Spieth’s anger at being given a time penalty
WORLD No 1 Jordan Spieth handed out praise and brickbats in equal measure following his opening round of 68 in the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship yesterday.
He reserved the praise for his playing partner Rory McIlroy, who shot 66 and delivered what Spieth rightly considered a ball-striking clinic.
‘It was an absolute masterclass, the Rory that we have seen winning majors,’ raved the sporting 22-year-old American. ‘He would have had a truly spectacular score on a very challenging golf course but for a couple of lip-outs. It was fun to watch. It’s inspiring when you’re playing with someone who’s hitting it that well.’
Less inspiring and no fun whatsoever was the ridiculous manner in which Spieth fell foul of the convoluted new rules the European Tour have instigated in an effort to speed up play.
Spieth picked up a bad time penalty after taking too long over a birdie put at the par five eighth, his 17th hole of the day. He knew he was taking a while, but could not see any harm given the fact the group behind had barely made it on to the tee.
Present those facts to practically every golfer and they would declare: well, where is the problem in taking a bit longer if you are not causing a jot of inconvenience to anyone?
I walked nine holes with the group and can declare categorically they were not slow. Far from it. The only time they took a while was at the second hole, where Rickie Fowler, the third member of the group, had to wait for a ruling.
Imagine the irritation for Spieth, therefore, when he walked to the ninth tee and was told about the bad time penalty. Just to rub salt in the wound, he had to wait to play his second shot to the ninth green while the group in front putted out. ‘ It doesn’t make any sense to me,’ he said. ‘I read the putt from behind the hole, looked up and couldn’t see the group behind us at the tee box, so I called Michael (Greller, his caddie) over and said we’ve got time, let’s try to nail this, because we had been on the clock for a number of holesh ( after the Fow‘ Fowler ruling). ‘ I understand the rule that if you are taking longer than the allotted time, you get a bad time. But it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense when our group had caught up, they were going to take us off the clock and the group coming up were 15 minutes behind us.’ The European Tour’s chief referee John Paramor tried to put it down to transatlantic differences.
He said: ‘ Pace of play on this tour is measured by whether the group keeps to the starting interval between groups, rather than if they were on the same hole, as it is in America. Jordan was assessed a monitoring penalty after his putt on the eighth hole.’
This was less about cultural differences however, and more about the fact the monitoring penalty was lacking any common sense (not the first time, mind, we have thought that about a golf rule).
As McIlroy said: ‘It was a bit of a weird one to give Jordan a bad time when the group behind hadn’t even reached their drives. I feel the refs have to use a bit of common sense.’
It stuck in Spieth’s craw because another bad time during this tournament and he will get a £2,200 fine. It’s not the money, of course, but the reputation that comes with it which, in his case, would be wholly unfair.
‘ I’ve played a lot alongside Jordan and he is far from a slow player,’ said McIlroy, with feeling.
Let us applaud the Tour for trying to do something about slow play, of course. But is there any chance of coming up with something that might actually identify the real culprits?
McIlroy’s six-under-par round left him two strokes off the pace set by US Amateur Champion Bryson DeChambeau.
On a high- class leaderboard, desert-specialist Henrik Stenson shot 65, while gifted South African Branden Grace stands alongside McIlroy on six under.
Englishmen Andy Sullivan and Richard Bland shot 67s, while the wonderfully consistent 21- year- old Matt Fitzpatrick shot 68.