Eddie Pepperell has revealed the brutal extent of the DP World Tour’s slow-play punishment.
The Englishman, both a fan favourite on the course and online, responded to popular golf-related songwriter Sam Harrop on X (Twitter) who questioned if the DP World Tour had strict slow play rules.
“One player paid over £100k in slow play fines on the DPWT last year. No prisoners out here,” he wrote when Harrop heard TV announcer Frank Nobilo comment on Nicolai Hojgaard’s speed at the Farmers Insurance Open.
The player on the end of the six-figure blow wasn’t named, but former European Ryder Cup player David Howell added juice to Pepperell’s statement with more details.
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“If you are ignorant enough to ignore all the slow play rules you can rack up a two-shot penalty this year on the DP World Tour. We do take slow play seriously,” Howell wrote.
“2 bad times in a week gets you a one-shot penalty, if 1 of those breaches was over 80 seconds for 1st to play or 70 secs if 2nd 2 play which is considered an EST (excessive shot time) then the 2 breaches would mean the player incurs a two-shot penalty. Unlikely but not impossible.”
Howell, now chairman of the European Tour’s Tournament Committee, also revealed that Graeme McDowell incurred a bad time in the first round of the 2020 Saudi International and felt “very uncomfortable” for the next three days.
Ironically, the Northern Irishman won the event.
Former Amateur champion Bradley Neil also joked in the replies that the formerly-named European Tour’s strict policy is “probably why (Jordan) Spieth hasn’t been back since Abu Dhabi.”
Neil was likely referring to Spieth’s appearance at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship in 2016 where he came tied for fifth.
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The golf slow play debate is as old as time and rears its head more than once during the season.
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It re-emerged during last year’s Masters tournament when Patrick Cantlay came under fire for his pace of play in the final round.
In November, the PGA Tour tightened its grip on slow play by introducing Average Stroke Time Infractions. A player’s time will be compared against the field average after an event and if their time is seven seconds or more than the field, this will be an AST infraction.
You can read more about the PGA Tour’s slow-play guidelines here.
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