I struggle to see where the Caddy was meant to stand to talk to his player as they assessed what was a pretty precarious shot!? But if peoples opinion is ‘The Caddies & Players know the Rule now and it is being enforced correctly, so if it takes a few unfortunate instances like this to make examples of Players & Caddies so they stop infringing this Rule’ then the Governing Bodies will have just answered the killer question of how to stamp out ‘Slow Play’ on Tour! Players get a bad time, get put on the Clock, then BAM! Whack them with a Penalty! After a few are ‘Done’, and the Players realise this WILL be enforced no matter how ‘Intentional’ it is then they will all fall in line! Surely when so many of the Tour Pro`s, especially the big voices, are coming out in support of the Players receiving the unjust Rulings asking for at the very least more clarity on why the new Rules are being interpreted in that way then the Governing Bodies need to listen? It certainly kicked up a storm again on Social Media which lead to the USGA falsely accusing Justin Thomas of ‘cancelling meetings for talks’ about the subject. There were storms of a different sort kicking up over on the European Tour, where at the Oman Open the Players had to endure, and for a time, were abandoned due to wicked Sandstorms sweeping the Course. The 2nd Round in particular was brutal with Thomas Pieters commenting that any Player who broke 76 had played a blinder! When the dust had literally settled it was another relatively unknown quantity, Kurt Kitayama, who lifted the Title.
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