Shot clocks, shot penalties and red cards… bring it on!

Shot clocks, shot penalties and red cards. All brilliant ideas by the European Tour in a bid to tackle slow play, but can one event really make a difference? We’ll certainly see next summer because the 2018 Shot Clock Masters in Austria is an intriguing addition to the schedule.

It’s a follow-on from shot clocks being used at this year’s inaugural Golfsixes, although the official timing policy will be used, meaning the first player in a group has 50 seconds to hit a shot then 40 seconds for subsequent players.

Players will incur a one-shot penalty for each bad time and these will be shown as a red card against their name on the leaderboard, which is a form of naming and shaming.

Each player will have the right to call two “time-outs” during a round, permitting them twice the usually allotted time to play the shot, and that, like everything else with this innovative move, also makes sense.

Here’s the best thing about it. Rounds should be cut by around 45 minutes, meaning three-balls should get round in close to four hours and two-balls in around three hours 15 minutes.

Hat’s off to Keith Pelley for being pro-active in this respect, but it needs more than just one event.