A seemingly innocuous statement on social media from Edoardo Molinari — Francesco’s older brother and a European Tour pro in his own right — about the scourge on the game of golf that is slow play turned into a “name and shame” exercise.
Bemoaning a slow day on the course, Molinari fired off the oft-seen “golf must do something about slow play” tweet. To his surprise, the post went semi-viral, which spurred him to up the ante.
“I didn’t think I was going to cause such a debate with this tweet,” he wrote, “however if the above tweet about slow play gets 1,000 retweets I’ll post the updated list of players being timed and fined on the @EuropeanTour in 2019 as of last Monday! #stopslowplay
I didn’t think I was going to cause such a debate with this tweet, however…if the above tweet about slow play gets 1,000 retweets I’ll post the updated list of players being timed and fined on the @EuropeanTour in 2019 as of last Monday!#stopslowplay
— Edoardo Molinari (@DodoMolinari) April 27, 2019
The ravenous golfers on Twitter did not disappoint. Just over an hour after Molinari put out the stakes, the threshold was met and Molinari paid up.
As promised…list of timings as of April 22nd. Next updates list will come out at the end of June!
There are a few usual suspects and a few surprises.
Please retweet and share to speed things up!#stopslowplay pic.twitter.com/VpR65M4Xrb— Edoardo Molinari (@DodoMolinari) April 27, 2019
While getting put on the clock seems to help urge players along as evidenced by the relatively low amount of breaches, only three players have been fined by the European Tour: Louis Oosthuizen, Adrian Otegui and Erik Van Rooyen, each to the tune of €3,000.
Despite the adulation he received on social, fellow European Graeme McDowell said the problem has long since been out of control.
“I saw his tweet this morning when he came off the course, ‘We need to play faster, blah, blah, blah.’ I get it,” McDowell told GolfChannel.com at the Zurich Classic on Saturday. “I hear where Edoardo is coming from, but he is, what shall we say, flogging a dead horse?
“It’s not a dead horse, but it’s pretty dead. What do you want to do? We can’t get around there much quicker. Is 20 minutes going to change his life? Listen, I like Edoardo, nice kid, but I think he’s just frustrated.”
McDowell trotted out the common refrain that it’s difficult to get around much faster with three-player groups vying for huge sums of money on difficult and long golf courses. However, he was all for the public releasing of times as he believes that may encourage players to pick up the pace a bit.
“It should be public, you know, name and shame,” McDowell said. “I’m willing to admit I’ve been timed five times so far this year, been put on the clock five times, which is halfway to my 10, which is halfway to a $25,000 fine. I’m aware, but you get in the wrong group on the wrong week and you’re gonna get timed. Henrik Stenson is on six times [according to the list]. Is Henrik a slow player? No, it’s just one of those things.
“I hear Edoardo. We all hear him. We all wish we could play a little faster to attract more people to the sport. We’re trying.”
