What is The Open pace of play policy?

It’s become one of the biggest talking points in major championship golf. A group starts to lose ground, TV viewers are watching players lingering on fairways, and the chorus starts: why aren’t the officials doing something about it?

What you don’t see is that they are. The Open has a detailed Pace of Play Policy. It allows Rules chiefs to monitor groups, time players, and even issue penalties.

Most of the time, the policy works behind the scenes. It’s only when a player gets a warning, or is penalised, that the policy becomes a big story. So how does it work? Why aren’t referees reaching for their stopwatches at the first sign of a delay?

Let’s look at The Open pace of play policy and how it will work at Royal Birkdale…

What is The Open Pace of Play Policy?

The Open’s Pace of Play Policy is designed to keep the championship moving by encouraging and enforcing prompt play. It allows officials to identify groups that have fallen behind as well as monitoring individual players, who can receive warnings, be timed, and ultimately be hit with shot penalties if they repeatedly fall foul of the policy.

How long do players have to complete a round at The Open?

Every group has a maximum time that is considered necessary to complete their round.

It’s also broken down on a hole-by-hole basis. So players are expected to complete each hole in a certain time and their round in an overall time.

Referees who are in charge of monitoring pace of play are given a chart with those times on it for every group.

It takes into account walking time between holes, whether the hole is a Par 3, 4 or 5, as well as the difficulty of the course. It starts as soon as the group’s tee time begins.

How rigorously is it enforced? The numbers look final when shown on a sheet of paper but, in reality, there are caveats. If one group is behind time, for example, they will force subsequent groups behind time too. Not every one is going to go on the clock.

But this isn’t the only thing officials are looking at. Position on the course is just as important.

What happens once a group is out of position?

Before anyone considers reaching for a stopwatch, a group’s position on the course is key. Are they losing time?

A group is considered to be out of position when the last player to hole out has done so later than maximum allowable time given and the group has failed to maintain the “starting interval with the group ahead of it”.

In simple terms, there are two things to think about: the maximum allowable time and keeping up with the group in front.

Players can be ahead of time but still out of position, for example if they reach an empty par 3 and the group ahead have already teed off on the next hole.

There are exceptions. If a group had a ruling or “some other legitimate delay occurs” and find themselves out of position, “that group is expected to regain its position within a reasonable time”.

And, yes, they can employ Ready Golf to speed things up a bit.

How long do players have to take a shot at The Open?

You’ve seen players line it up, look at it from a billion angles, and then step back and go through it all again. How long can they actually get away with? What is considered an excessive shot time?

The policy says: “If any player is observed by the committee taking more than 120 seconds to play a shot without a valid reason, they will be notified of the excessive shot time”.

That player can then get timed at any point, even if the group isn’t out of position.

What happens when a player gets timed?

Normally, players will get an official warning before a stopwatch comes out. But rules officials don’t have to do that. They can start timing any group or player that’s “fallen significantly behind or is negatively affecting other groups”.

Officials will tell the group, or a specific player, they are being timed. You’ll have heard that expressed as “going on the clock”.

A shot can be timed when it’s a player’s turn to play and they can do so “without interference or distraction”. Checking out the wind, fiddling around in a yardage book, all these things count as time taken for their next stroke.

It’s a little different on the green. Players are allowed to repair damage under Rule 13.1 before the timing of a stroke starts “provided the player is not unreasonably delaying play”.

So looking at the line and considering all the slopes? That all counts towards the time taken for the stroke.

So here is the big question. If a player’s being timed, how long do they get to hit a shot?

They’re allowed a maximum of 40 seconds. They get an extra 10 seconds (50 in total) if they are the first to play on a par-3, or if it’s their second stroke on a par 4 or 5, a third stroke on a par 5, or if they’re on or around the green.

If they’re being timed and exceed the maximum allowable time, they will be “informed as soon as possible”. This is what’s known as a ‘bad time’.

A rules official carries a copy of the Rules of Golf | Source: Getty Images

When can players be penalised?

Getting a bad time can lead to severe consequences. For a start, it isn’t forgotten when a player signs their score at the end of a round.

Bad times are almost like yellow cards during a football tournament. They are carried through the championship.

So a player who picks one up in the first round, for instance, is now at risk. If they receive another, whether in the same round or on a subsequent day, they will get a penalty shot. And on it goes.

The whole structure is carefully sequenced:

• First bad time – a warning
• Second bad time – one-shot penalty
• Third bad time – an additional two-stroke penalty
• Fourth bad time – disqualification

Does the policy actually work?

It’s uncommon, but players have been sanctioned. In 2013, Hideki Matsuyama was penalised a stroke during the third round at Muirfield, while in 2004 at Royal Troon, Andrew Willey picked up the same sanction on his way to missing the cut.

For some, the fact there have been so few penalties dished out is one of the reasons why slow play remains a controversial issue. Are pace of play policies enforced as stringently as they could be?

Matt Fitzpatrick is a regular critic of slow play, while Brooks Koepka has described the pace of play during majors as “brutally slow“. Rory McIlroy has also expressed frustrations at the time it can take to play a round of golf.

But the approach of The R&A also has its detractors. At Royal Portrush in 2025, Bryson DeChambeau and Henrik Stenson criticised officials after they were spoken to in separate incidents during the third round and warned over timings.

How will Royal Birkdale affect pace of play?

Every Open venue has its own pace-of-play challenges and Royal Birkdale will be no exception. There is more uncertainty this year, with players returning to a venue that has undergone significant changes since it last hosted the championship in 2017.

It is a favourite of many Open competitors because it’s considered a fair venue but, even so, expect thick rough, variable weather – particularly wind – and some tricky recovery shots. Add in the possibility of a drivable hole, the revamped 5th, and all have the potential to slow up pace of play.

Now have your say

What do you make of The Open pace of play policy? Is it tough enough? Would you go further with penalties? Let me know your thoughts by sending me a comment on X.

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