Hi all.
In the recent Farmers Insurance Open, once again focus was on slow play.
According to The Golf Channel some rounds took almost six hours. Attention was brought to J. B. Holmes who spend more than four minutes (to be exact: 4 minutes and 10 seconds according to Frank Nobilo from the The Golf Channel) on his second stroke (par-5-hole – he was lying in -8 – and needed an eagle to tie the clubhouse leader Jason Day in -10).
You can see it in this video from The Golf Channel:
J. B. Holmes’ slow play drawed some criticism on Twitter according to this article from The Golf Channel, also from other professional players:
Anytime today JB…♂️
— Luke Donald (@LukeDonald) January 28, 2018
1. JB needs to be fined or better yet given 2 shots
2 Needs eagle to tie. After all that lays up? Really???
3 Horrendous sportsmanship to Noren and Palmer
4 wow— Mark Calcavecchia (@MarkCalc) January 28, 2018
Holmes did not consider it a problem: In the video above he stated, that he at the time was trying to win the tournament – and that he was in doubt because the stroke was between clubs – and that this was a part of the game.
Luke Donald wrote on Twitter that not only the player should change his behavior, but also that the tour officials should step in sooner – and Ken Duke had the same opinion:
Last group was over a hole behind, we can all blame JB…and yes the player should take responsibility for their pace of play, but if they don’t that’s why we have Tour officials – they needed to step in a while ago IMO.
— Luke Donald (@LukeDonald) January 28, 2018
I guess rules only apply for some players. That was ridiculous how long it took him to play that shot. The rules officials need to change your policy on slow play and be more active on slow players and you won’t have these 5 1/2 six hour round. @PGATOURmedia @GolfChannel #fines
— Ken Duke (@DukePGA) January 29, 2018
It is probably not the last time focus is on slow play..:-)
/Brian