SerpApi.Org
Jon Rahm has called for golf's authorities to be "stricter" in their enforcement of pace of play rules.
The LIV Golf star says not enough is being done to tackle slow play by the game's governing bodies, and he believes the new codes of conduct imposed on players at the majors expose the soft touch used when dealing with players failing to keep up the required pace on the course.
The major championships launched a joint effort to crack down on poor player behavior this year in the hope of erradicating petulant outbursts that cross the line. Rahm was given an official warning under the new rules at The Open Championship last week after throwing his club in a moment of rage.
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Rahm is critical of the lack of clarity surrounding the policing of player conduct, but he believes the same framework could be used to put more pressure on slow players to speed up.
Code of conduct warnings last for the remainder of the tournament, and a second offense results in a two-shot penalty. For warnings about slow play, however, players are given a clean slate at the end of each round, and Rahm believes the conflicting approaches do not make sense.
"I can give you an idea. If you get a warning for code of conduct on Thursday, that warning stays for the whole week and it doesn't reset," he said. "You can be slow on Thursday; your group gets warned; you have time to catch up. Then you get put on the clock, and once you're on the clock, you get one more warning before you get penalized.
"So you get three possible bad times amongst many others, and then when you tee off on Friday, you start from zero again. That doesn't seem very fair to me.
"How come one that is a present issue in the game that can cause slow play and affect other people, you get so many breaks, and it's completely looked over, and then in the code of conduct, you don't know where the line is.
"You have no definition of what you can or cannot do, even though we understand where the limit may be, and that warning stays with you for the whole week.
"I know the different things and why they're doing it, but either make one of them a lot stricter or the other one a lot looser. Whatever you choose, but it would be nice to see them on the same line. I think make pace of play stricter."
As for the code of conduct, Rahm believes the majors need to provide players with clearer definitions of what constitutes a warning or a penalty.
"I personally have no idea what the line is. No clue," he said. ""I think you can all kind of understand what it may or may not be.
"I completely forgot about it until it happened. I know they issued multiple warnings over the course of the week [at The Open]. Yeah, it would be nice to have some clarity."
