On Friday, Hunter Wolcott became the first player under the PGA Tour Americas new pace-of-play policy to be penalized for slow play.
Two days later, he’s a champion.
Wolcott, a 27-year-old University of Tennessee product, was leading the Diners Club Peru Open by a shot when he was penalized a stroke while putting on his 16th hole of the day at Los Inkas Golf Club in Peru. According to the PGA Tour, Wolcott took 58 seconds to hit his par putt while being second to play.
Under the new policy, players who are put on the clock are permitted 40 seconds to play a stroke in that circumstance while an extra 10 seconds is allotted for certain circumstances, like being the first to putt on the green. If a player exceeds the time limit, they are given a bad time. Previously, one-shot penalties were handed out after a player’s second bad time; now, it’s after the first.
The Korn Ferry Tour also adopted this revised policy starting with last month’s Lecom Suncoast Classic, though no KFT players have violated the policy to date.
Wolcott went on to finish 36 holes tied for the lead, and he said afterward that while he disagreed with the penalty, he liked the rule: “It’s pretty unfortunate. I do think the rule is good to hurry up slow players. Nothing I can do about it now, still in a good spot. Happy about my game. Adds more fuel to the fire for the weekend.”
It did indeed as Wolcott completed a two-shot win on Sunday for his first career win on the PGA Tour-sanctioned tour. He double-bogeyed his opening hole before righting the ship on the back nine with five birdies.
Read the full article here
