Charley Hull during round three of The Annika. (Image: Getty)
Charley Hull has ruthlessly called for female players to be stripped of their LPGA Tour card if they’re repeatedly found guilty of slow play. Hull endured a disappointing final day at The Annika on Sunday, finishing tied for second behind world No.1 Nelly Korda.
Hull, 28, teed off on Sunday a shot clear of her rival, but could only card a one-over par 71 as Korda fired a 67 to take victory by three strokes.
But Hull’s frustration afterwards wasn’t just down to her near miss, with the Solheim Cup star also angry with having to wait for her playing partners.
She was forced to finish her third round in nigh-on darkness, and was clearly irked as she walked off the 18th. And while she refused to blame that problem for her runner-up finish, Hull didn’t mince her words after the tournament concluded.
“It’s ridiculous,” she said. “I feel sorry for the fans how slow it is out there. We were out there for five hours and 40 minutes in round three. We play in a four ball at home on a hard golf course and we’re round in three and a half, four hours. It is pretty crazy.”
She then called for more stringent sanctions, adding: “I’m quite ruthless, but I said, listen, if you get three bad timings, every time it’s a two shot penalty. If you have three of them you lose your Tour card instantly.
Tournament winner Nelly Korda was also critical of the slow play. (Image: Getty)
“I’m sure that would hurry a lot of people up and they won’t want to lose their tour card. That would kill the slow play, but they (the LPGA) would never do that.”
Korda was also critical of what transpired on Saturday, saying: “It’s kind of hard when you don’t really see. I think it was a little bit of poor planning by starting so late for us. Whenever you’re sitting on 18 and the sun is already down, I mean, it’s never nice.”
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The LPGA have already made changes to tournaments to try and combat the issue of rounds taking too long. In 2023, they reduced the number of players making weekend cuts in order to speed up the closing 36 holes of competition.
Hull, renowned for the pace in which she completes rounds, still has just one tournament win to her name in 2024. Earlier this month, she sealed success in the Aramco Team Series following the final event in Riyadh.