In Brutal Conditions at Senior British Open, Players Given More Latitude for Pace of Play

Slow play has been a hot topic lately in golf but as rain and wind pounded players in Wales, officials used common sense.

PORTHCAWL, Wales — Slow play is a scourge on the game of golf, but even rules officials know that sometimes you need to use common sense when the conditions warrant it.

Over the weekend at the Senior British Open at Royal Porthcawl, in rainy and windy conditions with wind gusting over 20 mph, the rule book may not have gone out the window but it was generally stuck in the back pocket.

“We will certainly take into account what they're having to deal with the gusts, you're never going to be able to play in normal pace of play,” said chief referee David Williams on Sunday. “We've still got our schedule and will tend to be fairly generous with it.”

That doesn’t mean if a player was especially slow that they wouldn't have been timed and penalized if necessary, but over the weekend in Wales that wasn't the case.

With a stroke average of 76.14 in Saturday’s third round and 78.51 in Sunday’s final round, it was understandable that more time was required to contemplate a shot.

Add in the fact that the final round had the third highest scoring average in Champions Tour history since 1980, just behind the 1990 Maui Kaanapali Classic (79.21) and the 1984 Senior PGA Championship (79.12), slow play was a given.

“Knowing who the culprits might be and know that it could be extenuating circumstances at levels like this,” Williams said of why they are more lenient this week. “But at the same time, we still have stuck to the integrity because if they're slow, if they are slowing down badly, it's the other players that are affected as well. So, we have to bear that in mind.”

At the Evian Championship on Friday in France, Carlota Ciganda was assessed a two-stroke penalty for slow play but refused to accept it, declining to sign her scorecard. She was disqualified.