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Can Amateurs Be Penalised For Slow Play?

Carlota Ciganda 2023 Evian Championship

Slow play has long been a hot topic of conversation both on tour and at club level, with many column inches devoted to the causes and possible solutions.

On tour, penalties (and fines) can be imposed for breaches of tour slow play directives and policies, but for many observers, they are imposed too infrequently to make much difference. Richard Bland was penalised and fined during LIV Golf’s Chicago event in September 2024 for a breach of that tour’s pace-of-play policy, which states that “a player has 40 seconds to play each stroke, with an additional ten seconds if they are the first to play any stroke in the group”. In addition to a one-stroke penalty for a bad time, Bland was also fined $10,000 by LIV Golf.

And in last year’s Evian Championship, Carlota Ciganda refused to add a two-stroke penalty to her scorecard in the second round for a bad time under the LPGA Tour’s pace-of-play policy and was disqualified for signing for a score lower than that actually taken on the 9th (her final hole) under Rule 3.3b(3).

Carlota Ciganda was disqualified from the 2023 Evian Championship for refusing to accept a slow play penalty

(Image credit: Getty Images)

But what about amateurs – can they be penalised for slow play?

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