“It’s a disgrace… it’s truly appalling” - Matt Fitzpatrick among the latest to raise their voice against the concerns regarding ‘slow play’ in golf
Matt Fitzpatrick is not happy with his pairing at the RBC Heritage. The recent controversy regarding slow play at the 2023 Masters has been a topic of discussion over the last month.
Patrick Cantlay came under fire after Brooks Koepka claimed that slow play at the Masters was one of the reasons why he choked.
Speaking about the brutal slow play at the Masters, Koepka did not hold back while criticising how the day went. He also felt that anyone who is playing too slow should be penalised accordingly.
Speaking via Sports Joe, Koepka said:
"The group in front of us was brutally slow. Jon (Rahm) went to the bathroom like seven times during the round, and we were still waiting."
Just one month later, the same situation seems to have arrived again. Matt Fitzpatrick was quick to jump onto the slow-playing train and Cantlay is at the centre of it. Fitzpatrick played his group with Cantlay and Jordan Spieth at the 2023 RBC Heritage.
Fitzpatrick was quick to bash the slow play and talked about the long time that the golfers took to talk about the time it took to finish the round. He said:
"It’s a disgrace… it’s truly appalling… It’s like hitting your head against a brick wall. If you're in a three-ball, in my opinion, you should be round in four hours, four-and-a-half absolute maximum."
🗣️ "It's truly appalling. No one's going to do anything about it."
Matt Fitzpatrick thinks slow play is getting out of hand on the PGA Tour ⏱
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Patrick Cantlay replies to Matt Fitzpatrick's allegations about slow play
The entire round took over five hours to complete and Matt Fitzpatrick was certainly not happy. He made it clear and said that the slow play had been discussed for years and years, but no one had actually done anything about it.
"I feel it's almost a waste of time talking about it. I have strong opinions, but no one's going to do anything about it. The thing is I really like referees over here, they are great people, but I did not see a single ref all day."
The golfer said that he got tired of waiting around for some shots that were taking place. Although his comments seemed to be directed towards Cantlay, the latter said that no one had talked to him about it and that he felt that the play went on for the expected amount of time.
“I haven't had anybody come up to me or talk to me but I'd be perfectly happy to talk to them about it. The times that it's taken to play rounds has been pretty much the same for the last 10 or even longer years, so trying to speed it up, I'd be curious to know how they'd want to do that."
While Cantlay has said that he is usually slower than average, he has not been warned about the amount of times he takes to finish his rounds.