I don’t believe a rangefinder is going to be the solution. If you’ve hit it miles offline and you’ve got to chip it back into the fairway, and for whatever reason you can’t get a laser on it, your caddie is still going to have to run down there and get you a distance. That won’t change.
As for smaller fields, I mean, how many more do they want? They’ve already got these new elevated events on the PGA Tour.
I see that the LPGA have come out with a new strategy where players who are one-to-five seconds over an allowed time will get a fine, then for six to 15 seconds it’s a one-shot penalty, and 16+ seconds is a two-shot penalty. That sounds a bit severe – and I feel a bit sorry for the LPGA players because they’re being used as guinea pigs in all of this – but at least their tour is starting to take slow play seriously.
Personally, I would try and find a middle ground. I know there are some players who are racking up £20,000 fines on the DP World Tour, just for being a couple of seconds over their time. That’s just brutal, so I would get rid of that one for starters.
But I do believe we need to start penalizing players from the off – or at the very least find a way to put them on the clock without telling them they’re on the clock, because a warning just encourages them to abuse the system. We need to hit them with penalty shots straight away.
The most important thing is that common sense prevails.
Golf is hard, as you might have heard me say before. Sometimes you’ll end up in the deep rough and need time to find your ball. Or there might be a situation where you need to wait for a rules official to get to your group. I’ve waited five or six minutes before to get a ruling – and then you’re left having to make that time up.
And sometimes you just need an extra few seconds because you might be in the rough and it looks like it’s going to be a flyer, and there’s water in front of the green, and you just can’t rush the shot because suddenly your wedge is going to go 15 yards further. And if I hit the water, I’ve got to go and get my line, take my drop, and hit another shot – so that’s taking up more time anyway.
The DP World Tour does have a process in place where you can ask for a 40-second extension if you need it, but you’re only allowed to use that once per round. So it’s about finding that balance, and it can be really difficult to deem what is and isn’t fair.
But for the players openly playing way too slow, those who are clearly gaming the system, something needs to happen. Because, as it stands now, by the time they get a warning and pick their pace up, it’s far too late for it to make any kind of difference.
Grab a copy of Andrew 'Beef' Johnston's book, Golf is Hard, today!
-
Rory McIlroy would solve golf's slow play problem with smaller fields.
-
Andrew 'Beef' Johnston's book, Golf is Hard
