Is she being made the scapegoat for the curse of slow play?
You’ve got to wonder.
With the slow play the bane of golf, and not just on the professional circuit, it is nevertheless very rarely enforced.
Except, Carlota Ciganda. The Spaniard was issued with a slow-play penalty at the Evian Championship – the rules official deeming she took 52 seconds rather that the required 40 to take a putt on the final green of the second round – which Ciganda refused to accept and was subsequently disqualified for signing for an incorrect score.
This is the second time in her career to be on the wrong end of the clock. At the 2021 Bank of Hope LPGA Matchplay she birdied the final hole for what she thought was a win over Sarah Schmelzel only to be informed she’d been assessed a two strokes slow-play penalty turning victory to defeat!
Alex Maguire heads to La Manga for Bonallack Trophy
Alex Maguire, who has been in brilliant form so far this season, will get another taste of team competition this week when he competes in the Bonallack Trophy – an event which pits Europe against a team from Asia/Pacific – at La Manga in Spain.
Maguire is the only Irish player on the team, which was completed on Sunday when Germany’s Tiger Christensen, Switzerland’s Nicola Gerhardsen and Spain’s Luis Masaveu were added to the original nine selections: Maguire, James Ashfield (Wales), English pair Barclay Brown and John Gough, Swedes Albert Hansson and Tobias Jonsson, Norwegians Michael Alexander Mjjasseth and Herman Wibe Sekne and Denmark’s Frederik Kjettrup.
Having opted to skip last week’s South of Ireland, Maguire – winner of the St Andrews Links Trophy this season – returns to duty for the first time since playing in the 151st Open at Royal Liverpool, where he missed the cut. He is also expected to earn a Walker Cup call-up for Britain and Ireland against the United States, with that match taking place on the Old Course at St Andrews next month.
The Patsy Hankin Trophy also takes place at the Spanish resort, where Beth Coulter – who finished in tied-8th in last week’s European Women’s Amateur Championship, won by Spain’s Julia Lopez Ramirez – is the sole Irish member of the European team.
Word of Mouth
“It’s just incredible that I get to have my first Major win at home. I mean, in France. I could not have scripted it better. I feel like it’s just so perfect that it’s hard to believe that it’s true” – Céline Boutier on winning the Amundi Evian Championship.
By the Numbers: 260,000
That’s the amount – in US dollars – that JT Poston’s eight on the 18th in the 3M Open cost him. A seven would have given him solo second behind Lee Hodges, who secured a breakthrough PGA Tour win. “Not out here to finish 2nd. Trying to win. Would make that decision 10 times out of 10 under circumstances,” responded Poston on social media in explaining his actions.
On this day: August 1st, 1993
Nick Price’s dominance of the PGA Tour in 1993 was embellished by a fourth win of the season in the FedEx St Jude Classic at Southwind TPC in Memphis where the Zimbabwean fired a closing round 66 for a total of 18-under-par 266, securing a three-strokes winning margin over Gene Sauers and Hal Sutton.
Price – already a winner of The Players, the Greater Hartford Open and the Western Open – was in cruise control until a blip on the par-three 14th in his final round where he ran up a double-bogey five after hitting his tee shot into the water. He attributed his speed bump to overconfidence, aiming straight for the flag rather than making a safe play.
Of his fourth win of the season in which he would top the order of merit, Price explained: “I’m realising a dream and I just want to hang on to it and keep it going. It’s quite weird, in a sense. I sometimes think, ‘Why is it all happening this way all of a sudden?’ But then I realise that I didn’t happen over one year. It’s the culmination of hard work over a lot of years.”
Twitter Twaddle
What a great week as always at Lahinch, great to get to another final but not so great to lose again. Thanks for all the messages, I really can’t believe how many of you have gotten in touch – Peter O’Keeffe – aka Golf Strong – after losing out to Colm Campbell in the final of the South of Ireland.
Not gonna lie, I can’t stop watching the #SeniorOpen ... A PROPER links golf weather day. It is absolute carnage for those guys and (I’m sorry) it is fun to watch ha – Justin Thomas has a wee bit of a mean streak, we think.
Putting at Porthcawl just looks impossible. Seriously abysmal conditions. Great TV – Eddie Pepperell joining the JT club.
In the Bag: Céline Boutier (Amundi Evian Championship)
Driver: PXG 0311 Gen5 (9 degrees)
3-wood: Ping G425 Max (14.5 degrees)
Hybrids: PXG 0311 Gen5 (19 and 25 degrees), PXG 0317X Gen4 (22 degrees)
Irons: PXG 0311 P Gen 4 (6-PW)
Wedges: PXG 0311 Milled Sugar Daddy II (50, 54 and 58 degrees)
Putter: Bettinardi Custom DASS Studio Stock 3
Ball: Titleist ProV1x
Know the Rules
Q: In stroke play, a player played from outside the teeing area and hit the ball out of bounds. They go to correct their mistake by playing another ball from the correct teeing area. What is the ruling?
A: The player’s next stroke from the tee will be their third. Rule 6.1b cites, “a player must start each hole by playing a ball from anywhere inside the teeing area under Rule 6.2b. If a player who is starting a hole plays a ball from outside the teeing area (including from a wrong set of tee-markers for a different teeing location on the same hole or a different hole): in strokeplay, the player gets the general penalty (two penalty strokes) and must correct the mistake by playing a ball from inside the teeing area. The ball played from outside the teeing area is not in play. That stroke and any more strokes before the mistake is corrected (including strokes made and any penalty strokes solely from playing that ball) do not count. If a player does not correct the mistake before making a stroke to beginning another hole of, for the final hole of the round, before returning their scorecard, the player is disqualified.
