lpga tour
At the LPGA finale, top players continue to be fed up with slow play on tour: ‘It’s ridiculous’
World No. 1 Nelly Korda and Charley Hull have been among the most vocal critics of slow play on the LPGA.
Cliff Hawkins
NAPLES, Fla. — Slow play rears its ugly head several times during a year on the respective professional tours. Such was the case last week when it took Nelly Korda’s group five hours, 38 minutes to finish their third round Saturday at the LPGA’s Annika event at Pelican Golf Club in Belleair, Fla.
That twosome hardly finished before dark with Golf Channel having to extend way past its allotted window. Fifty-one minutes to be exact. The next day Korda put the finishing touches on her seventh victory of the season and 15th total on the LPGA.
The situation left Charley Hull, one of the faster players on the tour, to have a funny, yet useful, suggestion on how to manage the issue. Hull tied for second place, three shots behind Korda.
“It’s crazy,” Hull said Sunday at Pelican. “I’m quite ruthless, but I said, ‘Listen, like, if you get three bad timings, every time it’s a two-shot penalty. If you have three of them, you lose your tour card instantly. Go back to Q School.' Because I’m sure that would hurry a lot of people up and they won’t want to lose their tour card. That’d kind of kill the slow play, but they’d never do that.
“Oh, it’s ridiculous. And I feel sorry for the fans. How slow it is out there. Because we’re out there for … was it five hours and 40 minutes yesterday? We play in a fourball at home on a hard golf course, and we’re around in three-and-a-half hours, four hours. So, it is pretty crazy.”
Tuesday at the CME Group Tour Championship, the last event of the season where the winner will take home a whopping $4 million, top players, including Korda, were asked if they thought slow play was an issue and if so, how would they suggest it be fixed.
While the answers weren’t quite Hull-like, they still show that it’s a point of contention.
“Yeah, hers was a bit of an aggressive comment,” said Lexi Thompson, who is retiring full-time after this week’s event at Tiburon Golf Club. “I don't disagree with it. It has to be done. Something has to be done to quicken up the play out there, whether it's fines or whatever it is. Needs to be done because we need to play quicker. Fans aren't enjoying being out there for five and a half hours in the heat.”
Lexi Thompson will play the last event of a full-time schedule this week in Naples. She announced earlier this year she'll only play select events from here forward.
Icon Sportswire
Korda is looking to top Lorena Ochoa’s record for most money earned in a season this week. The sensation from Mexico earned $4,364,994 in 2007. Korda has earned $4,164,430 this season with a lot of money on the line this week in Naples.
But first, back to slow play.
“Players just need to be penalized,” Korda said. “Rules officials need to watch from the first group. Once they get two minutes behind, one minute behind, it just slows everything down.
“To be standing over a putt for two to three minutes, that's ridiculous. When a group in front of me is on the green and I'm in the fairway, I'm already getting ready. I'm getting my numbers ready, talking about the shot, so by the time it's my turn, I already have my game plan. I'm already—I'm hitting right after the person that just hit in front of me. ... People overanalyze, one, and I think people just need to be ready faster.
“People start their process a little too late and they stand over it too long. Again, I think we need more people on the ground to monitor pace of play. I don't think we have enough people to monitor it.”
There’s one person in this week’s CME field who knows slow play is an issue, but, like Thompson, isn’t going to necessarily have to deal with it going forward. Ally Ewing is one of the several on the LPGA this year who announced that she will be retiring at year’s end.
“Now, next year I'm going to be hopping in a golf cart zipping around in my retirement,” Ewing said. “It's always been a topic of conversation since I've been on tour. I do think with some players it's an issue. You have your fast players, and we all know who those are.
“People are playing for their livelihood so I get it why people take their time. I think there is a line we have to draw.”