On Sunday, Cristie Kerr lost a “sudden-death” playoff that took two competitors more than two tedious hours to play the same poorly designed par-5 18th hole six times before Haru Nomura finally prevailed in the Texas Shootout. On Monday, Kerr, whose, shall we say, meticulous, approach exasperated golf fans and commentators, went to Twitter to offer something of an apology for her role in the seemingly endless overtime session.
Cristie Kerr tweets an apology of sorts for slow play in Texas
“She is almost slow-playing herself,” Golf Channel’s Judy Rankin opined about Cristie Kerr’s deliberate play during Sunday’s overtime at the Texas Shootout.
Photo by Darren Carroll/Getty Images
Except that the mea culpa from the two-time major champion blamed the windy weather, which definitely had an impact on play, and her opponent, who appeared not to be the cause of the sluggish pace of play.
Kerr’s plodding style, as she backed off shot after shot and held lengthy conversations with her caddie, likely did not win herself (and by extension, the LPGA) any new fans.
It takes quite a bit to rile Judy Rankin. But even the normally dispassionate Golf Channel analyst could not contain herself as she mentioned Kerr’s lack of speed several times, suggesting at one point that the player may have bogged down the proceedings to get inside Nomura’s head.
“I have great respect for Cristie Kerr, but she is really taking a long time,” Rankin said at one point. “It almost feels like she is slow-playing [her opponent]. Cristie doesn’t take this long all the time, and I’m not sure it’s helping her … She is almost slow-playing herself.”
Gusting winds, the long day (Kerr teed off at 12:30 p.m. local time, Nomura at 12:40, and Nomura’s tourney-winning putt dropped after 8 p.m.), and the skull-imploding drudgery of playing and replaying the same hole that rewarded decent drives with lousy lies among the trees on the right definitely contributed to the must-miss TV event that began with such promise. Apparently, LPGA officials chose to ignore the boredom that set in with viewers when Paula Creamer and Jiyai Shin played the 18th hole at the 2012 Kingsmill Championship nine (9!) times.
All in all, the optics, as they say, were not good for the LPGA, especially with more eyes on the women’s tour than usual, as Golf Channel simultaneously aired the Texas event and the PGA Tour’s Zurich Classic (which also ended in a playoff, contested on Monday).
The slow play, though, was what really did in the event, resulting in, as GolfChannel.com’s Randall Mell noted, “a blown opportunity” for the women’s tour.
