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The Shot Clock Masters

Zooky

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Three golfers earn slow-play penalties Saturday at Shot Clock Masters

A new experiment on the European Tour has been focused on speeding up play, and those who fall behind have now suffered the consequences.

The European Tour is debuting this week the Shot Clock Masters, an event where every player is timed on every single shot.

A referee accompanies each group and times every shot. The player in the group hitting first on any tee shot on a par 3, approach shot, chip or putt has 50 seconds to hit. A 40-second allowance is given on any par 4 or 5 tee shot and to the second and third in the group to play a tee shot on a par 3, approach shot, chip or putt.

Any time a player goes over the time limit, he is given a bad time and assessed a one-shot penalty.

A player can call for a time-extension of 40 seconds up to twice per round, but that addition must be called before the clock starts counting down in the first place or before that original countdown of 40 or 50 seconds hits zero. If no extension is called for before the clock hits zero, the player has gone over the limit and is thus penalized.

For the first two rounds, players adhered to these guidelines and no penalties were doled out. The pressure of Moving Day changed that.

Three slow-play penalties were handed out Saturday at the Shot Clock Masters, with a trio of players going seconds over their allotted times on shots at Diamond Country Club in Vienna, Austria.

Clemens Prader became the infamous first to do so, as the Austrian took 54 seconds (four over his 50-second limit) to hit a putt at No. 6 and was thus penalized one shot.

Grant Forrest later ensured Prader wouldn’t be lonely, with the Scot using 43 seconds on an approach at the 15th when the shot clock only gave him 40. Andrea Pavan also went three seconds over his allotment on a putt at the 18th, making it three slow-play penalties on the day.

Ultimately, Prader’s one-shot penalty had little to do with his fate. A 54-hole cut came down at 1 over and his third-round 76 left him at 6 over. Take off that penalty stroke, and a 5-over total would’ve still left him well short.

After his penalty, Pavan is in a tie for 29th at 3 under. Forrest is tied for 48th at Even par.

How did Prader feel about his penalty marking the first in this format?

The Austrian relayed that he did not hear the referee declare the clock had started ticking down, but that he did not disagree with how anything was handled.

“I just didn’t hear him, I didn’t hear ‘time’,” Prader said, per Europeantour.com. “I was just in my routine and it must have been called sometime when I was walking to my ball, which is fine, I just didn’t hear it. It was just four seconds over, which is a little unfortunate.

“I was a little angry, I hope you didn’t have any cameras on me. It got me so heated that I actually holed a bunker shot on the next hole, which was okay, it kind of reversed it.

“It was not a problem, I just didn’t hear. My caddie told me, he wasn’t watching, he didn’t hear the time as well but the other guys heard it. It’s just an unfortunate situation. It was early, I was still going with a decent round, it’s just how it is. It’s the name of the game and I accept it.”

Will players be more conscious of the clock on a pressure-packed Sunday? We’ll see.

Clearly, though, the European Tour is serious about halting slow play.

Three golfers earn slow-play penalties Saturday at Shot Clock Masters
 

Roy Munson

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Watching Cantlay at the memorial tournament was so fucking annoying. That dude needs to cut his routine in half.
 

Zooky

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DrewScott

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When does the clock start? Sorry if you explained that already and I missed it. So say Spieth hits a good drive and it finds the fairway. So he and his caddie, (Greller) start walking down the fairway to his ball. Then they reach his ball. Spieth waits for other guys to hit. Then its his turn. When does clock start? When Greller hands him his club of choice?
 

ATL96Steeler

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When does the clock start? Sorry if you explained that already and I missed it. So say Spieth hits a good drive and it finds the fairway. So he and his caddie, (Greller) start walking down the fairway to his ball. Then they reach his ball. Spieth waits for other guys to hit. Then its his turn. When does clock start? When Greller hands him his club of choice?

You've pretty much naiked it based on the way it was described on the telecast...when it's your turn to play, the clock should start.

It wasn't entirely glitch free, apparently some clocks were not started when they should've, one player said he didn't hear the warning time and ran over as a result.

I wouldn't mind seeing the PGAT adopt a tourney concept like that.
 

Montalban

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Watching Cantlay at the memorial tournament was so fucking annoying. That dude needs to cut his routine in half.
Same with Juaquin Neimann. Watched him take 8 minutes to hit his approach shot into 18 and he still missed the green. Seemed like 8 hours though.
 

Montalban

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You've pretty much naiked it based on the way it was described on the telecast...when it's your turn to play, the clock should start.

It wasn't entirely glitch free, apparently some clocks were not started when they should've, one player said he didn't hear the warning time and ran over as a result.

I wouldn't mind seeing the PGAT adopt a tourney concept like that.
Yep. Its disrespectful to the other players. If a person is allowed to take 5 minutes to hit a shot then his playing partner should be allowed to say "hit the ball already, let's go" I'd have no problem with that.
 

ATL96Steeler

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Yep. Its disrespectful to the other players. If a person is allowed to take 5 minutes to hit a shot then his playing partner should be allowed to say "hit the ball already, let's go" I'd have no problem with that.

I just got back from Myrtle Beach last week...23 man tourney covering a pretty wide breath of skillsets. Rounds 1 & 2 you could be paired with anyone...the final day was flighted so you're playing with guys that have similar game.

Round 2 I played with a kid that shot 130...(seriously) but he was very cognizant of his time, and stroke count...hit his max and he'd pickup. I think he officially made 3 bogeys, maybe 1 double and the rest were max pickup...we played in 4:10.

Final day played in the top flight with guys that shot 76, 81, 83 respectively the previous day...it took us nearly 5 hours with no one in front of us on the back 9.

So yeah..."hit it already" was definitely on my mind, but not really knowing these guys, I held my tongue.
 

Roy Munson

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I just got back from Myrtle Beach last week...23 man tourney covering a pretty wide breath of skillsets. Rounds 1 & 2 you could be paired with anyone...the final day was flighted so you're playing with guys that have similar game.

Round 2 I played with a kid that shot 130...(seriously) but he was very cognizant of his time, and stroke count...hit his max and he'd pickup. I think he officially made 3 bogeys, maybe 1 double and the rest were max pickup...we played in 4:10.

Final day played in the top flight with guys that shot 76, 81, 83 respectively the previous day...it took us nearly 5 hours with no one in front of us on the back 9.

So yeah..."hit it already" was definitely on my mind, but not really knowing these guys, I held my tongue.


Don't move until you see it...

 

Zooky

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I just got back from Myrtle Beach last week...23 man tourney covering a pretty wide breath of skillsets. Rounds 1 & 2 you could be paired with anyone...the final day was flighted so you're playing with guys that have similar game.

Round 2 I played with a kid that shot 130...(seriously) but he was very cognizant of his time, and stroke count...hit his max and he'd pickup. I think he officially made 3 bogeys, maybe 1 double and the rest were max pickup...we played in 4:10.

Final day played in the top flight with guys that shot 76, 81, 83 respectively the previous day...it took us nearly 5 hours with no one in front of us on the back 9.

So yeah..."hit it already" was definitely on my mind, but not really knowing these guys, I held my tongue.


I have much more respect for the guy who shot 130.
 

ATL96Steeler

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I have much more respect for the guy who shot 130.

So did I...way more...new golfer, clearly struggling, but he didn't act like he was supposed to be shooting 82 on every bad shot, kept a good attitude (as good as you could expect) the entire round.

Our group the following day...granted there was a slow group ahead of us for 9...2.5 hrs for that side, but they didn't play the back so we should have sped up some with no one in front of us....we played another 2 hrs & 20 mins on the back!

None of us ever played the course before, but not many guys were spraying tee shots...the only reason the rangers weren't all over us is we had left the group that was behind us.
 

Zooky

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So did I...way more...new golfer, clearly struggling, but he didn't act like he was supposed to be shooting 82 on every bad shot, kept a good attitude (as good as you could expect) the entire round.

Our group the following day...granted there was a slow group ahead of us for 9...2.5 hrs for that side, but they didn't play the back so we should have sped up some with no one in front of us....we played another 2 hrs & 20 mins on the back!

None of us ever played the course before, but not many guys were spraying tee shots...the only reason the rangers weren't all over us is we had left the group that was behind us.

Very common to see this type of stuff nowadays.

It is tough to get in any kind of rhythm at that pace.
 

Montalban

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I just got back from Myrtle Beach last week...23 man tourney covering a pretty wide breath of skillsets. Rounds 1 & 2 you could be paired with anyone...the final day was flighted so you're playing with guys that have similar game.

Round 2 I played with a kid that shot 130...(seriously) but he was very cognizant of his time, and stroke count...hit his max and he'd pickup. I think he officially made 3 bogeys, maybe 1 double and the rest were max pickup...we played in 4:10.

Final day played in the top flight with guys that shot 76, 81, 83 respectively the previous day...it took us nearly 5 hours with no one in front of us on the back 9.

So yeah..."hit it already" was definitely on my mind, but not really knowing these guys, I held my tongue.
That's awful! I hate, hate, hate slow play. What did you shoot that day?
 

GNG

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Watching Cantlay at the memorial tournament was so fucking annoying. That dude needs to cut his routine in half.
Jordan Speith is probably the slowest player on the PGA tour.
 

ATL96Steeler

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That's awful! I hate, hate, hate slow play. What did you shoot that day?

The 81 was a fairly smooth 1st day....day two was with the 130 kid...shot 87...final day...89....I lost it on the back 9 shot 40-49...+5 the last 3 holes...just plain ran out of patience...the guy that won handled the slow pace much better than I did.
 
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