"It's tough to watch" Nelly Korda hits out at slow players on LPGA Tour

"Good it's being enforced" Nelly Korda applauds latest slow-play penalty for Carlota Ciganda.

09 Aug 2023

"It's tough to watch" Nelly Korda hits out at slow players on LPGA Tour

World No.1 golfer Nelly Korda has defended the decision of a rules official to penalise Carlotta Ciganda for slow play - and her ultimate disqualification - at the Evian Championship last month.

Ciganda, 33, was DQ'd from the Evian Championship on the LPGA Tour two weeks ago after refusing to accept her two-stroke slow penalty for playing too slowly on the 9th hole, which was her final hole of the round.

The Spaniard lost her appeal and she then refused to sign her scorecard, which led to her being booted out the tournament.

Ciganda carded a 1-over 72 in the second round. The two-stroke penalty moved Ciganda to 6-over par and outside the cut line at 4-over par.

She then took to social media and ranted in detail about the "very poor performance" of the tournament officials.

While Korda admits she is a fan of Ciganda's game, she believes the Rules of Golf are there to deal with situations such as the one that arose in France.

Speaking to GolfMagic and other media ahead of this week's AIG Women's Open at Walton Heath in England, Korda said:

"Yeah, I think at the end of the day, The Rules of Golf are The Rules of Golf and they should be enforced. I really like Carlotta. She's a great person. I enjoy playing with her. I am a fast player, but I would say at the end of the day The Rules of Golf are The Rules of Golf, and it's good that it's being enforced."

Keep up to speed with all the latest scores, live blog and video content from the AIG Women's Open this week.

Korda was then asked to provide her general feelings on slow play, and she declared there is no way rounds of golf should be taking any longer than five hours.

It's a turn-off for the fans, says Korda, which is not what she wants at all.

"I think it should be monitored. I mean, if I'm being honest, if I was a spectator and I was out here for 5 1/2 hours to 6 hours, you know, it's tough to watch, right. You want to watch a sport that's continuously moving and not continuously stalling. I would say I think it's really important for the rules officials to enforce The Rules of Golf."

Korda added she finds slower players in her group throw her off her rhythm, but that she just has to try to slow everything down.

"I just kind of slow down. I walk a little slower and I just try to adapt the pace of my group. I would say that sometimes it does throw off your rhythm as a golfer to play with someone that's a little slower. But you just kind of have to adapt and play your best with the situation at hand. My caddie and I do a really good job with it, and I haven't run into any real issues."

Thankfully for Korda this week, she is out with Charley Hull for the opening two rounds, one of the fastest players on the circuit.

Lydia Ko is also joining them.

"I love Charley she's so much fun to be around. I love playing with her. I've played a couple practise rounds with her. We're pretty friendly. Yeah, she's a fast player, I enjoy that, and she has a really good personality. She's fun to be around and she's an amazing golfer. Her putting is ridiculous. Yeah, she's going to be a fan favourite here, so we'll have a lot of people cheering for her."

Related: AIG Women's R1 Tee Times

Related: AIG Women's Prize Purse

Two years ago, Ciganda won a match but then lost it as a result of slow play!

The latest rules incident comes after a Tour pro was caught cheating on the final hole of a PGA Tour Canada event.

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