PGA Tour Americas
Pro wins tournament after being first to violate new pace-of-play policy
Just two days after being assessed a one-stroke penalty for slow play under the PGA Tour Americas new pace-of-play policy, Hunter Wolcott claimed his first victory at the Diners Club Peru Open.
On Friday, Wolcott violated the new policy, which went into effect in late March, by taking 58 seconds to hit a par putt while being the second to play on the 16th green. The new policy states that players are permitted 40 seconds to play a stroke, with an extra 10 seconds to be allowed for unique situations. Five of those situations, to be exact - 1. The first player to play a stroke on a par-3 hole, 2. The first player to play a second stroke on a par-4 or par-5 hole 2, 3. The first player to play a third stroke on a par-5 hole, 4. The first player to play around the putting green, and 5. The first player to play on the putting green.
By being the second to play, Wolcott fit none of those criteria, meaning he was 18 seconds over the allotted time. Under the previous policy, players needed to have two of these "bad times" to be hit with a one-stroke penalty. Now the one-stroke penalty comes after the first bad time. If there is a second bad time, it's a two-stroke penalty. A third? Disqualification from the tournament.
While that may sound harsh, it clearly had a positive effect. Wolcott did not receive any more slow play penalties over the final two days and he went on to win the tournament by two strokes at 19 under par. Incredibly, he also double-bogeyed his opening hole of the final round, but came home in 31 for a three-under 69 that was enough to close it out.
"I was very angry Friday, very bitter," Wolcott said afterward. "I felt like I was a victim of the moment. And you can let yourself be a victim, or you can overcome it. Man, a lot of prayer, a lot of talks with my fiance, with my mental coach, to move by that and to come out here and be able to just turn the page and just realize there's 36 more holes of golf and to play the best that I can for 36 holes. Doing that and coming out on top, it feels incredible."
The new policy also took effect on the Korn Ferry Tour in mid-April at the LECOM Suncoast Classic, and no players were penalized. Will it eventually make its way to the PGA Tour, too? That is the goal, as the PGA Tour is doing this in response to the Fan Forward Initiative, in which golf fans said that pace of play is one of the most important topics. We've already seen the evidence of that earlier this year at Pebble Beach, where fan favorite Tom Kim became public enemy No. 1 on social media when he took four practice swings and then stood over the ball for 23 seconds before hitting his second shot into the par-5 sixth. Under the new policy, he would have surely been penalized.
Good on Wolcott for overcoming the penalization and, more importantly, picking up the pace afterward.