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Rabbits or westerners, it makes no difference: slow play in golf is severely punished regardless of latitude. The latest penalty came from the LIV Golf Jeddah and cost Adrian Meronk dearly. In a matter of seconds, the Pole squandered a whopping $242,000 in the event won by Chilean Niemann.
Adrian Meronk, results
Indeed, the difference between a fifth and a sixth place in any stage of the LIV Golf Tour is substantial. During the final round in Saudi Arabia, Meronk was on the team with Jon Rahm and Kevin Na: the first warning for slow play came at the 10th hole.
Official timing began at the 14th, and at the 18th, a penalty of one stroke was imposed on the winner of the 2023 Italian Open. A Matter of Seconds The timing regulations of the Super League are quite straightforward and borrowed from those of the PGA Tour: each player has a maximum of 40 seconds to make a shot.
The first player of each team is given ten extra seconds. Meronk, as the first player on the second shot at the 18th hole, took a whopping two minutes. “The penalty was immediately signaled to the player,” a statement from the LIV reads.
“His score then went from 4 to 5 strokes.” At the end of the day, Adrian finished in sixth place (-10), seven strokes behind Joaquin Niemann. The prize for that position was €508,750. Rahm, who finished fifth, took home $750,000.
The difference is easily calculable. According to the Americans, sometimes meticulous with numbers, Meronk (elected golfer of the year 2023) certainly shouldn’t worry about what happened. His $508,000 winnings in Jeddah are almost a hundred thousand more than what he earned in the 14 tournaments played so far on the PGA Tour.
Joaquin Niemann Wins Again Far from penalties and the like, Joaquin Niemann has once again won on the LIV Golf Tour. After claiming victory in the opening event in Mexico, the 25-year-old from Santiago, Chile, achieved another win on the other side of the world.
Between the two Super League events, he also had the luxury of winning the ISPS Handa Australian Open on the DP World Tour. As if that wasn’t enough, he nearly pulled off victories in the Dubai Desert Classic and the International Series in Oman on the Asian Tour.
Happy moments for Joaquín Niemann (team Torque GC) in Jeddah (Photo by Jon Ferrey/LIV Golf) Happy moments for Joaquín Niemann (team Torque GC) in Jeddah (Photo by Jon Ferrey/LIV Golf) His recent invitation to the Augusta Masters is just and well-deserved.
In Jeddah, Niemann won with a total of -17, leaving Louis Oosthuizen and Charl Schwartzel four strokes behind. Still dry, Jon Rahm couldn’t do better than fifth place, also trailing Bryson DeChambeau. The team competition was won by the Crushers GC team led by DeChambeau. Niemann received a first prize of four million dollars.
