In his first tournament since winning the U.S. Open, J.J. Spaun didn’t have a great time in his first round playing the British Open.
In fact, he had a bad time — quite literally.
Spaun made his Open Championship debut in a star-studded trio alongside Jon Rahm and Xander Schauffele at Royal Portrush. On a day where a lot of players went low, and despite having the more favorable draw, Spaun struggled on his way to shooting a 2-over 73.
Jon Rahm’s Caddie Got ‘Heated’ After J.J. Spaun Gets ‘Bad Time’ Warning
Midway through the round, an R&A rules official notified Spaun he being dinged with a “bad time” after apparently taking too long to hit. An official explained the ruling during an appearance on the USA telecast.
“Play has been particularly slow today with some of the weather. J.J. would have had 50 seconds to play his shot into the green because he was the first player in the group to play,” R&A official Charlie Maran said, as seen on the Round 1 broadcast. “The next players would have 40 seconds each, and unfortunately, J.J. went over the 50 seconds and gets the bad time. Now that bad time will be carried forward into the next round, and a further bad time would be a one-penalty shot.”
Pretty standard stuff, but it’s also something PGA Tour players like Spaun don’t deal with as much when playing in America. Anecdotally, there’s a little more leniency from the Tour on these sorts of things, but Spaun got a quick crash course on the expectations across the pond.
For whatever reason, though, the development didn’t sit well with one of the people in the group. According to NBC’s Jim “Bones” Mackay, Rahm’s caddie, felt the need to defend one of their playing partners.
“It was interesting that J.J. Spaun got the bad time, but oddly enough, Jon Rahm’s caddie, Adam Hayes, had a real problem with it,” Mackay reported during the telecast. “He was having a heated discussion with the official over the bad time, so I’m not exactly sure what that was about. But he was sticking up for J.J.”
Slow Day of Play at First Round of British Open
Pace of play was an issue in the first round. Neither Rahm nor Schauffele commented on the incident nor the pace of play, but Marc Leishman didn’t hold back about how slowly things were moving at Portrush in Round 1.
“Felt like we were on the golf course for about 12 hours,” Leishman told reporters after his own 2-over round. “We’ve been on the course for three hours through eight holes. That was tough to deal with, especially coming from somewhere (LIV) where we play in under 4 1/2 (hours) every week.”
Another group — the trio of Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Thomas and Rory McIlroy — needed 2 hours and 57 minutes to play the front nine.
Weather certainly played a factor, especially early in the day. Schauffele and Rahm both noted how it made a difficult course even harder.
That’s unlikely to get much better over the next three rounds, either. There’s at least a chance for rain during each day of the tournament. There’s also wind in the forecast, which can really slow down play while players wait for breezes to shift or slow.
One player who can’t afford such patience moving forward? Spaun, apparently.
Like Heavy Sports’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on Heavy Sports
The post Bad Time? Jon Rahm’s Caddie Gets ‘Heated’ In Defense Of British Open Playing Partner appeared first on Heavy Sports.