Penalty in store for poky players

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/08/2011 (5495 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PLAYERS in this week’s Canadian Amateur at Niakwa and Elmhurst are on notice: Dawdle on the fairways at your peril.

Golf Canada intends to enforce its rules to combat slow play, even though this is the national men’s amateur championship with plenty at stake.

Those who don’t believe it ought to examine the finish of last month’s Canadian Women’s Amateur, played in B.C. On the final day of play, the three women in the final group violated the time rules and were eventually penalized one stroke each.

The penalty cost Ontario’s Jennifer Kirby and American Alex Stewart a place in the playoff for the title. They had to settle for a share of third place, one stroke behind playoff winner Rebecca Lee Bentham.

On the second-to-last day of the event, officials penalized Lee Bentham and two other players for slow play.

“The rules don’t discriminate,” said Brent McLaughlin, Golf Canada’s director of rules, competitions and amateur status. “We have a group pace-of-play policy and it’s exactly the same at every championship we run.

Officials will be setting up checkpoints at Niakwa after the fourth, ninth, 14th and 18th holes. Players will be given the required pace of play for each hole (often referred to as time par), and if they miss any of those timing points and are more than 14 minutes behind the group ahead of them, they get a warning on first violation and put themselves in line for a penalty after the second.

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Total time par for Niakwa is 4 hours 33 minutes. It’s 4 hours 34 minutes for Elmhurst.

Not all players are bothered by the time rule.

“I’ve always been one who’s ready to play when it’s my turn. I’m a true believer that when it’s time for you to play, you have 45 seconds to play and that should be enforced,” said Manitoba Golf Hall of Fame member Todd Fanning, who’s in the Amateur field this week on his home course, Niakwa.

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca