The LPGA handed Carlota Ciganda and Yealimi Noh two-stroke penalties for sluggish play over the weekend at the Buick LPGA Shanghai.
Ciganda was really within putting distance at the time, as first famous by Richard Kaufman of Sky Sports. The Spaniard, who is notoriously deliberate, completed the day 5 back of third-round chief Hye-Jin Choi. She in the end positioned fifth in the first of 4 LPGA occasions in Asia, 5 strokes behind winner Ruoning Yin of China.
The LPGA launched a stricter pace-of-play coverage in 2025 that gives a nice for those who are 1-5 seconds over; a one-stroke penalty for those 6-15 seconds over; and a two-stroke penalty for more than 16 seconds.
Advertisement
Ciganda has incurred expensive fines before.
In 2021 at the Bank of Hope LPGA Match Play occasion, the 36-year-old European Solheim Cup star was all sq. coming into the 18th against Sarah Schmelzel. Ciganda won the gap but lost the match due to a slow-play penalty that resulted in loss of gap. Schmelzel won, 1 up.
At the 2023 Amundi Evian, she was disqualified after refusing to settle for a two-stroke penalty that occurred on the ninth gap (her ultimate of the day).
Carlota Ciganda of Spain seems on from the ninth inexperienced during the third spherical of the Buick LPGA Shanghai 2026 at Sheshan Golf Club on October 17, 2026 in Shanghai, China.
Then, two years in the past at The Annika pushed by Gainbridge at Pelican, Ciganda entered the week with a berth into the CME Group Tour Championship on the line. With a $4 million winner’s examine up for grabs at the CME, the $4,000 nice she incurred for sluggish play was really in all probability price it as she nabbed the sixtieth and ultimate spot in the area.
Advertisement
“I know I have to improve, and I’ll try to do that next year,” Ciganda advised Goflweek that week about her tempo of play.
“I don’t think people understand how tough golf can be … mentally it’s a lot tougher than what people think. Golfers just drink some beers and play some golf, and we do this for a living. A lot goes through in your mind.”
Yealimi Noh of the United States seems on from the first tee during the second spherical of the Buick LPGA Shanghai 2026 at Sheshan Golf Club on October 16, 2026 in Shanghai, China.
As for California’s Noh, 5 years in the past at the Kia Classic, she got hit with a $10,000 nice at the Kia Classic. Noh obtained her first pace-of-play nice in her first occasion as a rookie in 2020, the Gainbridge LPGA at Boca Rio, where she tied for thirty fifth. Because she’d obtained a pace-of-play nice in 2020 as a rookie, the nice doubled the next 12 months.
Advertisement
At the Buick Shanghai last week, Noh shot 76 with the two-stroke penalty and in the end tied for thirty second.
This article initially appeared on Golfweek: Two LPGA gamers handed two-stroke penalties for sluggish play in China
Source hyperlink
