STAR BRYSON CLOCKSMOOD
BRYSON DECHAMBEAU says he loves a crackdown on slow play – after being slammed as one of the worst offenders.
The European Tour will take a tougher stance on the scourge from this week’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship onwards.
Players will be hit with an immediate one-shot penalty for exceeding the time limit when out of position – 50 seconds if first to play, 40 for others – twice in a tournament.
That goes further than the shake-up announced in August, which would have seen pros punished for two bad times in a round.
DeChambeau vowed to speed up after coming in for stinging criticism from fellow pros for an incident in last season’s Northern Trust at Liberty National.
Eddie Pepperell and Ian Poulter were among the players to hit out at the American after a video emerged of him taking two minutes and 20 seconds to hit an eight-foot putt.
But DeChambeau said: “I love it. I don’t want to be out there for six hours, nor does anybody.
“And there are numerous times out there, more than not, I’m waiting, our group is waiting for people to go. I certainly don’t want to be waiting on players. It’s going to hurt my momentum.
“Every time it happens I feel like I get cold. I don’t want that to happen to people behind or in front of me. There are a lot of things that happen during the course of a golf round.
“People don’t just hit in the middle of the fairway or on the green all the time. You have situations that occur.”
Players will be able to request one extension per round, giving an additional 40 seconds to hit a shot.
DeChambeau said: “What they did there is awesome.”
Heftier fines for players who are regularly taking too much time during the season will be introduced.
Grant Forrest, David Law and Calum Hill will tee up in an all Scots group in tomorrow’s first round.