A step ahead on clamping down on slow play.

Coincidence or conspiracy? It seemed too convenient certainly that both the major tours chose the same weekend to crack down with slow play penalties.

At the Zurich Classic team event in New Orleans on Thursday, Miguel Angel Carballo and Brian Campbell – already a marriage of convenience themselves, paired as late-entry alternates – were docked a shot when each recorded a “bad time”.

Two days later in the Volvo China Open Soomin Lee of Korea was pegged for two bad times by the European Tour’s chief ref John Paramor and penalised a shot.

To add to this, yesterday the R&A and USGA released a joint statement expressing their concern at the “rapid development of increasingly detailed material plays are using to help with reading greens”.

The statement made reference mostly to the governing bodies believing skill and judgment in reading greens was an essential challenge of golf. But these “green books” that have become particularly prevalent in the last three to four years are also a clear factor in the slowing of play generally on the pro tours.

And given that these books are almost exclusively used by professionals, it’s easy to detect a pattern here.

It was no great shock to see Big JP clamping down on a slow player as he has plenty of history in doing so. But astonishingly Campbell and Carballo was the first slow penalty handed out on the PGA Tour for 22 years.

Nobody, of course, believes there’s been no instances of players recording two bad times during those two decades.

The regulations have simply not been applied and we even had Jay Monahan, the tour’s new commissioner, denying there was even a problem with slow play earlier in the season.

So why make the stand now? The fact that it was in this unique team event and the players penalised were strangers to most casual golf fans perhaps gives a clue.

Technically, Carballo and Campbell were actually sort of unfortunate; one bad time each counted cumulatively as they were a team. Clearly this wouldn’t have happened in any other event.

The format gave an easy fix for the PGA Tour. As was the fact that the pair are relative unknowns; no awkward confrontations need be had with the more notorious slowies among the leading players, who have a voice and are not scared of using it.

But why even bother? To me these penalties indicate the word from the R&A and USGA is beginning to get through to the Tours. After Jason Day’s remarks that he would actually play slower earlier this year – a stance effectively endorsed by Monahan’s statement soon after – the governing bodies clearly bristled.

The European Tour really needs no nagging; they’ve been relatively strident on slow play and actually tightened up at the beginning of last season. If JP or his deputy Andy McFee are in the vicinity with their hands on stopwatches, players in Europe tend to take the hint.

The PGA Tour in contrast has been almost flagrant in not applying its own rules. Admittedly there’s still a strong possibility that last week’s penalty may be a token gesture on their part, rather like the bans they handed out to Doug Barron and Scott Stallings to make it look like they were halfway serious on implementing testing for performance enhancing drugs.

But even if it is just a gesture, it seems somebody among the blue blazers at Ponte Vedra has taken notice and accepts that this thing is a live issue.

In addition, the joint statement about green-reading materials indicates that the governing bodies are prepared to drive the issue further, no matter the reluctance of those in charge of the game’s foremost shop window.

At the very least it is a step along from where we were in January. Hopefully the pressure continues to be applied – by the governing bodies, the media and by fans – and the penny actually drops. The greatest – to look at

The votes have been counted the result was unequivocal among the 3,000 polled by VisitScotland, a quarter stating said the 18th at the Old Course, St Andrews, is Scotland’s greatest golf hole.

That’s more decisive than the Brexit or Independence referenda, the recent US or French elections and probably more than anything that will be revealed on June 8. But it’s equally debatable. In fact in pure golfing terms it’s pure nonsense. The 18th is iconic, but all the icons are at eye level. Strip away the visual delights and as a golf hole it’s pretty basic.

You have to be careless to make five and exceedingly adventurous to do worse. Of the hole’s many famed features, only the Valley of Sin is really in play for competent golfers, and only a factor if the pin is in a certain area.

As a visual experience it’s almost unmatched in golf. But three of the four Open venues in Scotland – Carnoustie, Muirfield and Royal Troon – have far superior closing holes in golfing terms. They just don’t have as pretty views.

Nobody believes there was no instance of players recording bad times during those two decades

Partners Miguel Angel Carballo and Brian Campbell were the first players penalised for slow play on the PGA Tour since 1995.