Slow play has become an important topic on the LPGA this season. And the game's biggest stars have had enough.
Two days after scoring her seventh win of the season at Annika, Nelly Korda raised questions about the glacial pace of play that has long plagued the LPGA. She proposed a simple but effective solution that should have been enforced many times over.
“All the players need is a penalty,” Korda said bluntly.
“The rules guys need to watch from the first group. If you're two minutes late, one minute late, it's just going to slow everything down.”
Korda's comments came shortly after Lexi Thompson criticized the LPGA's slow pace of play. Thompson said competitive rounds shouldn't take more than 4 1/2 hours, but that wasn't the case Sunday at Annika. Korda's group, which included Charlie Hull and Weiwei Zhang, took more than five hours to trudge around Pelican Golf Club.
“Personally, I think this is a pretty big problem. I don't think it's good for the fans who come to see us,” Korda added.
“For me personally, it would be very frustrating to watch for five hours, more than five hours, five hours and 40 minutes, or almost six hours. I just think it really drags down the game.”
After last weekend, Hull, who finished tied for second place, three strokes behind Korda, offered a “ruthless” solution to the pace of play problem. She and Korda also finished their third round in the dark.
“I'm totally ruthless,” Hal said.
“Listen, if you get your timing wrong three times, you get a tee shot penalty each time. If you have three, you lose your tour card right away. That way, a lot of people will be rushing to get there. You don't want to lose your tour card. That would ruin the slow play, but they would never do that.”
Perhaps the LPGA should at least embrace Hull's idea. “I didn't object to that,” Thompson said. Korda called it “interesting.”
But you know what's not fun? While players stand in the fairway waiting to hit their shots, other competitors have two to three minutes to line up putts from within 5 feet above the green. It's frustrating for everyone involved.
“I’m hitting right after the guy in front of me hit,” Korda said.
“I think people just need to be. People overanalyze, but I think people just need to be ready faster. People start the process a little too late. We need more people on the field to monitor the pace of play. I don't think there are enough people to monitor that.”
Perhaps that's the relief the LPGA needs. Putting more officials on the field to force the pace of the game. That would help, at least in Korda's mind.
Either way, the LPGA cannot continue to sit back and watch as Korda did on teeing grounds and fairways multiple times last week.
Jack Mirko is a golf staff writer for SB Nation's Playing Through. Be sure to check it out @_PlayingThrough Cover more golf. You can follow him on Twitter @jack_milko In the same way.
