tim rosaforte
pressel pays price for slow play
slow play has crept back
into the news the past two
weeks, with kevin na getting nothing worse than a
slow-play warning at the
players championship and
morgan pressel getting
slapped with a loss-of-hole
penalty in her semifinal
match against azahara munoz in the lpga’s sybase
match play championship.
in na’s case it looks as if
he got off light. in pressel’s
case it seems a little harsh
considering she was in the
second of two twosomes on
the course.
less protecting of players.
“i feel like we do give them
a chance to work it out on
their own,” said doug bre-
cht, the lpga’s vice presi-
dent for rules and officials.
“if they can’t do it, we step
in and administer the policy
we’re given.”
tiger woods was propos-
ing last week at the home
of the pga tour. “i think
it’s very simple, if you get a
warning, you get a penalty,”
woods said. “i think that
would speed it up.”
for slow play. by compari-
son, glen day was the last
pga tour player assessed a
stroke penalty for slow play,
17 years ago at the 1995
honda classic.
brendle was the official who
drove up to na at the play-
ers and told the tournament
leader on the 16th hole sat-
urday he had a bad time. na
knew he was being timed
because his group had
fallen one hole behind. “we
have a one-shot penalty
too, but you have to get two
bad times,” brendle said
sunday. “kevin na could
have easily gotten one, if his
group had not gone off the
clock. but they got back in
position. he gets one more
bad time there he gets a
one-shot penalty.”
it didn’t in the case of pres-
sel, who received her slow
play warning on the 10th
tee. on the 12th, she and
munoz—who has a reputa-
tion for being slow—were
put on the clock. pressel
was 39 seconds over her
allotted time for the par 3.
brecht was waiting on the
13th tee with the bad news.
on the pga tour there’s
a sense that tour officials
enforce the rules and poli-
cies with the players best
interests in mind. “we’re
not highway patrolmen hid-
ing behind billboards,” said
pga tour rules official Jon
brendle from the hp byron
nelson. “if they see us out
there, they know they’re on
the clock.”
“it’s not a fun thing to do,”
brecht said sunday night
in a phone call. “but it’s
a rule of golf, and i can’t
ignore a rule of golf. if i do, i
shouldn’t be in the position
i’m in.”
“you know, in seven years
on tour, i’ve never even had
a plus time, and this is prob-
ably the worst time it could
have come.” pressel said af-
ter winning the consolation
match while munoz went
on to beat candie kung in
the final. “i think what both-
ers me most is that we were
given sufficient warning,
and she really didn’t do any-
thing to speed up and then i
was penalized for it.”
on the lpga tour there’s
the difference is that the
lpga doesn’t give a simi-
lar warning. its slow-play
policy is essentially what
for the lpga, this scene
was nothing new. this was
the ninth time since the
beginning of 2008 that a
player has been penalized
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