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Tiger demands stiffer penalties for slow play

Tiger Woods cut a frustrated figure at Sawgrass last week © PA Photos

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Tiger Woods believes the time has come for the PGA Tour to step up its punishment of slow play following a controversial week at The Players Championship.

The discussion about how long it takes professionals to complete a round reared its head once again at TPC Sawgrass, with the deliberate manner of Kevin Na - who led the tournament going into the final round - highlighting the often protracted nature of tour golf.

Former world No. 1s Luke Donald and Lee Westwood have previously been vocal in their criticism of slow play, which at the moment is punished by a fine only after players have been warned about their pace of play by officials and are then 'put on the clock' in an attempt to force them to speed up.

Woods, who wrote about the problem in a long post on his website in 2008, has now joined the debate - believing offenders should be given a one-shot penalty as soon as it becomes clear they are playing too slowly.

"It's worse [than four years ago]," Woods said. "I mean, last week, we were playing in four hours 40 and there's no wind. That's hard to believe.

"We have gotten slower on tour. College has gotten just incredibly slow. It's so bad that now we are giving the guys the ability to use lasers [yardage finders] to try to speed up play, and they are still [taking] five hours 45, six hours plus."

He added: "I think, very simple, that if you get a warning you get a penalty. I think that would speed it up."

Players are often fined for slow play, but Woods believes that is not a deterrent - persistent offenders should always be given stroke penalties. It is 20 years since a player was last penalised a shot for slow play on tour.

"Strokes is money," he added. "One shot can... what's the difference between first and second [at the Players] right now? How much is it? $800,000. But that's one shot, and that's the difference. That's what people don't realise, that one shot is so valuable out here."

Woods finished down the field at one-under after a final round of 73, but insisted his own game was still showing signs of progress - a repeat refrain from the 14-time major champion in recent weeks.

"I felt that I did it well in spurts again," he said. "I just need to be a little bit more consistent, and as I said earlier in the week, just got to play the par-fives better than I did. That's something I didn't do. I had a lot of irons into the par-fives and didn't take care of them."

Na's often laborious shot routine has led to the renewed discussion about slow play, with the American being heckled on Sunday at times whenever he backed off the ball or addressed it for a length of time.

He insisted he is trying to get quicker, but the adverse reaction from spectators is beginning to affect him - as he carded a final round 76 to plummet out of contention.

"Most of the people were great, but there's always some hecklers out there, like I was getting ready to get over the ball and you can just hear them saying, 'Hit it!'," Na said. "And I backed off and they're booing me. I said, 'Look, guys I backed off because of you'. It's not like I backed off because I couldn't pull the trigger.

"But I also felt that a lot of people were turning towards me and pulling for me, which I really appreciate.

He added: "Honestly part of it, I deserve it. But is it fair, no. You put an average guy in between those ropes, trust me, they won't even [be able to take a swing at the ball]."

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