LPGA Pace-of-Play Policy (2025): According to the policy, each player gets 40 seconds to make their shot once their clock starts. Last year, the LPGA updated it to add severe penalties. Under the new guidelines, if a player exceeds the time by 1-5 seconds, they will be assessed a fine. Taking 6-15 seconds over time will incur a one-stroke penalty. If a player takes 16 or more seconds longer than allowed, they will be charged a two-stroke penalty. 

For years now, slow play has been a topic of discussion on every roundtable in the LPGA. Just as long, it seems, Spain’s Carlota Ciganda has been overlooking it. If you remember, at the 2023 Evian Championship, she refused to add two strokes to her scorecard after the officials argued she took 52 seconds, 12 seconds over the permitted 40 seconds. She was ultimately disqualified from the event but continued to tell her truth. Fast forward to the ongoing third round of the Buick LPGA Shanghai at Sheshan International Golf Club, and she was back in trouble.

On par-4 13th, Ciganda apparently took too long to play her shot, attracting a two-stroke penalty from the officials. Sky Sports golf commentator Richard Kaufman reported on X. While we don’t know what led to the delay, we do know what happened next.

She had scored a par on that hole, but the two-stroke penalty changed that to a double bogey. Worse, it also tumbled her down the leaderboard. Yet, unlike her 2023 Evian Championship tussle, this time, Ciganda did not bat an eye over the penalty. If anything, it didn’t affect her at all as she turned things around for herself.

On the 18th hole, she was again moving slowly. While she didn’t get called on that, she did make things better for herself. She quickly recovered from the 13th hole penalty by making back-to-back birdies on the 14th and 15th holes. Ciganda finished the third round with a 1-under 71 before heading into Sunday’s final round in a two-way tie for fourth place, five shots behind tournament leader Hye-Jin Choi. Interestingly, considering how tough the LPGA has made its pace-of-play policy, Ciganda wasn’t the only one penalized.

Another pro gets hit by the slow-play penalty in Shanghai

As I said, the LPGA brought the tougher rules for a reason last season. And according to Kaufman, 25-year-old Yealimi Noh was also penalized for slow play on Saturday. 

It remains unclear on which hole Noh received her two-stroke penalty. The South Korean did not have the best outing during the third round. She recorded four bogeys on the front nine before adding another bogey and a double bogey on the back nine. 

Despite managing to card three birdies along the way, she finished the round with a disappointing 4-over-par 76. Noh currently sits in a tie for 31st place alongside three other players, leaving her with little chance of climbing to the top of the leaderboard heading into the final round. 

What’s worth noting is that neither of the two players is a stranger to a slow-play penalty.

Ciganda and Noh keep getting into slow-play trouble

In 2026, during the Solheim Cup in the Netherlands, Ciganda attracted criticism for slow play while partnering with Spanish rookie Julia López Ramírez against Nelly Korda and Lauren Coughlin. The world No. 1 raised the concern with the referee about Ciganda taking “three minutes reading the ground.” Nothing came of it as the officials ruled that the group was not out of position.

Her 2023 Amundi Evian Championship disqualification also became a controversy because Ciganda did not agree that she played her shot too late. But what hurt her the most was that the penalty would have changed her 72 into a 74, leaving her outside the cut. Meanwhile, Yealimi Noh’s slow-play issues date back to her LPGA debut in 2020.

She received her first pace-of-play fine at the Gainbridge LPGA. The following year, she was penalized again during the third round of the Kia Classic after officials recorded two bad times on holes 10 and 12. As a repeat offender, her fine was doubled to $10,000. Noh finished tied for 61st, earning just $4,247 that week. Although she initially accepted responsibility, she later expressed frustration over the hefty fine and feeling that officials were scrutinizing her more closely.

That said, both players will have to watch out for slow play when they tee it up for the final round on Sunday, as it can especially bite Ciganda back if she loses a leaderboard spot because of a penalty completely in her control.