A rogue’s gallery, a hall of infamy? Call it what you like, there appears to be a desire to have golf’s slow coaches publicly outed. “There is maybe a fear to publish,” suggested Martin Slumbers, the chief executive of the Royal & Ancient, during day two of the ‘Time for Golf’ forum on pace of play at St Andrews. Funnily enough, those are the same words the sports editor mutters when poring over this scribe’s copy.
While the names of golfers who have racked up so-called ‘bad times’ on the European Tour are pinned up in the tournament office at each event, they are not made readily available to all and sundry. Over two enlightening days, in which a host of slow play related solutions have been kicked about, flung in, tossed out and hurled back in again, Slumbers expressed an enthusiasm for a bit of naming and shaming. Even at club level, the names of those who creep along with all the gusto of coastal erosion could be stuck up on the noticeboard. At the top level, meanwhile, the European Tour and the Ladies European Tour are making strides in their efforts to educate players and eradicate slow play.
Officials on the European men's circuit have dished out 24 penalty shots on the tour since 1998, which doesn’t appear to be that many. In comparison with PGA Tour events in the US, though, it's sizeable. There hasn’t been one player penalised in a regular event there since 1995.
There is a general belief that it is only the rank and file players who are targeted by referees but Kevin Feeney, a tournament director with the European Tour, insisted that was not the case. “At the Open this year, for example, I moved in on a group with Jordan Spieth and Sergio Garcia,” said Feeney. “Sergio made an effort to speed up and I thanked him but Jordan, who is usually pretty quick, didn’t and I said ‘you’re on the clock’. We are targeting individuals.”
Feeney revealed that the number of bad times on the European Tour this year was 51 compared to 65 in 2014 and 67 in 2013. “The message is getting across but it’s taken a Herculean effort,” added Feeney.
Those efforts are not helped by players who routinely play slow, speed up when the referee arrives and then revert to a funereal pace when the official departs. “Extreme selfishness,” is how the respected coach, Denis Pugh, put it. Stephen Gallacher, the Scottish touring pro, was more damning. “It’s a form of cheating,” he declared.
With a welter of ideas and innovations to mull over, the R&A will cobble them together and publish a ‘Pace of Play’ manual of recommendations in the spring. Whether it’s reducing the time allowed to look for a ball from five minutes to three or allowing players to keep the flag in while putting, to rewarding recreational golfers who up the pace with a free pint and a sandwich in the clubhouse, the campaign to get the game moving seems to be gathering pace.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here