Golf superstar Charley Hull wants to see LPGA Tour players booted off the circuit for slow play.
The Englishwoman finished tied-second at The Annika in Florida last week as world no.1 Nelly Korda claimed her seventh win of the season.
However, Korda’s victory over a star-studded leaderboard was overshadowed by chaotic scenes on Saturday.
Both Hull and Korda, playing alongside each other, finished in near darkness due to pace of play issues.
Their third round at Pelican Golf Club took five hours and 40 minutes, most of which was spent waiting for those in front.
“It’s ridiculous,” Hull said.
“I feel sorry for the fans, how slow it is out there. We were out there for five hours and 40 minutes in round three.
“We play in a four ball at home on a hard golf course and we’re round in three and a half, four hours. It is pretty crazy.”
Korda agreed, questioning why the leaders were sent out so late in the afternoon.
“It’s kind of hard when you don’t really see,” said the world no.1.
“I think it was a little bit of poor planning by starting so late for us.
“Whenever you’re sitting on 18 and the sun is already down, I mean, it’s never nice.”
And Hull, who is one of the fastest players on tour, believes extreme measures are needed.
She added: “I’m quite ruthless but [my idea would be] if you get three bad timings, every time it’s a two-shot penalty.
“If you have three of them, you lose your Tour card instantly. I’m sure that would hurry a lot of people up and they won’t want to lose their Tour card.
“That would kill the slow play, but they would never do that.”
Slow play is a serious problem in professional golf, not only for fans, but for players including Hull, who rely on rhythm.
Officials can dish out fines and stroke penalties – but they are rarely enforced at the top level.
In the men’s game, Rory McIlroy and Brooks Koepka have led complaints over slow play in recent years.
The PGA Tour Rules Committee recently announced a number of new proposals to address the issue.
Players will be hit with a $50,000 fine, up from $30,000, if they amass ten Average Stroke Time (AST) breaches.
The Tour is also set to introduce an ‘Excessive Average Stroke Time’ rule – which will see players docked $50,000 if they average 12 seconds more against the field in all four rounds of a tournament.
Field sizes on the Tour are also set to be dramatically reduced, which should lead to less on-course congestion.
