After Charley Hull’s ruthless idea to fix slow play, two of the LPGA’s most influential players are fully backing the unfiltered Englishwoman.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday at The Annika, where she tied for second, three shots back of winner Nelly Korda, Hull offered her solution to fixing the tour’s pace-of-play problems.
“I’m quite ruthless, but I said, ‘Listen, if you get three bad timings, every time it’s a two-shot penalty,” said Hull, whose final pairing alongside Korda on Saturday finished in the dark, totaling 5 hours, 38 minutes, and extending the broadcast window by 51 minutes, according to Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols.
“If you have three of them [penalties],” Hull added, “you lose your Tour card instantly. I’m sure that would hurry a lot of people up and they won’t want to lose their Tour card. That would kill the slow play, but they would never do that.”
Korda and Lexi Thompson, two of the quicker players on tour, were asked about slow play, particularly Hull’s comments, on Tuesday ahead of the season-ending CME Group Tour Championship in Naples, Florida.
“Hers was a bit of an aggressive comment,” Thompson said. “I don’t disagree with it. It has to be done. Something has to be done to quicken up the play out there, whether it’s fines or whatever it is. Needs to be done because we need to play quicker.”
Added Korda: “Funny, yes.”
Korda criticized the nighttime finish on Saturday at Pelican Golf Club, calling it “poor planning.” She expounded on her slow-play thoughts on Tuesday.
“I personally think it’s a pretty big issue,” Korda said. “I think it’s not good for the fans that come out and watch us. If it was me personally, I would be very, very annoyed watching for five hours, over five hours, five hours and 40 minutes, close to six. I just think it really drags the game down. I think that it really, really needs to change.”
Thompson said the maximum time allotted to threesomes should be four and a half hours.
“Look, you’re going to hit a good shot or bad shot, might as well not take that much time over it,” Thompson said. “It’s just a game. Just do your routine, commit, and hit it.”
The LPGA, according to Golfweek, handed out at least two slow-play fines last week, one to 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 No. 60 points, earning the last spot into this week’s $11 million season finale, where the winner will take home $4 million.
“I know I have to improve, and I’ll 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 some beers and play some golf, and we do this for a living. A lot goes through in your mind.”
Korda is in the camp that believes fines aren’t enough.
“Players just need to be penalized,” Korda said. “Rules officials need to watch from the first group. Once they get two minutes behind, one minute behind, it just slows everything down. To be standing over a putt for two to three minutes, that’s ridiculous. When a group in front of me is on the green and I’m in the fairway, I’m already getting ready. I’m getting my numbers ready, talking about the shot, so by the time it’s my turn, I already have my game plan. I’m hitting right after the person that just hit in front of me. I think people overanalyze, one, and I think people just need to be ready faster. People start their process a little too late and they stand over it too long.
“Again, I think we need more people on the ground to monitor pace of play. I don’t think we have enough people to monitor it.”