After a slate of high-profile slow-play incidents in professional golf this year, momentum (colored with a healthy dose of desperation) built for something real to be done to address the significant pace-of-play issues on the highest levels of golf. This week, the European Tour intends to do just that at its flagship BMW PGA Championship event.
In August, the European Tour announced a four-point action plan to tackle slow play at its tournaments. Among the changes are new regulations and penalties, including a penalty stroke for two breaches of the slow-play rules, when previously it required three offenses.
Tour officials coupled that with a change in the time allotted for players to hit while in position, which “will be reduced by 15%, from 100 and 80 seconds down to 85 and 70 seconds, respectively, for first and second/third to play.”
But it’s the third part of the plan, which is dubbed “Innovation,” that will be introduced this week. At the heart of the “Innovation” plan is a “trial Pace-of-Play system” that debuts Thursday at Wentworth.
The system works by monitoring everyone on the course by way of a tracking device that will be attached to one golf bag in each group. The tracking devices “will provide referees with the times for every group through every hole to make sure that no gaps are missed.”
