Jon Rahms caddie in heated exchange with rules | Golf News

At The Open Championship, tensions flared when Jon Rahm’s caddie clashed with a rules official following J.J. Spaun’s warning for sluggish play, an problem that has plagued Royal Portrush considerably.

U.S. Open winner Spaun, alongside Rahm and final yr’s Open champion Xander Schauffele, confronted scrutiny by the rules officers during Thursday’s first spherical in Northern Ireland. The rounds dragged on for up to six hours at the congested Dunluce Course, with wind and rain slowing progress additional.

Spaun was under explicit commentary from officers and obtained a “bad time” warning for exceeding the allowed 50 seconds for his shot on the seventeenth inexperienced. A second infraction before the tip of the second spherical on Friday would end result in a one-stroke penalty for Spaun.

NBC’s Jim ‘Bones’ Mackay, well-known for guiding Phil Mickelson and Justin Thomas to main victories, reported that Rahm’s caddie, Adam Hayes, engaged in a “tense” dialogue with the officers who handed out the warning. While it stays unclear where Hayes stood in the dispute, he definitely wasn’t the only pissed off determine on the course that day.

Viktor Hovland mentioned: “It was really slow, I think almost six hours, just under six hours. That’s brutal, especially when you have to focus for so long. It’s not easy. Wind picked up there in the afternoon. Yeah, it takes a lot out of you.”

LIV Golf’s Marc Leishman shared related sentiments with the press, saying: “I think I got up about 8:00 a.m., watched an hour. Felt like we were on the golf course for about 12 hours.

“We’ve been on the course for three hours through eight holes. That was robust to deal with, particularly coming from someplace where we play in under 4 and a half every week.”

Aaron Rai provided insight into what contributed to the delays: “I believe it is difficult with the fashion of holes, particularly early on.

“Hole No. 5 is a drivable par four, so there’s naturally a backlog there. Then you’ve got a par three straight after that and a par five that comes on hole No. 7. I think that just kind of stacks the groups.

“Then it variety of backlogs a little bit from there. So it was a little on the sluggish facet. But naturally, with the difficult situation, the difficult course, tempo of play goes to be a little bit slower than regular.”

Spaun (+2), Rahm (-1), and Schauffele (E) have been scheduled to start their second rounds at Royal Portrush at 9:59 a.m. ET.