Euro Tour's New Plan to Combat Slow Play

[nevets88]

Exec summary, Regulation, Education, Innovation, Limited Field Size

This is the first one:

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» When players are out of position and either being monitored or timed, a one-shot penalty will be incurred after two bad times – currently a player would be ‘monitored’ and if he breaches the time allowance (50 seconds for first to play, 40 seconds for second or third to play) he will then be ‘officially timed’ and would then have to breach twice more before being given a one shot penalty. Players will, however, have the option to request one time extension per round, giving an additional 40 seconds to hit a shot on this request.
Read more at http://www.europeantour.com/europeantour/news/newsid=374910.html#YAk42UDxKGvpABJB.99

European Tour announces four-point plan to tackle slow play

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The European Tour today announces a concrete four-point plan aimed at tackling the issue of slow play in professional golf.

Slow play in golf: European Tour takes tough stance with rule changes

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The European Tour is set to get tough on slow play after announcing a four-point plan to speed players up beginning next season. It follows consultation between rules officials and the 15-man tourn…

 

[colin007]

Too many chances given. If you get put on the clock and then take more than the allotted 40 seconds, it should be an immediate penalty.

[DeadMan]

Looks good on the surface, but I think @colin007 has a point. How many times would a player have been actually penalized this year under this policy. It looks like it has more teeth, but it still seems pretty difficult to actually get a penalty for slow play.

The one thing I'm not a huge fan of is this:

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Field sizes at fully sanctioned events will be reduced from 156 to a minimum of 144 so long as all entered players in Category 18 (the final 111-125 on the previous season’s Race to Dubai) and above make it into the event. This will create space for referees to push groups over the Thursday and Friday rounds.

That's not good news for up and coming golfers. Not a huge fan of reducing field sizes, which generally just routes more money to the top of the leaderboard.

Unrelated, sort of, to the pace of play policy is this:

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As part of retaining their membership, every member will be required to pass an interactive online rules test with this being implemented for existing members towards the end of the 2019 season and all new members early in the 2020 season. This will be repeated every three years for existing members.

It would definitely help pace of play if players didn't feel the need to call in a rules official for every ruling. But also, it will be good to make the players actually learn the rules.

Edited August 19, 2019 by DeadMan

[iacas]

1 hour ago, colin007 said:

Too many chances given. If you get put on the clock and then take more than the allotted 40 seconds, it should be an immediate penalty.

Agree. Being out of position is all the warning they should need.

[ChrisP]

1 hour ago, colin007 said:

Too many chances given. If you get put on the clock and then take more than the allotted 40 seconds, it should be an immediate penalty.

Exactly. It’s like a teacher who keeps telling a student if they don’t put their phone away, they’re going to take it away, but never actually take it away. They just keep warning them. If you don’t actually enforce the consequences, they’ll keep breaching the rules.

Edited August 19, 2019 by ChrisP

[jamo]

I'm fine with it as long as they monitor it and potentially adjust it down the line if it's not doing the job. 

[RussUK]

Saw this this morning on Sky Sports News and was thinking what happens if the player fails the online rules test?

Do they miss the next tournament, do they have a timescale to retake or if they fail "x" amount of times do they lose their card?

I think its a good idea on the whole and pretty brave of the Euro Tour. Be good to see how it pans out.