Jordan Spieth was perplexed to be given a warning for slow play in the opening round of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship on Thursday.
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If you’ve ever watched Jordan Spieth play in a tournament and wondered why he takes so long to putt the ball, you’re not the only one. “If we go in believing that this Ryder Cup is the inaugural event, that this is a clean slate we are ready to go and start a new trend, then we’ll be fine”. Pelley asked the Tour’s referee staff – led by John Paramor – to come up with new ways to tackle the problem, and this week a “monitoring” system has been introduced which is running alongside the usual method of identifying and punishing culprits with shot penalties.
I walked nine holes with the group and can declare categorically they were not slow.
McIlroy got off to a fast start in his pursuit of a maiden Abu Dhabi victory and briefly held the outright advantage with three birdies in a four-hole stretch around the turn, with two three-putt bogeys the only blemishes to his card.
“And how many would tell their father: “‘Dad, I think I can change the game of golf”, when they were still in high school?
“I don’t play the game on (laying down) markers at all”, McIlroy said.
“The guys behind us hadn’t even reached the fairway, on a par 5”, said Spieth, who acknowledged that he had taken extra time to line up a putt. “It didn’t affect the round, but Rory and Rickie were surprised as well”.
This week’s Abu Dhabi Golf Championship marks the start of the European Tour’s clampdown on slow play.
It was the first round since the European Tour modified its Pace of Play policy – and officials made an example of Spieth, the biggest name in golf.
“It was a great way to start the year”, admitted the 27-year-old, who has finished second four times in this event. “This year I kind of wanted to go out and take advantage of the year and see places that I had never seen before, on and off the course”.
This was less about cultural differences however, and more about the fact the monitoring penalty was lacking any common sense (not the first time, mind, we have thought that about a golf rule).
“I think I’ll be remembered for my major championships”, the 26-year-old, who will compete for Ireland at Rio 2016, said. He emerged from a two-month winter break with a week of practice in Dubai last week, and says he is refreshed and refocused. I could not be happier.
“It’s a bit tiring”, said Spieth, 22. I’ve obviously practised now for the last couple of weeks and I’ve practised pretty well.
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The top 15 men’s and women’s players will earn an automatic berth at Rio 2016, with a limit of four golfers from each country allowed in the field of 60.
