This week the European Tour is in Austria near Vienna at the Diamond CC playing a new innovation called the Shot Clock Masters where a shot clock is put on the players for every shot in an attempt to speed up play, and the news with round 3 well underway.... it's working !
Here's the deal:
The players have a 50-second allowance for a first to play approach shot (including a par three tee-shot), chip or putt and a 40-second allowance for a tee-shot on a par four or par five, or second or third to play approach shot, chip or putt.
Failure to make your shot in the allotted time leads to a one-shot penalty on the hole in question but players are allowed two 40-second time-extensions in any one round.
After 2 rounds there were 79 time extensions requested.
So far the fastest round has been 3 hours 47 minutes, more than an hour faster than normal, there have only been 2 violations, and better still, scoring is lower on this course than it has ever been when the tournament was played without the shot clock.
The first violation was by an Austrian player and here was the official tweet from the European Tour. "Clemens Prader took 54 seconds over a putt on the 6th, 4 seconds above the allotted time. He receives a one-shot penalty for that hole.
The shot clock has been accepted by everyone I've heard interviewed so far, and it is the Finn, Mikko Korhonen, looking for his first win who has extended his lead to 5 shots at -13, as he plays his last few holes.
Bryan Angus
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