Slow play has been a topic of concern for years on the PGA Tour. However, nothing of real consequence ever seems to be done to about it, until Thursday. During the opening round of the new team-format Zurich Classic, the first slow-play penalty was issued since 1995, ending a streak of 22 years.
The team of Tour rookie Brian Campbell and Argentine Miguel Angel Carballo, who got into the event as alternates, shot a one-over par 73 during alternate shot initially, but the bad time dropped their score to a 74. Actually, they were each assessed a bad time, but since they are a team, it only counts as one stroke.
“I kinda felt like it was a little unfair,” Campbell, according to Golf Channel. “But nothing we could do about it.”
The two were paired with PGA section pros Kyle Ramey and Phil Schmitt.
Team Campbell-Carballo play alongside PGA section pros and get hit with the first slow play penalty in 22 years: https://t.co/yPToXChyjM pic.twitter.com/fk3Juxb6jq
— Golf Channel (@GolfChannel) April 28, 2017
“I hate to say it,” Campbell said, “but they were struggling through the first five holes and we got way out of position.”
Campbell explained they were “sprinting the entire round” and “couldn’t get ourselves back on time, because bad shots were still happening.”
According to the report, they were first timed on the 10th hole. On the 11th, one of the section pros received a bad time, taking longer than 40 seconds to play a shot. Carballo received his own bad time on 12, and both players in the group were warned that another bad time would result in a one-shot penalty.
Then, Campbell apparently took longer than 40 seconds to hit his tee shot on the par 3 and received the second bad time. By the next hole, they’d caught up to the group in front of them and waited for the final four holes.
Both players tried to protest the penalty in the scoring tent afterward to no avail.
“The thing they kept saying is, ‘Policy is policy,’ which when they throw that in your face, we can’t really say anything,” Campbell said. “But we were trying to give them the whole entire scenario, like, ‘Listen, we were behind early. Do you realize who we were playing with?’ But they weren’t really considering those options. They’re like, policy is policy, you got a bad time, and you get the stroke. But there’s nothing we could have done better.”
The last player to receive a slow-play penalty issued by the PGA Tour was Glen Day in 1995.
Campbell and Carballo posted a four-under 68 in during the second round best ball format but failed to make the cut by more than one shot.
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