The first two days of the KPMG Women’s PGA Championship were affected by slow play as stars struggled to get to grips with the difficult setup of Fields Ranch East.
There were other factors, too, including searing heat and wind, but one of the players who failed to make it to the weekend after finishing on 10 over, Stacy Lewis, believes the course difficulty is most at fault for the pace of play, with rounds taking over six hours.
Per Golfweek’s Beth Ann Nichols, after her second round of 76, the former US Solheim Cup captain said: “Today it was just hole locations again, on sides of hills.
“Then you throw the wind in there, there was no way to stop it on No. 8 again today. We should be playing the front of that tee, probably 120 yards … can’t hold the green.”
Lewis also suggested the setup is a hindrance to the growth of the women's game, explaining: “We had such a good run with this championship at very good golf courses and then we come here.
“The issue of this all too is, make us look good. We’re trying to get more people to watch women’s golf, and to watch us play golf, and setups like this, they don’t help us. And this is when we have our biggest stages, network TV and all of that, and we’re making very good players look silly."
It wasn’t just Lewis who singled out the eighth as particularly difficult. One was two-time major winner Brooke Henderson, who said after her second round: “On 8, it's a very firm green and the wind is very strong right to left and down, so it's very tough to hold the green."
US Women’s Open champion Maja Stark was also asked about the par-3, and she said: “Well, I was trying to go long and right of that pin, but it was howling right to left, and you don't want to get stuck in the bunkers because they're so deep.
“So I was kind of - I knew that I was going to end up in that place. That's just Major golf. It's very annoying when it's like that, but it's just the mindset switch you need to have.”
The US Women’s Open at Erin Hills was also hit with slow play concerns, with one of its competitors, Lexi Thompson, responding to critics afterwards, writing on Instagram: "I’ll be the first one to say I’m not as fast as my playing partners the two days, but I’m also the last person that wants to be out there for six hours.”
Shes also playing in Texas this week, where her group was put on the clock during the second round. She said: “Yeah, we were on the clock. We were warned and then put on the clock for maybe two to three holes, two and a half holes, something like that.”
However, she admitted that the wind and pin positions didn’t help, adding: “Yeah, it's not ideal out there, especially when it's super windy and you have to back off shots because of gusts and everything like that. But it happens.
“I mean, we fell maybe a hole behind. I didn't think that we were playing - I mean, we were playing slow. It took three hours to play the front nine. But it's a difficult golf course. Pins are tough, and some holes are just really par holes that you can't really hold greens on too, and some holes you have to pitch out. So it's a difficult golf course to play quickly, safe to say.”
