The pros told him they would like to be able to wear shorts during practice and pro-am rounds and he acted, announcing that new policy earlier this week.
They also told him they wanted a fairer way to punish slow play, identifying individuals rather than groups, so he acted working out a new slow play policy that has been heartily endorsed by tour members...but I see a problem with it
Jordan Spieth was the first golfer cited under the Tour’s new slow-play policy when he took more than the time allotted for a putt during the first round of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship on Thursday.
Under the new policy, players have 40 seconds, or 50 if they are playing first to hit a shot once monitored and Spieth was identified after he took too long over a putt.
He was then warned again on the ninth tee that he took too much time on the eighth green so under the new rules if he receives another monitoring penalty he’ll be fined $3,000.
Here's my problem... there are not enough officials to monitor the entire field of 156 players evenly, so the guys in the spotlight like Spieth, McIlroy and Fowler are this week are most likely to have a timing official following them..
Now remember Jordan has been paid a huge appearance fee ($2 million?) by HSBC to play this week because he is not a member of the European Tour so some will argue he was an easy target to set an example with.
Spieth said afterward he was a little annoyed by the ruling, saying that his group was taken off the clock on that particular hole since the group trailing them wasn’t in the fairway yet.
“I understand that, if we are being timed and I take too long I get a bad time and I understand the rule, but it doesn’t make sense when we had caught up and were going off the clock. My thing was not to fight it there and go about finishing my round. But I will be asking. I just don’t want to be worrying about it in future rounds.”
The tour is determined to get players around in under 4.5 hours.
Bryan Angus
