Adam Scott took 44 minutes to play one hole at WGC HSBC Champions

Adam Scott carded a 44-minute, quadruple bogey at the WGC HSBC Champions event.

The WGC HSBC Champions was spectacularly won by Bubba Watson, but when Adam Scott arrived at the eighth hole of his second round he was within three shots of the lead thanks to four birdies over the opening seven holes.

But an errant drive began  a long, disastrous hole for the former Masters champion.

The Golf Channel had a thorough description of the events:

Scott hooked his tee shot into a hazard on the par-5 and played his third shot from a drop zone near the tee, from where he found the fairway. His fourth shot came up short of the green, but stayed out of the hazard.

His next shot wasn’t as fortunate.

Scott hacked out of thick rough. His ball carried the water hazard but rolled back inside the hazard line, into a valley created by slope and a rock. After contemplating a pop shot with a lofted club, he opted to play from another drop zone, some 80 yards from the hole.

Scott finally reached the green with his seventh shot and eventually two-putted for a quadruple-bogey 9, giving back all the shots he had picked up on the day.

All up 44 minutes.

Scott double-bogeyed the next hole too to drop six shots in two holes. He finished the tournament six shots behind the mark set for a playoff by Tim Clark and Bubba Watson.

Now Scott is not a slow player by any means. I can think of ten or twenty much slower PGA Tour golfers off the top of my head – some Australian. But if anything, this does highlight just how much is at stake for these players – and how little enforcement is in place to deal with slow play.

I’ve had a number of people tell me that despite how much they enjoy watching golf on TV, the speed at which the golfers play has become a turn-off, quite literally. Slow play is not just an issue for other golfers but for those of us watching at home as well.