Slow Khan clocked on the double

Irish Open First Round: Out on the golf course, a player never hears the clock ticking; but silent time is a precious commodity, as Simon Khan is discovering to his cost.

Yesterday, for the third week in a row, the 32-year-old Englishman - a sports fanatic who includes a love of cricket, tennis and Arsenal Football Club among his allegiances - was deemed guilty of slow play and fined for his misdemeanour.

Unfortunately for Khan, who just happens to be playing the best golf of his life, each transgression is diluting his bank balance. Under the stringent rules of the PGA European Tour, once a player is found guilty of a "bad time," each subsequent offence is doubled. So, what was a £4,000 fine as a result of his second penalty of the season in the British Masters last week became £8,000 - equivalent to €11,636 - after this latest golfing sin was committed yesterday.

"The system we have got now is quite penal," admitted European Tour senior referee Andy McFee. "The message players have got to understand is that every time they are timed, it actually matters because it is clocked up on the cumulative system . . . all players have got to be smart in the sense that, when the line is drawn by the rules committee, they've got to respect that line and find a way to get it done within the time permitted."

Khan, who was penalised a stroke in last year's PGA Championship at Wentworth, a penalty that occurs when a player is guilty of two bad times in a round, thought he had speeded up his routine this season. "I'd worked really hard on it," he said, "(by) timing how many looks I have and how many waggles I take. My decision-making is going to have to happen a lot quicker."

Yesterday, though, he paid a financial price for being deemed the slow-play culprit, and his playing partners paid a price in not being able to concentrate fully on their job. This was the 11th time this season that Khan had been put on the clock, and Padraig Harrington and Soren Hansen were conscious that the group had fallen out of place and attempted to speed up.

Harrington even reckoned that the attempt to catch up on the group ahead cost him three dropped shots.

"I made at least two errors," claimed Harrington, who double-bogeyed the 14th and bogeyed the 17th, his fifth and eighth holes, while endeavouring to make up time. "I'd say it probably cost me three shots . . . it was quite evident over a couple of holes that we needed to keep up and there were a few mistakes made."

Yet, the consensus of tour players is that slow play must continue to be addressed as it is by the European Tour rules enforcers. "It's the nature of the game that the majority of players want a strict no-tolerance rule," said Harrington.

And course designer Colin Montgomerie remarked: "We have to push this issue of slow play and I think we're pushing it even more than Americans. It's a shame (that Simon was fined), it's a lot of money. There's always reasons but we have to push on and play quicker."

Khan, who opened with a two-under-par 70, incurred the bad time on the 17th - his eighth - when he changed his mind on the par three about what club he would play.

"I was sort of five seconds over, maybe 10, so I've accepted it . . . to me, it seems extortion. The punishment maybe in my mind doesn't fit the crime. I'm all for stamping out slow play, but I don't feel that I'm one of the slowest players out here."