[Dan King]

Advertiser reporting four women have been penalized for playing slow in Australia

Now if only other tours would start enforcing rules rather than ignoring them.

Also sort of strange story about Ai Miyazato being penalized two shots despite getting rules officials involved.

Why wouldn't the rules officials have her use Rule 3-3, so at the end she would only have been penalized one shot? I'm guessing since nobody knew if she moved the ball, nobody knew where to replace the ball. But they could have had her play a second ball from the same spot, having replaced the ball close as possible (in this case the exact same spot) and then wait for the TV ruling.

Dan King

Something very drastic ought to have been done years and years ago. Golf courses are becoming far to long. Twenty years ago we played three rounds of golf a day and considered we had taken an interminably long time if we took more than two hours to play a round. Today it's not infrequently takes over three hours.
 --Alister MacKenzie

[JohnV]

Dan, I always am guessing when I read reports in the paper as they rarely get all the facts correct, but since the report said that she was told she should "record a par and play on", I can only assume she had already played from the wrong place before asking for the ruling.  In that case, it was already too late to correct it so the two shot penalty was correct.

[JohnV]

The various Ladies' tours are much better at penalizing slow play than the men's tours.  The LPGA gives out penalties regularly.  The Futures Tour did when I was working on it and still does I believe.

The PGA Tour silently hands out minimal fines which will never solve the problem.

[Kyle Harris]

The various Ladies' tours are much better at penalizing slow play than the men's tours.  The LPGA gives out penalties regularly.  The Futures Tour did when I was working on it and still does I believe.

The PGA Tour silently hands out minimal fines which will never solve the problem.

Am I the only one who finds the ethic behind this frighteningly disturbing?

In golf, there is one person who can ultimately assess a penalty: the golfer. It's ALWAYS been that way.

When outside bodies can assess penalties for arbitrary things like this, that to me is destroying the very root of golf.

Is slow play a problem? Yes... but since when is speed one of the tests of golf, the game? It's in etiquette, which is seperate from the rules for a reason.

I can't assess my playing partner a two-stroke penalty for being an ass, why should I if he can't play as quickly as me?

What's next? The ranger at the local muni driving around assessing two stroke penalties.

Penalizing the golfer's performance is not the way to stem slow play. It's much deeper than that.

[Brent Hutto]

Kyle,

Think of it as a way of protecting the field.

Imagine there are 150 golfers in a 72-hole stroke play event and there is no mechanism for enforcing pace of play. Now imagine one individual who thinks that properly indulging all of his quirks, routines, habits and idiosyncracies takes a good seven hours. Every one of those 150 golfers would be forced to put up with that seven-hour pace of play, even if it meant not finishing before dark and even if for some players it keeps them from performing at their very best.

It's no different than disqualifying a golfer for being five minutes late for his tee-off time. After all, according to your argument the golfer ought to be on his honor to show up on time and not hold up everyone after him in the field.

[Kyle Harris]

Kyle,

Think of it as a way of protecting the field.

Imagine there are 150 golfers in a 72-hole stroke play event and there is no mechanism for enforcing pace of play. Now imagine one individual who thinks that properly indulging all of his quirks, routines, habits and idiosyncracies takes a good seven hours. Every one of those 150 golfers would be forced to put up with that seven-hour pace of play, even if it meant not finishing before dark and even if for some players it keeps them from performing at their very best.

It's no different than disqualifying a golfer for being five minutes late for his tee-off time. After all, according to your argument the golfer ought to be on his honor to show up on time and not hold up everyone after him in the field.

Brent,

Of course I can accept the protecting the field bit. However, there is this attitude that this is the be all end all of the pace of play problem and it's certainly not.

When did these penalties start creeping into tournaments? (I really don't know...)

What's the difference between a player playing ridiculously slow and a player "shotgunning" his playing partners off the tee? Both can be done to throw people off their games, and in fact shotgunning can have way more affect on a fragile psyche than a ponderous round.

It'd be much quicker for the player to walk to the tee immediately after holing out, but for the sake of courtesy we don't do that. If someone started, should they be penalized as well for playing too fast?

You're right, according to my argument golfers SHOULD be on their honor to arrive to the tee on time and also play with undue delay.

However, being five minutes late for a tee time is a bit more objective than a penalty for slow play. Tee times and the first tee are watched the same for every golfer in the field. We're able to measure whether or not a player is late for his tee time. At what point does a shot become "too much?"

Also, at what point does a routine become "overly idiosyncratic?"

This form of penalty is WAY too arbitrary to leave a good taste in my mouth.

[redanman]

Apropos only the player assessing the penalties:

The most thoughtful players would just withdraw when they start to play too slowly or better yet, never enter in the first place.

[JohnV]

Kyle Harris wrote:

Is slow play a problem? Yes... but since when is speed one of the tests of golf, the game? It's in etiquette, which is seperate from the rules for a reason.

Kyle, please read rule 6-7.

Undue Delay was moved from etiquette to the rules in 1950 by the R&A.  The penalty then was disqualification.  If it still was, players might play a little faster.

[Dan King]

Kyle Harris writes:
Am I the only one who finds the ethic behind this frighteningly disturbing?

I certainly hope so.

In golf, there is one person who can ultimately assess a penalty: the golfer. It's ALWAYS been that way.

Huh? Committees have been involved in tournament play for a long time. And one of their jobs is to resolve disputes and hand out penalties. If you are out playing by yourself, only you can assess a penalty. If you are in a tournament, you have to abide by the rules of the tournament or be penalized.

When outside bodies can assess penalties for arbitrary things like this, that to me is destroying the very root of golf.

We have seen what happens when golfers are left to their own devices to decide their speed of play. It is called the PGA Tour. If you "shotgun" your opponent on the first tee, that ends up between you and your opponent. If you play at a 5 hour pace, you effect the entire field behind you. The tournament can not proceed around you.

And with the PGA Tour the effect is even worse. Golfers emulate the crap they see on TV. Then I'm stuck behind Joe Bob Pro-Wannabe as he constantly touches his golf ball, lines up shots from every angle, takes countless practice swings and refuses to start his pre-shot routine until he knows the exact yardage.

If it was up to me, they wouldn't be fined or penalized. First time they would be tasered and DQed, second time I'd just shoot 'em.

What's next? The ranger at the local muni driving around assessing two stroke penalties.

No, they should taser their ass and drag them off the course.

Penalizing the golfer's performance is not the way to stem slow play. It's much deeper than that.

If the PGA Tour were to stop all these things that waste time and show no consideration for faster golfers, then the groups at the munis would also stop wasting so much time. If the PGA Tour would return to playing a round of golf in three hours, we'd have a chance of the rest of us getting around in three hours.

Dan King

There is not the slightest doubt in my own mind that golf as played in the United States is the slowest in the world.
 --Henry Longhurst

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