LPGA Nightmare: Playoff Tests The 18th Hole Six Times, Cristie Kerr Slow Plays

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The LPGA had a chance to share the spotlight with a rain-delayed Zurich Classic on Golf Channel, and while the network (in my biased view) did a solid job managing a real traffic jam, they could not overcome the LPGA product failings.

Namely that the tour, even after criticism following past deja-vu-all-over-again fiascos, insisted on conducting a sudden death playoff on only one hole. That would be Las Colinas's less-than-perfect 18th hole.

This meant eventual winner Haru Nomura and slow-poke Cristie Kerr played the 18th hole six excruciating times.

And then there was Kerr, who played at a painfully slow clip and was eventually called out by lead analyst Judy Rankin for trying to slow play her opponent. Twitter appreciated Rankin's tough call.

 Rooting for Cristie Kerr to lose now. Glad Judy Rankin finally called her out for the ridiculous slow play. Rather see PGA finish only here.

To be clear, none of this taints Nomura's win in the Volunteers of America Shootout. In fact, the world No. 18 ability to channel Kerr's gamesmanship and the lousy playoff hole makes it that much more impressive.

Will Gray at GolfChannel.com on how this does, however, taint the LPGA:

The LPGA should have learned from that particularly monotonous ending, but apparently they did not. So let Sunday’s anticlimactic conclusion outside Dallas serve as final reinforcement that any playoff rotation that calls for the same hole over and over needs to be thrown away and promptly re-written.

The LPGA should have learned from that particularly monotonous ending, but apparently they did not. So let Sunday’s anticlimactic conclusion outside Dallas serve as final reinforcement that any playoff rotation that calls for the same hole over and over needs to be thrown away and promptly re-written.