The 150th Open: Matt Fitzpatrick among players to hit out at 'ridiculous' slow play at St Andrews
Fitzpatrick on taking six hours to complete his opening round: "This just shouldn't be happening ever in golf." - Watch The 150th Open throughout the week live on Sky Sports' dedicated Open channel
By Ali Stafford at St Andrews
Last Updated: 15/07/22 8:38am
Matt Fitzpatrick was among the players to hit out at the "ridiculous" pace of play at The 150th Open, labelling the situation as a "joke" after rounds were taking over six hours to complete at St Andrews.
The iconic Old Course at St Andrews has multiple shared greens and some shared fairways, while many of the par-fours are driveable off the tee for longer hitters, leading to players waiting for long periods at multiple points during their rounds.
Players suffered lengthy delays on tee boxes and with approach shots into many holes, with fast fairways and tough pin locations leaving many attempting putts from over 100 feet, with Fitzpatrick among those to call out the unacceptable time taken to finish his opening round.
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"It's just a joke, isn't it?" Fitzpatrick said after a level-par 72. "Like six hours, 10 (minutes). This just shouldn't be happening ever in golf. It's the way the golf course is set up. It's how firm it is. The way the golf course is designed.
"You're crossing over a lot, and to get better angles and better lines, you've got to hit across all the fairways. There's nothing you can do unfortunately about it. It's just sad more than anything. It's just ridiculous."
Fitzpatrick was playing alongside Tiger Woods - who struggled to an opening-round 78 - and Max Homa, who described the "bizarre" situation which led to the par-four five taking nearly an hour to play.
"Got to 14, waited on the tee for a while," Homa explained. "Then they [the group ahead] said we were going to hit up on them, and they let us drive. So we hit our drive. When we got up there, we waited 20 minutes for them to hit, which meant we had to wait another 20 after that for us to hit. It was very bizarre."
Defending champion Collin Morikawa, who matched Fitzpatrick's 72, added: "I figured it would be slow, but I didn't know it would be this slow. We were waiting on groups at tees, waiting on fairways.
"Xander [Schauffele] and I talked about it, we're watching more golf than we ever have. You stay in the fairway and you're watching two other groups play golf."
Rory McIlroy was two shots off the early lead after an opening-round 66, with the four-time major champion admitting that the layout of the Old Course is always a factor in the pace of play.
"It's quite stop-start but I think St Andrews is that way," McIlroy said. "There's a lot of crisscrossing and waiting on other greens and waiting on greens to clear because they're drivable par fours.
"So I think, especially the first two days when it's the full field, it's to be expected. It is what it is."
Watch The 150th Open throughout the week live on Sky Sports' dedicated channel - Sky Sports The Open. Live at The Range, Featured Holes and Featured Groups will be available via the red button on Sky Sports The Open, along with the Sky Sports website and app.
