GOLF.com: Yubol's Slow-Play Penalty Costs Her a Shot at ShopRite LPGA Title

A One-Stroke Margin With a Story Behind It

Celine Boutier claimed the ShopRite LPGA title with a final-round 66, finishing at nine under par. But the tournament's most talked-about storyline surrounds Arpichaya Yubol, who ended up one shot back — exactly the margin of a slow-play penalty she received the day before.

How the LPGA's Pace Policy Works

Yubol was penalized one stroke during Saturday's second round for exceeding her maximum cumulative time on hole #13. Crucially, the LPGA times the total elapsed time across all strokes on a hole, not any single shot. The penalty tiers under the 2025 policy:

- 1–5 seconds over: Fine only - 6–15 seconds over: One-stroke penalty - 16+ seconds over: Two-stroke penalty

This was only the second such penalty issued on the LPGA Tour this season, following Jin Hee Im earlier in the year.

Yubol's Week in Context

Despite the penalty converting her Saturday 73 into a 74, Yubol rebounded with a final-round 66 to claim solo second and $183,814. It's her second runner-up finish of the season after a rough mid-season stretch of missed cuts — a strong sign of form heading into the U.S. Women's Open at Riviera Country Club.

Strokeslab Take

Pace-of-play enforcement is still a rare event on tour, but the LPGA's tiered penalty structure is designed to be a genuine deterrent rather than a symbolic warning. When a one-stroke penalty directly costs a player a potential playoff, the policy's teeth are impossible to ignore.