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Old March 2nd, 2008, 03:30 PM
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Re: New Cut line Policy

Quote:
Originally Posted by QuadrupleEagle View Post
I found the PGA pace of play guidelines in this article:

Guidelines about halfway down

The PGA Tour's pace of play rules allow 40 seconds per stroke for golfers, and its grace period on total time per hole is also longer than the LPGA's.

If a golfer violates the time limits, he receives a warning, but no penalty. Being "put on the clock" tends to make the golfers play a little faster, which begs the question of why they weren't playing faster to begin with.

A second time violation draws a 1-stroke penalty and a $5,000 fine; three violations in the same event, a 2-stroke penalty and a $10,000 fine; four bad times in the same event results in disqualification.

Any player put on the clock 10 times over the course of one PGA Tour season is fined $20,000.

So the PGA just needs to enforce the rules they have. I don't buy the argument the guy makes in the article that a first offence only being a warning is a problem. A single slow stroke does not make a slow round.

If the PGA just enforced this 40 second limit every time, it wouldn't be long and they wouldn't have to enforce it any more because the penalties, if enforced, are quite severe.

And the PGA has a problem with equal enforcement. In last year's masters, amateur John Kelly had a good chance at making the cut going into Amen Corner on Friday. He was playing a little slow, and the officials warned him and then put him on the clock. From the article I read, this put a lot of pressure on him, and he played the rest of the round poorly, missing the cut. It's rare to even hear of the PGA actually putting someone on the clock, and I doubt that they would do it to a player on the leaderboard.

In contrast, the LPGA isn't messing around, giving only 30 seconds a stroke and a 10 second per hole grace period with a 2 stroke penalty and no warnings. I forget the golfer and tournament, but a couple of weeks ago, one golfer was leading on Sunday and got hit with the 2 stroke penalty.

The PGA doesn't need anything new. If they were serious about pace of play, they would enforce the rules. I'm sure JB Holmes would cut that preshot routine down very quickly after losing a few strokes or being DQed.
I think part of the problem is the tour realizes that they need to enforce that rule for everyone. I think they are afraid to enforce this rule. If they only fine the lesser names, they could be a lawsuit. If they fine Tiger or Phil, they could get criticized by the media or Tiger threaten to quit the PGA.
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