This off-season, the PDGA has provided major updates to a handful of rules found in the Official Rules of Disc Golf (ORDG) for the first time since 2018. Some changes are big; some changes are not-so-big. One of the most interesting, however, has to do with the Excessive Time rule.
To be more specific, some key verbiage has been eliminated from the official rulebook …
If you’re unfamiliar with the rule, a player has 30 seconds to throw a shot. Should they exceed the 30-second time limit, they’ve taken “excessive time” and can receive a warning from the card. If a second violation is called within the same round, a one-stroke penalty is assessed.
There’s definitely some wiggle room here, though, if you check out the PDGA’s language.
Put simply, players have 30 seconds to throw their next shot after:
- The previous player on the card has thrown.
- A reasonable amount of time has been given to determine a lie.
- The player in question is next to throw, given the order determined by the card.
- That portion of the course is clear and the player is “free of distractions.”
Did you catch that last part?
You’d need a team of the world’s most gifted attorneys to convince Nikko Locastro – a player with a putting routine that drags on longer than season eight of “The Office” – that he’s “free of distractions” and clear to putt (or throw).
In the professional game, along with foot faults during mid-fairway throws that require a run-up, this is one of the most common, uncalled violations. Will the change eliminate players taking too long to throw or putt? No, but there’s now way less subjectivity involved in interpreting the rule.
Plain and simple, when players see the violation, they should make the call.
A more structured game is a better game.
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