Richard Bland was assessed his second one-shot penalty for slow play of the season.
getty images
One could argue that pace of play is never more important than at LIV Golf, where a shotgun start begins each round. With a full field of 54 players, every hole is always at its three-player capacity. Any group that slows things down too much will definitely be out of position and hold everything else up.
Sign in Richard Bland, Patrick Reed AND Kevin And.
LIV is in the Chicago area this week, playing the season’s individual championship at Bolinbrook Golf Club. Brooks Koepka built a 4-stroke lead through 18 holes, but the story of the day came from the aforementioned trio.
Starting their day on the 6th hole, Bland, Reed and Na were quickly out of position by the group ahead of them by the time they reached the 10th hole, the fifth of the day. They were also behind in par time, the set time a group is expected to use on each successive hole on the course.
Bad shots happen, penalty kicks happen, official rules intervene, the game can slow down. Golf happens. But this trio doesn’t exactly live up to the reputation of golf’s fastest group. They were immediately warned by officials on the 10th hole. Two holes later, little had changed. In fact, according to LIV officials, the group had lost even more ground to the group ahead of them. At the 12th hole, the officials stepped in to communicate that the group was officially “on the clock.”
At that point, the logistics are pretty clear. When timed, players have 40 seconds to play a shot when it is their turn. They will get an extra 10 seconds if they are the first to play from a tee box. It takes more than that, without creating an abnormal situation, and that player will receive a penalty, both for his score and his pocket. Richard Bland unfortunately found out.
Bland’s second shot on the par-4 12th went over the 40-second time limit, giving him an immediate one-stroke penalty, turning his 4-under into a bogey 5. Along with it, he won 10,000 fine dollars. With that penalty, his even-par round of 70 took him to one-over 71. LIV released a statement afterward.
As rare as this scenario is, it’s not the first time it’s happened to Bland this year. Earlier this summer, in Valderrama in Spain, Bland was assessed a one-shot penalty for taking 84 seconds to play a shot at level 3. That week, it might have been just the difference between a tie for 14th and a tie for 12th, but in a $20 million tournament, that slow play penalty becomes much more costly than just the $10k fine.
