{"id":434655,"date":"2025-05-04T21:27:55","date_gmt":"2025-05-04T21:27:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/?p=434655"},"modified":"2025-05-04T21:27:55","modified_gmt":"2025-05-04T21:27:55","slug":"new-pace-of-play-rules-sees-first-penalty-since-implementation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/new-pace-of-play-rules-sees-first-penalty-since-implementation\/","title":{"rendered":"Pace of Play Rules Sees First Penalty Since Implementation"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the first time since new rules were implemented, the long-awaited pace of play rules<\/a> are finally being enforced.\u00a0 It took a long while, and it could be argued that they should\u2019ve been enforced much earlier, like at the Masters<\/a>.\u00a0 That is not important, as now the rules are being enforced.\u00a0 The question now is: who broke the rule and how was he penalized for it?<\/span><\/p>\n

Who Was Punished for Slow Play?<\/span><\/h2>\n

At the Diners Club Peru Open, PGA golfer Hunter Wolcott was penalized for his pace of play.\u00a0 He was lining up his putt on the green of his 16th hole.\u00a0 Wolcott took just under a minute, at 58 seconds, to take his shot.\u00a0 Under the previous policy, Wolcott would have received a warning for his first offense.\u00a0 He would have gotten the penalty only after the second offense.\u00a0 Under these new rules, there is no warning for slow play.\u00a0 Players are only allowed 40 seconds with an extra ten depending on the circumstances.\u00a0 For his pace of play, Wolcott received a one-stroke penalty.<\/span><\/p>\n

The stroke was for a par on the hole that Wolcott ended up missing anyway.\u00a0 With the penalty, he received a double bogey on the hole.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hunter Wolcott On His Penalty<\/span><\/h2>\n

Wolcott isn\u2019t too happy with his penalty, as any player wouldn\u2019t be in his situation.\u00a0 He said that he doesn\u2019t agree with the penalty applying to him, but he also doesn\u2019t disagree with the rules.\u00a0 Wolcott still thinks these rules are a good way to speed up slow players.\u00a0 When asked about his penalty, he said that he would accept it.<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNothing I can do about it now, still in a good spot.\u00a0 Happy about my game.\u00a0 Adds more fuel to the fire for the weekend.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Wolcott would go on to say that he was flustered over the situation at first, after being told his pace of play was off.\u00a0 In games like this, a single point can make all the difference.\u00a0 Luckily, he was able to make up for it with a birdie on the next hole.<\/span><\/p>\n

How It Will Be Received<\/span><\/h2>\n

There has been a lot of scepticism around these pace of play rules.\u00a0 Many fans were excited to see things improve, but weren\u2019t holding out too much hope.\u00a0 Before Hunter Wolcott, the PGA had only given out three penalties since 1995.\u00a0 Since the rules were revised this year, only Wolcott was penalized.\u00a0 The RBC Heritage did have range finders<\/a> to shave off some time.\u00a0 Players like Scottie Scheffler were skeptical of the very idea, saying that it\u2019s the course size that\u2019s the major problem, and at best, only twenty minutes can be shaved off.\u00a0 However, with Wolcott\u2019s reaction to this, it could be a good motivator.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wolcott, despite having his reservations about the decision, took the penalty in stride.\u00a0 He used it as a good motivation to fuel his birdie on the next hole.\u00a0 It looks like when these pace of play rules are enforced, they help the players by either forcing them to respect each other’s time, or by giving them just a little bit of motivation.\u00a0 As to how much time it will shave off is yet to be determined.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit:\u00a0 \u00a9 Andy Abeyta\/The Desert Sun \/ USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For the first time since new rules were implemented, the long-awaited pace of play rules are finally being enforced.\u00a0 It took a long while, and it could be argued that they should\u2019ve been enforced much earlier, like at the Masters.\u00a0 That is not important, as now the rules are being enforced.\u00a0 The question now is: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5429,"featured_media":434656,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,246,19],"tags":[8085,8084],"class_list":["post-434655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-golf","category-golf-news","category-pga","tag-diners-club-peru-open","tag-hunter-wolcott"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5429"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434655"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":434660,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434655\/revisions\/434660"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/golf\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}