"Incredibly selfish" PGA Tour commentator BLASTS Justin Thomas and Adam Scott

PGA Tour commentator rips into Justin Thomas and Adam Scott over time on penalty drops at the Wyndham Championship.

05 Aug 2023

Justin Thomas and Adam Scott have been labelled "incredibly selfish" by a PGA Tour commentator for taking more than 10 minutes to take their penalty drops on the short par-4 8th hole in the second round of the Wyndham Championship.

Thomas and Scott both drove into a creek near a stone bridge down the left flank on the 360-yard hole.

Both players seemed to have got a firm grip on the situation when they arrived at the scene of their errant tee shots as both of them placed tee pegs into the ground ready to take their penalty drops.

But just when it seemed like a simple ruling for both JT and Scott was about to play out, the Australian was suddenly not comfortable with the position of his drop.

Scott and Thomas then called in PGA Tour rules official Ken Tackett for clarification.

The whole process took well over 10 minutes.

Scott believed both he and Thomas had hooked their tee shots into the creek, and given the way the creek was shaped diagonally from right to left, a drop back into the fairway straight back from the point of entry would have put them in the fairway, rather than in the rough.

Both Scott and Thomas took their drops on the left fairway 124 yards from the hole.

Shane Lowry, who was making up the three-ball, was then called in for his opinion.

The Irishman trudged over, agreed on their drops, and then he said to Thomas: "Thanks for making me walk 150 yards."

The entire hole, and a short par-4 at that, took more than 20 minutes to complete for the group.

Despite taking such deliberation over the drops, neither Scott or Thomas were docked strokes for their slow play.

It all led to fury from golf fans on social media who could not understand why such simple penalty drops could be strung out for such a long time.

PGA Tour commentator James Gregg, who works for Eurosport and Discovery Plus, could not believe his eyes and he took to Twitter with a 1 minute and 43-second video rant on Twitter.

Gregg labelled both Scott and Thomas as "incredibly selfish" for contributing to slow play in the second round.

He also considered they were not penalised strokes for slow play "because they were Justin Thomas and Adam Scott."

WATCH HIS VIDEO RANT HERE:

Not good this I’m afraid.
Justin Thomas & Adam Scott - appalling. They’ve lost a whole hole on the group in front from their own bottom lips falling out… and nothing else. I expect them to both be on the clock for the rest of the round! pic.twitter.com/D7J772s67q
— James Gregg (@jamesgregg7) August 4, 2023

PGA Tour commentator Gregg said:

"Nothing annoys me more than players taking, I make it 12 minutes now, maybe even longer, to work out where their ball crossed the hazard line.

"And then when they decide, 'ooh I don't like the lie, I think actually it crossed a little bit further up'... not good... Adam Scott and Justin Thomas, incredibly selfish.

"I mean, I feel sorry for Shane Lowry, he gave himself a really decent look for birdie there, and he was waiting around, he still is waiting around, this is unacceptable.

"We've got the footage, we've replayed it, we've seen, radioed down to the official, Justin Thomas' was left of the bridge, Adam Scott's was near the bridge. Take your drop in the rough lads, if you don't like it, well tough, you're going to get a two-shot penalty if you don't hit your shots in the next two minutes... simple.

"Because it's Adam Scott and Justin Thomas, that's why they're not being penalised for a) slow play or b) taking their time; this is a good 15 minutes after they started that look for a ball.

"I am incredibly cross if you can't tell, I've managed to hide it fairly well, and then luckily we actually went down for on-course comms for that little segment. I've kept my job just about, but not a good look, I know there's a lot at stake, I know they're both outside the bubble but Shane Lowry is too, he's outside the top 70.

"This is what is wrong with golf I'm afraid... if I was sat with a non-golf person now they would think this whole thing is ridiculous and this is what needs to change. Shame you on PGA Tour, not good."

Lowry ended up making a birdie on the hole, but both Thomas and Scott walked away with bogeys.

Thomas ended up enjoying an improved round of 65 to get him to 5-under par for the tournament and seven strokes off the pace currently set by Russell Henley.

Scott slumped to a 1-over par 71 leaving him a shot behind Thomas on the leaderboard at 4-under par.

Lowry carded a 69 to narrowly make the halfway cut on 3-under par.

All three players will need a big push over the weekend to ensure their playing rights into the FedEx Cup Playoffs, which start next week.

The top 70 in the standings after this week's tournament will make it through to the FedEx St Jude Championship.

Here's what they need to advance

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