Pressel Slapped With Slow Play Loss Of Hole

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From a Tom Canavan AP report at the Sybase Match Play, where Morgan Pressel ultimately lost to Azahara Munoz after getting slapped with a loss of hole. Golf Channel's crew played it pretty well until Tom Abbott crooned the "unfair" word, as if this was Big Break Gladstone, New Jersey.

Actually, the officials did their job:

On the 13th tee, LPGA official and match timer Doug Brecht told the 23-year-old Pressel that she had violated the tour's pace of play by taking 2:09 to play her three shots at the par-3. That was 39 seconds over the allotted 90 seconds allowed; the penalty in match play is the loss of a hole. Munoz and Pressel had been warned about slow play after the ninth hole.

Pressel, seeking her first tour win since 2008, appealed to referee Marty Robinson before her next tee shot, but the penalty stood and her lead went from 3 up to 1 up.

There was quite a bit of Twitter chat that this is match play, there are only two groups on the course, what's the big deal?

I say the rules are there to protect the fans, who can only stay awake so long, and the fellow competitor who has a right to play at a reasonable pace. Is this really that complicated?

Later, the match turned ugly when Pressel thought she saw Munoz touch the line of her putt. Cameras did not pick it up but I haven't much sympathy for Munoz since as Golf Channel's Jerry Foltz notes, she pushes the envelope by putting her putter very close to the ground during her pre shot routine.

Munoz evened the match with a 10-to-15 foot birdie at No. 15, a stroke that was delayed when Pressel contended the Spaniard touched the line of her putt before striking the ball.

Robinson had two committee officials away from the 15th review the videotape of the one camera angle they had of the hole. Robinson said they could not see any evidence of a rule being broken. Munoz then made her putt.

Pressel lost the match when she bogeyed the next two holes, missing a 3-foot par saver at No. 17.

Pressel refused to be interviewed by an on-course television reporter after the match. An Associated Press photographer heard her tell the reporter "Not a chance" when he asked for an interview.

Munoz was in tears while being interviewed after the match against her friend.

But it was fantastic TV!