On Slow Play

Normally post-round television interviews range from midly interesting to banal (tending toward the latter). However, yesterday's interview with Angela Park proved to be illuminating although probably not in the way that Park wanted.

Park, who was born in Brazil but grew up in Torrance, was assessed a two-stroke penalty for slow play following the 10th hole in the final round of the LPGA Tour's SBS Open in Hawaii. By the time her round had finished, she was still angry with the decision and what she said to Mike Riks demonstrated that she — like many of her colleagues — doesn't understand the rule or why it's there.

Although the LPGA doesn't post its slow-play rules on its Web site, from the actions of tournament officials and later reports, it appears that players have to maintain their position on the course (which is usually defined as playing in a certain amount of time for each hole and being within a certain number of minutes of the group in front of them). When a group gets out of position, an official uses a stopwatch to measure the amount of time it takes a player to make a shot. According to published reports, Park exceeded the allotted time limit on her second, third and fourth shots on the hole and, thus, received the two-shot penalty.

Park's first comment was she didn't think the penalty was fair because "we weren't holding anyone up." That's probably the single thing that players simply don't understand when it comes to this issue. What's behind you is of no relevance when it comes to enforcing slow-play rules; what's happening with your group and the group in front are the only things that matters.

Second, Park said she didn't think the penalty was fair because she was in contention (she was a shot off the lead at the time). Sorry, Angela, that's not the way the rules work. To the LPGA's credit, a player's position in the field has no bearing on assessing a penalty in this situation.

Finally, Park noted that she was so mad that they "flew" through the back nine, making three birdies to finish a shot off of the lead. One would think that might be a self-evident statement to Park about her own play, but apparently not.

Whatever a tournament's policy (and there are many ways to handle the slow-play issue), there's a simple two-word answer to the problem: play faster.

By the way, the turtles were in evidence at the PGA Tour's Northern Trust Open at Riviera CC yesterday. Playing in groups of three and teeing off at 10:20 a.m., the final group (Phil Mickelson, Jeff Quinney and Robert Allenby) still had the 18th hole to play when the telecast ended yesterday at 3 p.m. That means their third round took nearly five hours to play. Mickelson's group didn't appear to have a big gap in front of it but somewhere up front were some exceedingly slow players. Two-shot penalties have a way of getting players' attentions but when's the last time a PGA Tour player got that kind of penalty?