English pro confirms golfer received £100,000 (!) slow play fine

Discussing slow play on Twitter, one DP World Tour player confirmed hefty fines are being dished out generously to ponderous players.

Johnny Percival

30 Jan 2024

English pro confirms golfer received £100,000 (!) slow play fine

One of golf's greatest tweeters recently confirmed the DP World Tour is taking no prisoners over slow play, with one player, in particular, receiving fines amounting to £100,000 in 2023.

Slow play is a pandemic in the golf world at the moment, and it's frustrating players at every level.

It is so frustrating, in fact, that one X (Twitter) user Sam Harrop, well known for his piano medleys, took to the platform to question a claim made by Frank Nobilo that the DP World Tour has strict rules when it comes to slow play.

It's official! Jon Rahm confirms golf's worst kept secret with LIV announcement

Never one to shy away from an online discussion, Eddie Pepperell quickly chimed in, confirming the DP World Tour takes slow play very seriously.

So seriously, that one player received fines amounting to £100,000 in 2023.

Pepperell refrained from revealing which player was reprimanded for playing at a glacial pace but did confirm: "Fines do work. Pace of play is no longer an issue."

Following on from Pepperell's comments, the chair of the DP World Tour's tournament committee, David Howell also confirmed further punishment would be dished out to any repeat offenders.

He posted on X:

“I won’t bore you with the details, but on top and as well as the hefty fines already mentioned by @PepperellEddie [but] if you are ignorant enough to ignore all the slow play rules you can rack up a two shot penalty this year on the DP world tour."

Pressed to elaborate on how players could incur such a punishment, Howell responded:

“2 bad times in a week gets you a one shot penalty, if 1 of those breaches was over 80 seconds for 1st to play or 70 secs if 2nd 2 play which is considered and EST (excessive shot time) then the 2 breach would mean the player incurs a two shot penalty. Unlikely but not impossible."

While Howell and Pepperell both appear to believe that slow play is under control on the DP World Tour, there are other players who have previously voiced concern that disputes their claims.

Also posting on X, Mike Lorenzo-Vera claimed that decision-making within the tournament committee is holding back real progress.

He wrote:

“Plenty of guys are irritated but the slow players don’t give a s*** about it.

“I think [the DP World Tour] are trying but the sanctions are discussed with the players committee and inside that players committee there are slow players! It’s not going to work.

“Either you want to fight it and you take the players committee out of the decisions or it is just a fake battle. It’s a fake fight."

Read more: