Can Amateur Golfers Be Penalised For Slow Play?

There’s nothing worse than a slow round of golf. It’s torturous waiting on every shot and counting the minutes of your day that are being wasted as you watch the group in front taking eons over every shot and walking at a snail’s pace up every fairway.

On the pro tours and in the elite amateur game, tournament officials will set a pace of play policy that determines how long players are given, or expected to take, to complete holes and each individual shot. This will be policed by tournament referees. Generally speaking, players who repeatedly fail to meet the targets are in line to face penalties. Those penalties will escalate and could mean penalty shots and, in the most extreme cases, disqualification for the worst offenders.

But what about at club level where there aren’t referees out to check on pace of play in the Saturday Medal? Can regular club golfers be penalised for slow play? What do the Rules say?

Rule 5.6 deals with prompt pace of play, as well as unreasonable delay to play.

Prompt pace of play

The Rules expect golf to be played at a prompt pace. Rule 5.6b says that each player should recognise that their pace of play is likely to affect how long it takes all other players in both the group and on the golf course.

To achieve an acceptable pace of play, all golfers are expected under the Rules to be prompt in preparing for and making strokes, moving from one location to another between those strokes and when moving to the next teeing area after completing a hole.

Players are expected to take no more than 40 seconds to play a stroke from when they are able to do so, free of distraction. And groups are encouraged to play out of turn and adopt “Ready Golf” under the Rules, particularly in stroke play, when it is safe to do so.

However, under these Rules, there is no penalty as these are expectations of each player and are not enforced using a shot penalty system.

So no penalties for slow play?

Well, not necessarily. Committees at clubs and courses are encouraged to have a pace of play policy that sets a maximum time to complete a round, a hole or a series of holes. The committee can set penalties for not following this policy but it would be up to them to police that policy and that can be challenging at a club level.

Basically then, there are no direct penalties for not keeping up with play, unless the committee has a pace of play policy in place and applies penalties itself.

You might not receive a penalty for slow play then, but you might for delaying play…

Unreasonable Delay of Play

Rule 5.6a says a player must not unreasonably delay play when playing a hole or between holes.

So, if you were to practice your putting on a green for five minutes after missing a three-footer, while a group behind was waiting on the fairway, that would be an unreasonable delay of play. If you were to stand in the fairway making a lengthy phone call when the green was clear and people were on the tee, that would also be an unreasonable delay of play.

If you breached this Rule once, you would receive a one-shot penalty. If you breached it again, it would be a general penalty of two shots in stroke play and loss of hole in match play. A third breach of this Rule would mean disqualification.

Unless the committee enforces penalties against a defined pace of play policy, a club amateur will not receive penalty shots for simply playing slowly. But if they delay play unreasonably, penalties could be forthcoming.