Saudi Arabia …  The SKY Sports Golf practice of interviewing players during the course of a tournament round has come under the spotlight for all the wrong reasons at this week’s Saudi International.

Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell is one of the biggest supporters of a SKY Sports and European Tour approved measure that has been in place for some three-and-a-half years.

McDowell, however, was slapped with a slow-play ‘yellow card’ warning after conducting an on-course interview with SKY’s Tim Barter soon after playing his drive at par-5 fourth hole he was playing as his 13th.

Tour referee, Mark LItton (right adjudicating on a rules matter with Sergio Garcia & now at the centre of handing Graeme McDowell a ‘yellow card’ bad time warning at the Saudi International

McDowell’s group of also Phil Mickelson and Spain’s Rafa Cabrera Bello had been advised by Tour Referee, Andrew Snoddy a few holes earlier they were being put ‘on the clock’.

McDowell had hit his drive off his 13th hole but then had fallen 50-yards behind his group when he finally got to his ball and lying 215-yards from the green but also needing a very precise 3-iron to have any chance of finding the green.

The fellow Northern Ireland-born Snoddy had the clock on McDowell and timed the 10-time European Tour winner taking 84 seconds to play his second shot. Under new Tour rules that came into effect ahead of last fortnight’s Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship a player is allowed 40-seconds to play his shot.  If he is the first player to play in the group then you are allowed a further 10 seconds.

It means McDowell, and with no comprimise shown whatsover in choosing to speak with SKY, was 34 seconds over the time limit in taking his shot.

McDowell, of coure, was delighted after his round to have moved to eight-under, and thanks to his round of 68 that, in fact, included a birdie ‘4’ at the fourth, but there then no hiding his disappointment in being confronted by Snoddy and then being slapped with an official time warning by Litton.

“I think I got a monitoring bad time (Later confirmed as a yellow card warning) which then turns into being officially on the clock,” said McDowell.

“I just did an interview with Tim Barter, so I was 50 yards behind the guys; and I was up there and first to go and, got up there and I was first to go and I had 215 yards into the wind. It was a difficult shot.

“I’d called a time-out if that had been something that was automatic in my brain. It’s just, you know, the last thing I think of out there. I called a time-out after I hit the shot, but the referee was not really willing to give me any kind of room for error at all.

“Then, you know, that kind of upset my rhythm for a couple holes. But hey, we’ve got to play faster.

“You know, slow golf, it doesn’t help the viewer and it doesn’t help the club golfer on the weekend and we’ve just got to play fast, you know. That’s something I’m working hard on doing. I really feel like my routine over the last few years has gotten better and better and better. I was disappointed to get that bad time, but it is what it is.”

Barter had been observed sitting in a golf cart with Litton in front of the clubhouse and it is known Barter was asking Litton why he was not informed prior to conducting the interview with McDowell that McDowell was ‘on-the-clock’.

Bizarrely, Barter sought an interview with Cabrera Bello at the same hole a day earlier and with the Spaniard walking off with a double-bogey ‘7’ and for obvious reasons declined another SKY interview.

And Cabrera Bello is not the first player to now have declined requests from SKY Sports Golf to be interviewed during the course of a round.

It is hoped McDowell also now decides to decline as G Mac is one of the more talkative and overall obliging when it comes to media interviews.