(Reuters) - Clemens Prader claimed a place in European Tour history by becoming the first golfer to be penalised a stroke for slow play at the Shot Clock Masters in Austria on Saturday.
The home favourite fell foul of the rules on the sixth hole when he took four seconds over his allotted time for a putt on day three of the event at Diamond Country Club.
At the tournament players are being timed on every shot, allowed either 40 or 50 seconds, in an experiment to try to speed up play.
"I just didn't hear him, I didn't hear 'time'," said Prader. "I was just in my routine and it must have been called sometime when I was walking to my ball, which is fine, I just didn't hear it. It was just four seconds over, which is a little unfortunate.
"I was a little angry. It got me so heated that I actually holed a bunker shot on the next hole, which was okay, it kind of reversed it."
Scotland's Grant Forrest and Italian Andrea Pavan also later incurred time penalties.
It is the first time players are being timed on every shot at a major tour tournament in an effort to speed up play.
After 54 holes Finland's Mikko Korhonen led the tournament on 13 under par, five shots ahead of South Africa's Justin Walters.
(Reporting by Neil Robinson, editing by Pritha Sarkar and Christian Radnedge)
