Cut out the dawdling and then the Women’s Open can truly shine
IN a strident rallying call last week, Georgia Hall urged her fellow women golfers to use two big tournaments in Scotland as an opportunity to ‘show how good we are’. Sadly, the big talking point during week one at the ASI Scottish Ladies Open proved to be how slow they are.
There’s a long overdue groundswell of goodwill being shown to the ladies’ game, not least by the R&A, who are putting on the AIG Women’s Open at Royal Troon this week, the only major to be staged on this side of the ocean this year.
But it all won’t add up to very much if the women don’t help themselves and continue to dawdle, thereby making the product as unwatchable as they managed last week.
As we’ve seen in the men’s game, one of the few positives in having no crowds is that it offers the opportunity for a dramatic improvement in the pace of play. Not at the Renaissance Club near North Berwick, it didn’t.
The final pep talk American Stacy Lewis gave herself before the last round ought to have been about seizing the moment. Instead, she told herself not to let the snail-paced players get her down and affect her performance, as they had during the third round. How sad is that?
‘I’ve long been an advocate of changing our pace of play and getting people to play faster but, unfortunately, we’re still going the other way,’ said the 35-year- old, who mercifully came out on top following a final round that took a ridiculous five hours, 16 minutes.
You only had to watch the fourwoman play-off to see some familiar problems. Emily Pedersen from Denmark took forever to play her approach, and yet when the camera cut to the Spaniard Azahara Munoz she was still nowhere near ready to play.
The only way to watch was to record it and then have your finger hovering over the fast forward button.
So to the big one. The Women’s Open. The Koreans have largely decided to stay at home, but the Americans have made it over in gratifyingly large numbers.
The talented home ranks must be bursting to make amends for last week’s basic no-show, where the top ten was a Brit-free zone.
Sky Sports are doing their bit, with plenty of hours of coverage.
Everything is set, therefore. As Hall said, what a chance to show how good they are. Let’s hope this time they take it. THE Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open and BMW PGA Championship will take place in consecutive weeks at the start of October, the European Tour have announced.
Both tournaments move forward one week, with the Scottish Open taking place at the Renaissance Club from October 1-4, while the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth will start on October 8.
They will follow the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open at Galgorm Castle Golf Club, to establish the second UK swing of the year on the European Tour following the current six-event run.