It’s just a matter of time

R&A Rules supremo David Rickman claims they haven’t been ‘trigger happy’ by putting players on the clock in a bid to stamp out slow play at this week’s Open.

He stressed: “We’re certainly not in the business of unsettling players, but we have our pace of play policy similar to all professional tours for a reason, and that is to get players around in a reasonable amount of time. And if players keep up with the group in front, then they will not be subject to timing.”

Rickman was speaking after Japanese player Hideki Matsuyama was placed on the clock and penalised one stroke during yesterday’s 3rd round. A string of other players have similarly been placed on the clock this week though Matsuyama is the only one to have been punished.

Added Rickman: “This is not unprecedented. I believe we have applied a one-stroke penalty in an Open Championship before, it is my understanding that it’s not the first one.”

“But this week we’ve certainly had a number of groups get out of position. We’ve had our rovers do a considerable amount of timing. There have been single bad times, but this is the first one-stroke penalty to be applied this week. Hideki Matsuyama is the first player to have received two bad times this week.”

The R&A official revealed: “This particular group were 15 minutes over schedule when they were put on the clock, having lost time on the two previous holes after they had been advised that they were out of position and needed to speed up.

“So in those circumstances where they are both over the time limit that’s applied, but also out of position in terms of their position on the golf course in relation to the group ahead of them. Those are the circumstances in which the players are subject to individual timing.

“Time par for over the weekend when players are in two balls is a total time of three hours 41 minutes. That is obviously divided per hole, and each hole is given an individual time. So we have, as it were, a cumulative record that we look at on a hole-by-hole basis.”