The policy, which came into force at the Ford Championship last March, was simple: Players that take up to five seconds longer than the allowed time to play their shot will receive a fine. Anyone taking six to 15 seconds longer will receive a one-stroke penalty. Need 16 seconds or longer? That’s two shots added to your card.
Charley Hull was certainly on board. In fact, she said she would have gone even further. “I’m quite ruthless,” she explained after a round that had toppled over the six-hour mark. “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. 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 would never do that.”
On paper, the new measures, though not as draconian as Hull’s suggestions, are working. The 2026 LPGA season is 13 events old and there have been just two penalty strokes dished out for slow play. Jin Hee Im was handed an extra shot during the JM Eagle LA Championship in April, and Arpichaya Yubol received the same punishment at last week’s ShopRite Classic.
According to a post on X by LPGA Media, it was due to “exceeding her maximum time allowed for her total strokes timed” on the 13th hole of the third round.
Arpichaya Yubol was assessed a one-stroke penalty for exceeding her maximum time allowed for her total strokes timed on hole #13. @LPGA | @ShopRiteLPGA
— LPGA Media (@LPGAMedia) May 31, 2026
The rare penalty, which was handed to Yubol for her time over the accumulation of shots to complete the hole rather than any specific shot, turned her second round at the 54-hole event from a 73 into a 74. But it was 24 hours later that the punishment really hit home.
The Thai player rallied on Sunday to card a 5-under 66 over Seaview’s Bay course and move into second place behind champion Celine Boutier, who won by – you’ve already guessed it – a single stroke.
Of course, the penalty may have been the inspiration for Yubol’s final-day fightback, but, on paper at least, the penalty cost her a shot at a playoff with her French rival.
Still, it’s a second runner-up finish in four starts for Yubol, who moved up to World No. 111 with the result. But victory would have also wrapped up her tour card for the next two years, as well as qualification for the big-money season-opener at the Tournament of Champions in January.
The 24-year-old will also now sit out this week’s US Women’s Open – a tournament that’s yielded her only major top-10 to date – knowing a win would have got her in the field at Riviera.