"Montgomerie puts his foot down to stop slow players"

And there's a lot of weight behind...wait, no fat jokes when slow play is on the table.

Martin Dempster says that Monty hopes to work with Corey Pavin to continue the Faldo-Azinger Ryder Cup ban on practice putting, which mysteriously was not implemented at Harding Park for last week's Presidents Cup.

Of course, Monty's reasoning does make you wonder if even the ban will prevent the unthinkable: not finishing matches due to a lack of daylight.

Due to the fact the biennial match is being held at the start of October – a fortnight later than normal – there are concerns about being able to complete the two sessions that are played on the first two days to the light.

Montgomerie, for one, is well aware of that fact and the European captain will be urging his players to do everything in their power to ensure that matches don't have to be concluded the following day.

"We have to get round as quickly as we can next October. It is two weeks later than normal and a lost half an hour will be the difference between finishing a game or not. The latter is not the type of message we should be putting across to club golfers. We should be playing quicker than them because it's not as though we are having to look for golf balls."

I like this Monty:

"My players will not be practising their putting once the match is underway," insisted Montgomerie. "They'll have had three days to do that earlier in the week."

Comments

[chico]

Gadzooks!-Monty makes a sensible comment about the RC!Hope thats not the only one!
Now-any chance of a rest from this till well into 2010?
No-probably not.

[thusgone]

will his players be pacing off shots of 100-some yards?

[Vince Spence]

What am I missing? If starting a 'fortnight' later steals 30 minutes of sunlight, start 45 minutes sooner.

Rule 7-2 should be changed to disallow practice putting altogether. Thank God the Tour writes a local rule to forbid practice putting during medal play, or we would have 7 hour rounds on tour.

[JohnV]

Under the Rules they ban practice putting, but they can't prohibit a player from putting his original putt after the hole has been decided. For example, Tiger makes a 3 and Luke Donald has a putt for a 4, he can still putt that as it isn't practice.

The biggest reason for allowing it in the Cup matches is that a player may go two or three holes without hitting a putt in foursomes.

The problem isn't the time spent practice putting, it is all the time they waste in everything else.

[Jordan]

JohnV:

But you could say the same thing about all the "everything else" (practice swings, not having a club set when it's your turn, etc.) All the "everything else," including practice putting, adds up to slow play. There is no single culprit. It's cumulative.

That they have to worry about daylight in a small-filed, team event shows how absurd the slow-play problem has become.

[chico]

Vince-start 45 mins earlier.
I live about 15 minutes from Gleneagles.We've had 4 ground frosts already this October when play would have been impossible to start until about 9.30.Dont know whose bright idea it was to put these matches back a fortnight but it makes me nervous.
It could be such a disaster as this should be a huge event for this beautiful part of Scotland but the golfing Gods will have to be on our side!

[fourputter]

At that time of year in Wales there is considerable risk of delayed starts due to weather, particularly morning mist if the weather is fine, strangely enough.

The four ball games are outrageously slow, but such sloth has become endemic in this form of the game. Improvement can be made if the players all commit to playing as quickly as possible, especially being ready to HIT the ball, not begin to consider their options, when it's their turn to play. But given the tension and the reputational risk they are all at, I'm not holding my breath.

The foursomes can be speeded up significantly if the non-striker proceeds to whence he will play his next shot, rather than to stand beside the striker while he hits his shot. We saw ludicrous delays at the Solheim Cup recently because the players were too stupid to do this (except for Matthew and Moody, who were brought up playing this form of the game in Scotland, where a round is expected to take no more than 3 1/2 hours, no matter how many balls are in play). The foursome is designed to be played MORE QUICKLY than a singles match (because the time between shots should be, in theory, much reduced). Again I see little hope of this fact dawning on the organizers or the players.

[Golf]

GO MONTY! Seriously... they've had 3 days to practice their putting before the round, pick it up, you missed. Suck it up.

I think a sports psychologist would probably frown on the practice putting after you missed the putt. If you can't ever "move on" mentally and you are constantly thinking about the bad stuff in the past, it can't be good.

It's like when I play with my friend that is constantly dropping another ball to play another one...at the end of the round he has NO idea how he shot and he has never lived in the moment of playing golf.

[The O]

"The problem isn't the time spent practice putting, it is all the time they waste in everything else"

Bingo. Ever seen a player re-putt the ten footer they just missed? They do it like we would. Make another stroke in about 5 seconds. Its the 85 practices swings and the 20 minute conversation about whether its inside right or right edge that makes them play so slowly.

[Aunt Blabbie]

Monty's politicing. That's all. It's kind of like proposing tougher laws for drunk drivers and pedophiles.

[johnv]

four-putter, I was an observer at the President's Cup this weekend. I was with the Tiger Woods - Steve Stricker vs Tim Clark - Mike Weir foursomes. Both teams players shortcutted when it made sense while their partners walked back to the tee. An example was on #10 where Tiger hit the second shot while Stricker was still at least 150 yards behind him coming from the tee. Mike Davis was the referee for the match and commented to the players and to me later how happy he was to see them playing foursomes the way they were intended to be played.

So, some of the players do get it.

[fourputter]

Thanks, johnv, for letting me know that: no reference was made in the TV coverage I watched. That's great news. Maybe the organizers can TELL the players that's the way you do it in foursomes and there'll be a chance of finishing the daily schedule on the first two days at Celtic Manor. Remember that at the Solheim Cup, still in summer, they nearly didn't complete some matches before dark! By the way, it's a rare hole that it's not practical to follow this practice.

[royalandancientdbag]

Did anyone wait longer than Mrs D for the crowd to quiet down before he hit it fat (get it - fat) (not that I should talk) to lose the (insert major here)? He cannot remember where his ball was yesterday (go Sandy) or his actions throughout his career.

P.S. Plus, he let Hugh Grant live.

[Politically Incorrect]

Chico,

It's a known fact I have a strong distaste for Monty that colors my judgment, bu the real question is: Are you campaigning to be his next wife?

[SGarrett]

I also attended the PC (all 6 days) and saw many instances of foursomes where both team members not teeing off moved far down the fairway and awaited the tee shots of their partners.