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?
Well, first it’s worth pointing out that ‘amateur’ is a very broad term, covering all levels of non-professional golf from The Amateur Championship right down to the monthly medal at the most humble of provincial golf clubs. The Amateur Championship and other top amateur events will have a pace-of-play policy, often closely aligned to the professional tours’ policies as can be seen here: https://assets.randa.org/c42c7bf4-dca7-00ea-4f2e-373223f80f76/3b886730-ff2d-4d37-94a2-1a6b222b596c/Pace%20of%20Play%20Policy.pdf
But at club level, it’s a different story, primarily because generally there is no-one there to police such things. The Rules regarding prompt pace of play are generally recommendations rather than set rules and are designed to allow flexibility to committees in charge of a competition to manage pace of play in an appropriate fashion, depending on the resources available. A great deal of guidance and suggestions are available within the Committee Procedures section 5H of the Official Guide to the Rules of Golf.
Slow play has been a hot topic of conversation on tour and at club level for many years
(Image credit: Getty Images)
If you are going to class ‘unreasonably delaying play’ as slow play, either on a hole or…
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