Officials on the LPGA Tour are fighting against slow play. And the players are fighting back.
Carlota Ciganda was disqualified after the second round of the Evian Championship this past weekend for signing an incorrect scorecard after she was assessed a two-stroke penalty on her last hole of the day, and she did not add it to her final score.
Ciganda appealed the ruling and was denied, and since she still did not add the penalty, she was DQ’ed.
“Rule 3.3b(3) states that if a returned score is lower than the actual score, the player is disqualified from the competition,” the LPGA Tour said in a statement. “The exception to this Rule does not apply because Ciganda was aware of the penalty strokes received and upheld before signing her scorecard and leaving the recording area.”
Ciganda took to Instagram to explain her side of the story. And suffice to say she does not agree.
Carlota Ciganda posted this on IG in response to her DQ yesterday at the Evian Championship pic.twitter.com/qQIROCGZL2
— Zephyr Melton (@zephyrmelton) July 29, 2023
“I got a few messages about the DQ from yesterday,” Ciganda wrote in an Instagram story. “I want to be very clear, and the reason I did not sign a 7 on the last hole is because I don’t think I took 52 seconds like the Rules Official said.
“I had a 10-footer on the last hole, last [putt], and the group behind, they were not even on the tee on a par 5. Very poor performance from the LPGA rules official. They don’t understand what professional golf is about, and they only look at their stopwatch like if 20 seconds is going to make a difference.
“I had family and friends watching, and they all said it was impossible I took that long to hit that putt!”
Ciganda was playing in the Evian for the 10th time in her career and just a year removed from a career-best T3 finish in the championship. The DQ was the first in a major championship of her career.
This is not Ciganda’s first time going up against the rules officials for slow play.
At the 2021 LPGA Match Play, she was assessed a slow-play penalty on the final hole of her match with Sarah Schmelzel. As a result of that penalty, Ciganda lost the hole — and the match — knocking her out of the event.
“Yesterday was tough out there with windy conditions and difficult pins,” Ciganda’s post continued. “I wish everyone gets treated the same and they don’t pick on the same players all the time!
Pace of play has been a large topic of conversation between fans and players this year. This situation is only going to spark that conversation further.
