Slow play is all the rage these days … well, maybe not slow play but slow-play discussion, debate and “ruthless” solutions. Throw a rock on any golf course and you’re bound to hit someone with a hot slow-play take. Throw another rock and you’ll strike someone else taking three minutes to hit a wedge shot.
Charley Hull had something to say, as did Nelly Korda and Annika Sorenstam. Matt Fitzpatrick recently called the PGA Tour’s slow-play resolution “pathetic” and Lucas Glover stated that it’s outright “terrible.”
As it turns out, the issue of slow play travels. At this week’s BMW Australian PGA Championship, the first event on the 2025 DP World Tour schedule, rookie Jacob Skov Olesen was called out just 10 holes into his professional career and hit where it hurts—on the scorecard.
Interesting to see that 2024 Amateur champion Jacob Skov Olesen was hit with a one-shot penalty for a bad timing in his first start as pro in BMW Australian PGA. The Dane was first to play second shot in his group and took 130 seconds@ScotsmanSport @DPWorldTour pic.twitter.com/WnoPdiUkKZ
— Martin Dempster (@DempsterMartin) November 21, 2024
The 25-year-old Dane, who had advanced through DP World Tour Q School, took 130 seconds to hit his approach shot into the 10th hole. You’re only allowed 40 seconds (!) once it’s deemed your turn. That 90-second blunder cost the reigning Amateur Champion a one-stroke penalty, forcing a bogey on that hole and pushing a two-over 73 into a three-over 74. Not the best start to your professional career but luckily there are three more days of golf for Olesen at Royal Queensland Golf Club in Brisbane.
If the name sounds familiar, you’re not going insane. It’s because Olesen was just in the news for passing on a 2025 Masters invite in order to turn pro. Those 130 seconds on an approach shot might catch some ire from the green jackets if and when he qualifies to play the Masters as a pro. So he might want to do something about that moving forward.
Main Image: Andy Buchanan
