Charley Hull has criticized the "ridiculous" slow play in women's golf, advocating for serial offenders to be removed from the LPGA Tour. Hull finished tied second at Annika Sörenstam's event in Florida, where Nelly Korda secured her seventh win of the year. The tournament was marred by pace of play issues, with Hull and others completing their third round in near darkness on Saturday evening. This problem has been a recurring theme on the LPGA Tour and shows no signs of abating.
Hull, clearly frustrated, said, "It's ridiculous. I feel sorry for the fans how slow it is out there. We were out there for five hours and 40 minutes in round three. We play in a four ball at home on a hard golf course and we're round in three and a half, four hours. It is pretty crazy."
While referees have the authority to penalize players for slow play, such sanctions are rarely enforced at the highest levels of golf, whether in the women's or men's game. Hull, known for her quick pace, suggests that golfers should face removal from the LPGA Tour if they cannot adhere to allotted times. "I'm quite ruthless but [my idea would be] if you get three bad timings, every time it's a two-shot penalty," Hull added. "If you have three of them 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."
In 2023, the LPGA Tour implemented changes to reduce the number of players making weekend cuts, aiming to speed up the final 36 holes of competition. This followed Stacy Lewis's criticism of "dreadfully slow play" at the Scottish Open three years prior. Korda acknowledged the less-than-ideal conditions during the third round at Belleair, stating, "It's kind of hard when you don't really see. I think it was a little bit of poor planning by starting so late for us. Whenever you're sitting on 18 and the sun is already down, I mean, it's never nice."
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