DP World Tour pro slams authorities over ‘fake’ slow play battle

DP World Tour pro Mike Lorenzo-Vera believes his circuit is fighting a “fake battle” to eradicate its perennial slow play problems.

Speaking to bunkered at The Belfry ahead of the British Masters, the outspoken Frenchman voiced his anger at authorities over the glacial pace of play he experienced at last week’s BMW International Open.

Lorenzo-Vera unusually took to Twitter after taking over three hours to make it to the 12th tee during his nightmare second round in Munich.

The 38-year-old explained how he was forced to wait on “every single shot” – despite struggling around the course himself on a front nine that included two double bogeys and one treble.

And after posting a horrendous 84 on a marathon Friday, he claimed that big fines and penalty shots must be imposed immediately as an appropriate deterrent for consistent offenders.

Lorenzo-Vera insists the blustery conditions at Golfclub Eichenried were no excuse and pace of play during the tournament was instead part of a wider problem that continues to plague the sport.

“It was three hours 12 minutes exactly,” he said, opening up on his eyebrow-raising tweet. “Plenty of people will tell you it was a hard day of golf because there was wind but there was plenty of driver and a wedge play. It’s not the f****** US Open.

https://twitter.com/MikeLorenzoVer1/status/1672193871504105473

“It was a tight course with flyer roughs and you had to be focused but just because it’s harder you don’t have to take double the time to hit shots.

“You see guys taking double the time and it was tricky but far from unplayable. I’m not sure anybody is really fighting it.”

The problem has been regularly raised in player meetings with stronger punishments suggested, but the same gripes still remain on tour over the lenient attitude towards ponderous play.

Lorenzo-Vera insists the tour’s player advisory group – the Tournament Committee chaired by David Howell and made up of 10 players including Edoardo Molinari, Ryan Fox, Eddie Pepperell and Nicolas Colsaerts – is part of the problem.

He feels guilty parties within such discussions are making it impossible for real change to be enacted.

“Plenty of guys are irritated but the slow players don’t give a s*** about it,” he added.

“I think [the DP World Tour] are trying but the sanctions are discussed with the players committee and inside that players committee there are slow players! It’s not going to work.

“Either you want to fight it and you take the players committee out of the decisions or it is just a fake battle. It’s a fake fight. 

“As long as the players committee will speak about how to fix the slow game, there’s no chance it’s going to be better, no chance.”

Ben Parsons joined bunkered as a Content Producer in 2023 and is the man to come to for all of the latest news, across both the professional and amateur games. Formerly of The Mirror and Press Association, he is a member at Halifax Golf Club and is a long-suffering fan of both Manchester United and the Wales rugby team.