Stacy Lewis claimed her 13th career LPGA win at the Ladies Scottish Open on Sunday, but the thrill of victory didn’t stop her from calling out her playing partners for what she believed was excessively slow play.
Lewis was grouped with Azahara Munoz and Jennifer Song for both Saturday’s third round and Sunday’s final round and said she had a hard time staying in rhythm, even throughout Round 3.
“I think the biggest challenge for me [going into the final round] is staying in what I’m doing,” Lewis said after her third round. “The pace of play is dreadfully slow, and that doesn’t play into my favor. People I’m playing with are pretty slow. So that’s honestly going to be my biggest challenge is to figure out with that pace of play how I can get into a good rhythm and how to keep myself in a rhythm of playing golf and not feeling like you’re waiting so long in between holes and shots and different things.”
Lewis fired a one-over 72 on Sunday to get into a four-way playoff with Munoz, Cheyenne Knight and Emily Kristine Pedersen. Lewis eventually triumphed by draining a 23-foot birdie putt on the first playoff hole.
But the thrill of her first victory since 2017 didn’t dampen her continuing disdain for the slow playing conditions, which she said she tried to plan for ahead of her final round.
“We really had a good plan for the golf course itself,” Lewis said. “I told [my caddie] on the second tee, I said, ‘I’m not allowed to complain once about the pace of play.’ So I didn’t allow myself — I didn’t allow it to affect me. I was singing songs in my head, just getting away from everything, just trying to pass the time. So I’m just really proud of the way I handled that.”
Lewis’ group played the final round in five hours and 16 minutes as a threesome.
The players were slow, no question. But the TV production this week had so few bells and whistles. Limited number of cameras and voices.
LPGA players must get a move on because there’s no way to hide it.
— Beth Ann Nichols (@GolfweekNichols) August 16, 2020
“It shouldn’t take that long to play,” Lewis said. “I knew it was going to; that’s the sad part, you know it’s going to take that long. I do think an effort needs to be made across the board to play faster, because obviously I wasn’t watching it on TV, but I’m sure it couldn’t have been fun to watch on TV. There’s just so much the announcers, that they can talk about to fill time.
“I’ve been an advocate for changing our pace of play, getting people to play faster for a long time, and we’re still going the other way unfortunately.”
Lewis also has some ideas regarding what should be done to combat slow play in the future.
“I would like to see it be penalties instead of fines,” she said. “I think it needs to be aggressive. I think it needs to change because we’re going — we’re going in the wrong direction.”
Article originally appeared on: Golf.com
Slow play is the bane of all golfers. In tournaments penalty shots should be added to sluggards scores.
Absolutely. The men are slow but the women are even slower. Ironically, everyday play on public and private golf courses I find the women are faster than the men. But the LPGA is so bad I actually turn off the TV because I can’t stand it. The penalty has to be strokes because some don’t care about fines. But you can’t fine the whole group because that’s not fair. They have to target the slow players.
Starts with college play, as a 5hr round for just 2 players is considered an okay time. Ridiculous, the pace of play in the LPGA AND PGA tours, and totally agree with Stacey the something needs to be done. How about 2 stroke penalty, and loss of hole in match play??
I have noticed for several years that the LPGA ladies play slow. There are some men in the PGA who play slow, too. Bryson DeChambeau is one, but there are more. Fortunately I record most tournaments and can skip a lot of it. The PGA has the penalty mechanism set up and I agree with Stacey that the LPGA should do the same.
Slow play is only ONE of golf’s problems, including women’s and men’s. Speed up play by eliminating the player’s yardage and greens books, stop caddies from reading the greens and aligning the players , stop caddies and players walking off yardage to the greens from the fairway. Allow caddies to only tend the flag once the player is on the green. Strictly enforce time limits by having timers with each group in the fairway and on the greens. There’s more, but enough for now.
George……. Took the words right out of my mouth especially concerning yardage and greens book. When a player analysis a shot what are the other players doing…..eating a PB sandwich?