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Charley Hull has slammed into the slow players on the LPGA Tour after enduring a near-six hour round in the ANNIKA Championship.
The 28-year-old English player, competing in the penultimate LPGA event of the 2024 season, spoke with frustration in her post-round press conference about slow play, after finishing tied-second in the tournament.
"It's ridiculous and I feel sorry for the fans how slow it is out there," exclaimed Hull. "We were out there five hours and 40 minutes yesterday. We play in a four-ball at home on a hard golf course and we're round in three and a half, four hours. It's pretty crazy!"
LPGA slow players get put 'on the clock'
The LPGA Tour punishment for slow play is to put the offending group of golfers 'on the clock'. Then, if the problem persists, the individual gets a hefty fine. But Charley Hull believes that it's not harsh enough.
"I'm quite ruthless, but I said, listen, if you get three bad timings, every time it's a two-shot penalty. If you have three of them, you lose your tour card instantly. Go back to Q-School. I'm sure that would hurry a lot of people up and they won't want to lose their tour card. That would kill the slow play, but they would never do that."
It's a global problem in golf, but what's the fix?
Slow play isn't just confined to the women's game, it's a global problem in golf, happening across all of the world's tours. Five-hour-plus rounds have become a real issue, and it is proving almost impossible to combat. Fans are frustrated as tournaments struggle to get finished before the dark. Unfortunately, despite attempts to curb slow play through fines and putting golfers on the clock, these actions rarely have any effect.
Maybe Charley Hull is right?
English (US)