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Francesco Molinari goes on Twitter rant after getting a bad time for playing too slow at WGC-Mexico Championship
Stuart Franklin
Francesco Molinari took issue with a bad time he received during Thursday's first round of the WGC-Mexico Championship. Although Molinari acknowledged that he took too long to play a shot, he felt others around him didn't get the same treatment despite playing slower.
Molinari didn't receive a penalty and shot an even-par 71 to place him in the middle of the pack of the 65-man field after Day 1 at Club de Golf Chapultepec. After his round, he said this about the situation:
The four-time European Tour winner further clarified his position with a series of tweets on Friday morning.
As Molinari explains, a player only incurs a one-shot penalty if he gets two bad times in the same round. But a second bad time at any point during the season means a fine.
Enforcing slow play has been inconsistent and penalties for such have been rare to say the least. The PGA Tour handed out its first slow-play penalty since 1995 at last year's Zurich Classic when Miguel Angel Carballo and Brian Campbell, a pair of alternates playing in the team event were docked a stroke after both received bad times during the first round.
Slow play has continued to be a hot topic on tour with J.B. Holmes, Kevin Na and Patrick Cantlay among those drawing criticism -- but not penalties -- for their pace in recent weeks.