Jordan Spieth incurs “monitoring” penalty under new system

It was a pretty unbelievable round on a very challenging course. Though the “penalty” for two such breaches would cost the game’s highest earner (and, of course, anyone else in violation) pocket change of some $2,800, Spieth was confused by the action. “It’s just probably a bit of over-enthusiasm in the first round of the first event of the year”.

DAVID Howell put his vast European Tour experience to good use to place himself in the thick of the early action at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship this morning.

American amateur Bryson DeChambeau stole the limelight from golf’s big guns Jordan Spieth and Rory McIlroy on his European Tour debut, seizing a first-round lead at the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship on Thursday.

Spieth won the Masters and US Open and finished fourth in the Open at St Andrews, missing out on a play-off by a single shot as he looked to win the third leg of an unprecedented calendar grand slam.

Spieth, who eased to an eight-shot win at last month’s Hyundai Tournament of Champions, admitted he was disappointed with his driving during a four-under 68, but had plenty of praise for McIlroy’s round.

“I’m not going to shoot 30 under this week, I don’t think that’s possible on this golf course”.

“It’s unsure and it will be I think unsure for 10 to 20 years how significant a gold medal will be in golf”, he said. McIlroy is one of the game’s quickest players. Deemed to have taken too long to hit his putt on the previous green, Spieth was assessed what used to be called a “bad time” but is now a “monitoring penalty”. Spieth said the decision “didn’t make any sense to me” and was a “bit odd”. “I was surprised Jordan got a bad time on a putt when the guys behind weren’t even approaching their balls back on the fairway”.

Under a new policy which starts this week, players in a group on watch have 40 seconds (up to 50 seconds if they’re first to play) to play a shot.

There were no such problems for another 22-year-old American. I’m not capable of hitting it as far as he does.

Rory is already the greatest total driver of the ball in history.

Stenson birdied five of the last eight holes in his first round since keyhole surgery on his right knee in December.

The new rules, introduced by European Tour chief executive Keith Pelley, are different to those of the PGA Tour, with the aim of shaving 15 minutes off the duration of a round to help the sport become “more appealing and engaging to fans”.

The most interesting thing is that he said he was struggling on the range when he was warming up.

“There’ve been times where it’s taken me at least four or five days to find the middle of the clubface [after a break] and there’ve been times where it’s taken me a couple of hours, ” McIlroy said.

“It was quite incredible”, DeChambeau said of his round, which contained seven birdies, an eagle and one bogey.