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2025 U.S. Open Champion J.J. Spaun Given ‘Bad Time’ Warning Regarding Slow Play in Round 1 of Open Championship
Bill Streicher-Imagn Images

On Thursday, the slow passage of play at the Open Championship was once again a topic of discussion. 2025 U.S. Open winner J.J. Spaun was given a ‘bad time‘ warning by an official towards the end of this round regarding his slow play.

The American golfer was paired up with Jon Rahm and Xander Schauffele. The trio of major champions teed off at 9:58 a.m. local time at Royal Portrush.

According to reports from Golf Digest, the group was behind the clock late in the first round. If a golfer is behind the clock, they are requested to pick up the pace of their play. Things can get worse if this request is ignored.

As per R&A rules, official Charlie Maran, Spaun, was later slapped with a bad time warning. This is given to a player when they take more than 40 seconds (the allotted time to play the shot). The reigning U.S. Open champion, though, was given 50 seconds as he was playing first in the group.

J.J. would have had 50 seconds to play (his second shot) into the (17th) green because he was the first person to play. The next players would have had 40 seconds each, and unfortunately J.J. ran over the 50 seconds.

Charlie Maran told the viewers

The bad time warning will be carried over to the next round. If Spaun is given another bad time warning, then he will receive one penalty stroke. Jon Rahm’s caddie, Adam Hayes, would later have a heated discussion with the official after Spaun was assessed this warning. The group would finish the round in over 5 and a half hours.

Rory McIlroy and group took nearly 6 hours to complete first round of Open Championship

J.J. Spaun and his group were not the only ones who took more than 5 hours to complete the first round of the Open Championship. Rory McIlroy, who defeated J.J. Spaun in a playoff round at the Players Championship this year, found himself under the spotlight as he and his group took nearly 6 hours to complete their round.

McIlroy was paired with Justin Thomas and Tommy Fleetwood . The trio would take over 4 hours to complete the first 11 holes. They would eventually wrap up the day in 5 hours and 54 minutes, one of the longest times it took a group to finish the round. However, he and his group were not given any warning like the one Spaun received.

One massive reason for this slow passage of play is due to the settings of the Open Championship. Unlike the PGA Championship and the U.S. Open, the Open Championship at Royal Portrush does not have simultaneous starts at the 1st and 10th holes.

In tournaments where the field sizes are huge, half of the field starts at the 1st hole and the other half at the 10th. This is not the case at the Open Championship though.

According to the BBC, the first group teed off at 6:35 a.m. British Summer Time (BST). Each group would tee off every 11 minutes until the final group at 4:16 p.m. BST. The final group of Young-han Song, George Bloor, and OJ Farrell would finish their round in almost darkness.

LIV Golfer Marc Leishman claims that opening round at Open Championship felt like 12 hours

The 2025 Open Championship started on a slow pace. The round, which started early in the morning, ended very late at night. LIV Golfer Marc Leishman would claim that the opening round of the Open Championship felt like 12 hours long.

Leishman was one of those who expressed his frustrations regarding the slow pace of play. While speaking with the media after the first round, the Australian golfer pointed out that it was tough to deal with this slow play, as he is used to the fast pace of LIV Golf.

Felt like we were on the golf course for about 12 hours. We’ve been on the course for three hours through eight holes. That was tough to deal with, especially coming from somewhere where we play in under four and a half every week.

Marc Leishman told the reporters

LIV Golf has a comparatively smaller field size than most golf events. The PIF-backed tour only has 54 players playing in the event, which also includes a shotgun start. As a result of this, LIV Golf rounds are much quicker than some PGA Tour rounds.

This article first appeared on FirstSportz and was syndicated with permission.

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