Slow-play rulings have drawn ire in golf circles

I think Morgan was robbed, personally. Truth is they are ALL slow on all tours. That is what happens when you are playing for a living. There is no excuse for it for amateurs. Still, the reason they were on the clock in the first place was not Morgan's pace of play. The unfortunate circumstance of the wind changing on her on the 12th tee made her rethink her club selection. That was the poorest time possible to invoke the penalty, just horrible timing. I think it cost her the championship she was playing that well. She reacted emotionally and didn't recover her composure, that part is on her. But the lack of judgment on the part of the LPGA rules officials is on them. Everyone wants slow play fixed but doing so at the expense of someone who is not a slow player and was not responsible for her group being out of position, though no one was behind them, just wasn't right. And it really did cost her a lot. I like Aza too and feel badly for both. That just wasn't the time or place to do that given the circumstances on the tee. On a par four, okay, but not then, not there, not that hole. Judgment has to come into the application of the rules somewhere and it DOES what with all the rulings officials make. This one used poor judgment, in my opinion.

I have heard many say that they think the situation with Morgan Pressel was unfortunate but “rules are rules”. I beg to differ. The main purpose of the rules is to ensure that no player gains an unfair advantage over another.

If Morgan Pressel had been playing like Kevin Na from the beginning of the match and absolutely refused to pick up the pace the penalty would have been justified because she could be deemed to be gaining an unfair advantage by her slow play. That, however, was not the case.

Munoz Herself said:“…I know I was slow and I really apologized for that and I told her, but I do feel both of us were slow and she was the only one getting penalized, and that was not fair…”

For the rules officials to intervene in a situation like that was absurd! Pressel, by changing clubs due to a wind gust on the 12th tee, did nothing that could even be remotely construed as “undue delay”(as the Rules of Golf puts it) let alone gaining an unfair advantage.

genej101 wrote:

I think Morgan was robbed, personally. Truth is they are ALL slow on all tours. That is what happens when you are playing for a living. There is no excuse for it for amateurs. Still, the reason they were on the clock in the first place was not Morgan's pace of play. The unfortunate circumstance of the wind changing on her on the 12th tee made her rethink her club selection. That was the poorest time possible to invoke the penalty, just horrible timing. I think it cost her the championship she was playing that well. She reacted emotionally and didn't recover her composure, that part is on her. But the lack of judgment on the part of the LPGA rules officials is on them. Everyone wants slow play fixed but doing so at the expense of someone who is not a slow player and was not responsible for her group being out of position, though no one was behind them, just wasn't right. And it really did cost her a lot. I like Aza too and feel badly for both. That just wasn't the time or place to do that given the circumstances on the tee. On a par four, okay, but not then, not there, not that hole. Judgment has to come into the application of the rules somewhere and it DOES what with all the rulings officials make. This one used poor judgment, in my opinion.

Television dictates everything in golf these days!