Bad Timing

The second of four Korn Ferry Tour playoff events was held last week in Columbus, Ohio. In the opening round, Bryson Nimmer was assessed a one-shot penalty for slow play. Ranked 36th on the season-long point list heading into the event, the former Clemson Tiger is in contention for one of the 20 PGA Tour cards handed out at the end of KFT Finals. Nimmer missed the cut in Ohio, but he left most frustrated by the timing and appeals process.

At the beginning of this year, the KFT and the Americas Tour implemented a new pace-of-play policy that states once a group is on the clock, every player in the group is timed on each shot. A player who receives a bad time (a shot taking more than 50 seconds for the first player in the group to hit, and 40 seconds for every other player) is assessed a one-stroke penalty. Despite the communication from the tour that it would strictly enforce the policy, only two penalties had been handed out this season before Nimmer was hit on Thursday. 

Nimmer started the opening round on the 10th hole at OSU’s Scarlett Course, grouped with Cole Sherwood and Ian Holt. The threesome teed off five minutes late while waiting on the group ahead to get a ruling on the opening hole. On the next hole, the group ahead had another delay when a player waited in the fairway for a ruling while the other two players continued to play the hole. 

The player received a cart ride from a rules official to the green. His playing partners had already finished the hole, suddenly leaving Nimmer’s group out of position. On the 13th hole Nimmer’s group was warned it had fallen behind, and on the 15th hole, the group was put on the clock after failing to get back in position. 

From that point, a rules official timed each player. There weren’t any issues until the 18th hole (the group’s ninth of the day), when Nimmer hit his ball left into the trees. This is where the timing dispute started. 

According to the rule, a player “will be allowed a reasonable amount of time to find a fixed reference point, such as a sprinkler head and pace back to their ball.” After that, the clock would start. Finding the reference point does not count against the time, but “calculating and interpreting” the yardage, wind, and club selection does. 

According to Nimmer and confirmed by Sherwood, Nimmer’s caddie put down his bag near the ball and walked into the fairway to a sprinkler head with a yardage on it. He then returned to the ball. Nimmer says he played quickly because he knew the group was being timed. 

Sherwood said he was walking to his drive in the fairway when he met Nimmer’s caddie near the sprinkler head. “By the time I walked to my ball, Bryson had hit,” Sherwood said. “There was no way it was more than 30 seconds.” 

After the shot, the rules official informed Nimmer he had taken 68 seconds and would be assessed a one-stroke penalty. “I was stunned,” Nimmer said. After he finished the hole, he argued this point to the official. During the conversation, Nimmer noticed shot times had been written down from the previous holes. 

According to Nimmer, the official confirmed all of his shots on the previous holes had been hit within 35 seconds, with multiple shots taking under 30 seconds. After Holt and Sherwood finished the hole, the group was informed they were back in position and were off the clock, adding to the frustration of the penalty and raising questions about how it could have taken 68 seconds to play the shot. 

After the group completed the round, Nimmer appealed the penalty, as allowed under the pace-of-play policy. The rule states that a player must appeal immediately, and the head rules official would make the final determination. 

Holt and Sherwood volunteered to speak on Nimmer’s behalf and were at the meeting. It’s worth noting that Holt and Sherwood were directly behind Nimmer on the points list and would benefit from Nimmer getting a penalty, yet they went to the appeal on his behalf. 

In the appeal the head rules official asked if Nimmer would like the official who made the ruling to be there, and Nimmer said yes. According to both Sherwood and Nimmer, the conversation continued while the group waited and Nimmer asked if anything would change when the rules official arrived and the head rules official said, “No, I’ve already made up my mind.” 

Nimmer, backed up by his playing partners, believed he had a valid argument to present in his appeal. “Timing is meant to start once the yardage is done,” he said. “That is not how the timing occurred in my case.” 

Nimmer missed the cut by four shots and fell four spots on the points list to 40th.

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