At the USGA's marquee championships (US Open, Women's Open, Senior Open, Amateur and Women's Amateur), the courses are usually so difficult, the allotted time allowed to play is simply not enough. I read recently that at US Open Local Qualifying at Sawgrass CC an allotted time was established by the FSGA and when players were slower than these allotted times through certain holes and the group in front was off the hole in question, they were automatically penalized. If the allotted time was determined by a Committee that was inexperienced with how such a time should be determined (taking into account course difficulty, set up, weather, walks between holes, etc.,) then penalties would be unreasonable. Last summer's US Amateur at Chambers Bay during stroke play was a nightmare because of just these same reasons. While it is crucial that play be maintained at a reasonable pace, and there are a lot of slow players, it is only the last course of action to penalize. The PGA Tour does a great job with its pace of play and rounds with a course full of players in groups of threes does usually take between 4:20 and 5:00. The typical weekend round when play is in groups of two players usually betters 4:00. The Masters, US Open and PGA Championship cannot boast of these times as the course difficulty is so much, it simply cannot be done by even the world's best players. So what I'm saying is simply that my experience at most USGA championships is that course difficulty promotes slow play. Has anyone ever played in a US Open so that he has experienced, in competition, the narrowness of the fairways, the severity of the rough and the firmness and speed of the putting greens? I played in two US Junior Amateurs and both courses were far more difficult than anything I'd ever played at ages 16 and 17. I'd say the same for the US Amateurs, US Opens and Senior Opens I played or set up the courses. The kid, unless unreasonably slow, should have been given a break and allowed to score an ace on his score card.