After Charley Hull’s ruthless idea to solve slow play, two of the LPGA’s most influential players are fully backing the unfiltered English one.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday at The Annika, where she finished in second place, three shots behind winner Nelly Korda, Hull offered her solution to solving the tour’s game-pace problems.
“I’m quite ruthless, but I said, ‘Listen, if you get three bad timings, it’s a two-shot penalty every time,’” said Hull, whose last duo alongside Korda finished in the dark on Saturday and lasted a total of five hours .38 minutes, and extension of the broadcast period by 51 minutes, according to Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols.
“If you have three [penalties]”, Hull added, “you lose your Tour card immediately. I’m sure this would help a lot of people and they wouldn’t want to lose their Tour card. That would kill the slow game, but they would never do that.”
Korda and Lexi Thompson, two of the faster players on tour, were asked Tuesday about slow play, specifically Hull’s comments, ahead of the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship in Naples, Florida.
“It was a bit of an aggressive comment from her,” Thompson said. “I don’t disagree. It must be done. Something needs to be done to speed up the game there, whether it’s penalties or whatever. That has to happen because we have to play faster.”
Korda added: “Funny, yes.”
Korda criticized Saturday’s overnight finish at Pelican Golf Club, calling it “poor planning.” On Tuesday, she laid out her slow-play thoughts.
“Personally, I think it’s a pretty big deal,” Korda said. “I don’t think it’s good for the fans who come to watch us. If it were me personally, I would be very annoyed if I watched five hours, more than five hours, five hours and forty minutes, almost six. I just think this really brings the game down. I think it really, really needs to change.”
Thompson said the maximum time spent on threesomes should be four and a half hours.
“Look, if you’re going to make a good shot or a bad shot, you might as well not spend that much time on it,” Thompson said. “It’s just a game. Just do your routine, commit and go for it.
According to Golfweek, the LPGA issued at least two slow-play fines last week, one each on Carlota Ciganda, who is notoriously deliberate, and Kaitlyn Papp Budde. Ciganda’s fine was $4,000, though she also did enough at The Annika to finish at No. 60, earning her the last spot in this week’s $11 million season finale, where the winner takes home $4 million.
“I know I have to improve and I will try to do that next year,” Ciganda told Golfweek. “I don’t think people understand how tough golf can be…mentally it’s a lot tougher than what people think. Golfers just drink a beer and play some golf, and we do this for a living. A lot goes through your mind.”
Korda is in the camp and believes that fines are not enough.
“Players just need to be punished,” Korda said. “Regulations officials have to watch from the first group. Once they get two minutes behind, one minute behind, everything just slows down. To stand over a putt for two or three minutes, that’s ridiculous. If there is a group in front of me on the green and I am standing on the fairway, I am already getting ready. I’m preparing my numbers, I’m talking about the shot, so by the time it’s my turn, I already have my game plan. I’m hitting right behind the person who just hit in front of me. I think people analyze too much, and I think people just need to get done faster. People start their process a little too late and dwell on it for too long.
“Again, I think we need more people on site to monitor the pace of play. I don’t think we have enough people to monitor it.”
