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LPGA Final Group Fined For Slow Play

Canadan said:
The added variables of golf make it much more challenging, but, I see what you're saying - then again, who is going to be clocking every group, from Thursday to Sunday?
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That's the hard part. Tour stops have marshals at every hole. It could be easy to train volunteers how to run a clock. I think it could be easy enough to find people to do the timing and then simply allow the enforcement of penalties fall to the rules officials that are already there based on information passed on them by the hole marshals and volunteers working there. Maybe that works but maybe it doesn't.

No matter what the solution; players, the tour, and the volunteers/workers for each tournament need to be committed to making it work.
 
Canadan said:
Does it make sense that they should take that long to play?

Even at five hours, that's awful. If I am playing in a twosome and it takes us longer than 4 hours, I am not all that pleased.
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Agreed. I am torn about telling this story from the weekend as my playing partners were very nice and enjoyed their company. With that said I had a 6:24am tee time on Saturday and our round took 4 1/2 hours. I shot a PB but I was annoyed most of the round due to the slow pace and lack of golf etiquette. One of the players was new to the game and the one teaching lacked urgency and the ability for ready golf which is required by the course I was playing. This is a fundamental people issue from the top down and needs to be addressed in some way. Honestly frustrating when the expectation of booking a tee time at the early of time is to be to the course and back home in under 4 hours. That was a 5.5 hour time commitment.

Kind of rambled on but its an issue that is a top down issue that needs more punishment at the top and more controls in the low side to prevent it.
 
It seems pretty common in the men's game for the last group in a major to play a little slower than the rest of the field, and I don't have a problem with that given the stakes. As others have pointed out a men's major would never have coverage kicked.
 
That is a crazy amount of time for a golf round. Like others have said why did it take so long to put people on the clock?
 
Canadan said:
Oh yeah, she said she'll never do it again hahaha

I don't follow the Tour very much, so I couldn't say whether her pace picked up - but that does suck.
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The problem is, what if she figured it out and has picked up her pace of play, and then at some point gets stuck with two other slow golfers like Chun? (LPGA was running threesomes on the weekend, not twosomes). She gets fined/penalized again when she's not the one dragging the group down. That's why they need to figure out who the problem is and address it with that person/people. If a group starts falling behind, there should be an official watching and maybe timing them individually, not just collectively. Figure out who the slowpoke is and make it their problem, don't penalize the rest of the group if they're doing everything they can to keep up.
 
aljaklaw said:
what group was being held up?
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It doesn't matter. They shouldn't be allowed to take 10 minutes to hit an approach shot and 15 minutes to read a putt when the groups in front of them didn't have that luxury.
 
Snowman said:
It doesn't matter. They shouldn't be allowed to take 10 minutes to hit an approach shot and 15 minutes to read a putt when the groups in front of them didn't have that luxury.
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It creates an unfair advantage if the last group is allowed to play slow. I know money is on the line but that is the same for most other sports when it comes down to the end. Suck it up and play fast.
 
Snowman said:
The problem is, what if she figured it out and has picked up her pace of play, and then at some point gets stuck with two other slow golfers like Chun? (LPGA was running threesomes on the weekend, not twosomes). She gets fined/penalized again when she's not the one dragging the group down. That's why they need to figure out who the problem is and address it with that person/people. If a group starts falling behind, there should be an official watching and maybe timing them individually, not just collectively. Figure out who the slowpoke is and make it their problem, don't penalize the rest of the group if they're doing everything they can to keep up.
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I have never understood why it is the group that gets put on the clock if its one person that is the problem. Im guessing if there is a reason its because the Tour would say they don't monitor each individual player and don't know the cause of the delay until they are made aware of it. If anything the faster player is already being penalized by being paired with a super slow player which that alone might have an adverse impact on their game. Its not like a pro can tell another pro to speed up although im sure they wish they could.
 
Wish some of the people in my gym would be fined for slow play, would hate to see some of these selfish goobers on a golf course.
 
Ludin said:
It creates an unfair advantage if the last group is allowed to play slow. I know money is on the line but that is the same for most other sports when it comes down to the end. Suck it up and play fast.
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the other players should have played better if they wanted to be in that position instead of finishing at 2 pm
:alien:
 
aljaklaw said:
the other players should have played better if they wanted to be in that position instead of finishing at 2 pm
:alien:
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I understand the thought process behind that, but what about those in the second to last group who have the same score but due to the rules aren't in the final pairing. Not really fair to them as they played the same as someone else potentially.
 
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In Gee Chun took home $1.3 million for the win. I think that $2,000 fine didn't hurt much 😐
 
They weren’t holding anyone up except the TV networks. I played slow the last time I was trying to win the US Open too.

Just sayin…..
 
rlefig said:
That amount of time is way too long and in the long run hurts the women's game. You lose viewers to slow play and switching channels. Saturday was really slow as well and they had to switch channels then too.
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The PGA is slow as well but they are a bigger draw, more viewers so it doesn’t float along with its high priced sponsors. I call foul on the tour for giving them a penalty if its really for TV coverage. Let the last group play, after all its a major or does a women’s major become less important than mans if tv coverage needs to switch. Sure seems like a hurry to get it over.
 
At least with the LPGA you know when someone gets fined or penalized. The PGA Tour never announces fines or penalties.
That was way to long for a round of golf, but I would bet the slow play didn't start with the final group.

Want to speed up play on both tours? Don't let caddies read greens for their players.
 
Canadan said:
The final group was put on the clock yesterday, and eventually fined 2,000 dollars for slow play.

In total, the round took 5 hours and 45 minutes to complete for the threesome, forcing coverage to get bumped to a different channel.

What are your thoughts?
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There's a reason my tag is "4hourrule". This is why I don't play weekends
 
5:45 for a round of golf is a disgrace, should be a harsher penalty than they got imo.
 
Yikes! Probably should be a bigger fine. Quick...Someone send them the statistics that show playing faster means better scores on average!!
 
I watched that final group and when the coverage started fr hey mentioned slow play, but the announcer mentioned they were caught up (previously a hole or two behind) and now we’re waiting on the group in front of them. While they could have played faster initially, they caught up in the end and were waiting a few times. Chun imo was the culprit and had the other two waiting a lot.
 
I had seen they were fined, but I didn't realize it was that slow of a round. That's crazy to me. What I'd be curious to know is how long the couple of groups in front of them took? were they in that same 5+ hour timeframe too? I'm suprised they let it get that far before doing something. Also wonder if there were other groups that should have been penalized as well.
 
I played a 5 hr 15 minute round last Thursday. The off duty course marshal was directly behind us. We were not the slow group. It was the group two groups in front of us. The group in front of us was damned slow too with their club wishstances. But in fairness, they did end up waiting for (unnamed player) to take 5 minutes to line up a 2' putt every hole and there were two open holes in front of them. The last time this happened to me we were stuck behind (different unnamed group) playing for big money and in a big discussion for 15 minutes on the 18th green before someone finally went back and rehit their approach shot. Meanwhile, my group, looking for balls every hole can finish in 4 hrs 15 mins. But here's the deal. You have a bad hole or two, you fall back. Then when you have good holes, you catch up.

Are you saying that one pro can't tell another pro to pick up the pace?

 
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