Slow play is an issue that has plagued professional golf for decades.

We’ve been around the houses discussing if we need to speed up the pace of professional golf, and how exactly we get the players to play their rounds faster. Not everyone is to blame, but how do we punish the culprits?

A number of measures have been implemented on the PGA Tour, from making pace of play stats public on the Korn Ferry Tour, to fining players, and even tracking the worst offenders to ensure they keep up.

But what the LPGA Tour did this week with two of their players should be a lesson to the PGA Tour in how to deal with this problem.

Two LPGA players penalised for slow play

The LPGA Tour are playing in Shanghai this week, and they are coming down hard on slow play from some of their biggest names.

Solheim Cup star Carlota Ciganda was in contention for the win, but that didn’t stop rules officials assessing her a two shot penalty. Yealimi Noah was also given the same penalty.

This is not the first time either player has been penalised for their slow play. Ciganda was actually disqualified from the 2023 Evian Championship for refusing to add her two shot penalty to her scorecard afterwards.

How does golf solve its slow play problem?

Justin Thomas' group was put on the clock at the PGA Championship

This might seem like a harsh penalty, but we’ve seen time and time again that this is the only way to prevent this issue. The PGA Tour has put players on the clock multiple times but failed to follow through. Fines barely touch the pockets of the biggest stars and instead punish the lesser-known players more.

But two strokes are two strokes, no matter which player is docked those shots. It could be the difference between a missed or made cut, or the difference between a win and a finish outside of the top five.

The scorecard is where you can really hurt players, so if the PGA Tour is serious about preventing this issue, they’d learn a thing or two from the LPGA Tour.