Quote:
"Doesn't every foresome playing a nice money game in under four hours have the right not to have balls landing and gay ass pirate eye stares being thrown at their backs while they try to save a whole hog sausage over a three foot putt to tie......I'd rather wait and play in 4:15 than play in 3:50 and let three twosomes go through.....rude no putt outing fast playing bastards.." John Kavanaugh.
Mike Golden responds:
"This has got to be one of the most disingenuous quotes of all time considering Mr. Kavanaugh was one of the foursome at Barona who, after, going out first, proceeded to play in over 5 hours, held up the entire field, and never offered to let a single group through. My guess is that the last time Mr. Kavanaugh played in under 4 hours was the last time he played only 9 holes."
I have no major quarrel on the issue of fast play with either gentlemen, assuming that I am understanding John's unique prose. However, being in the foursome with John in the cited Barona outing, I am compelled to correct the record.
Mr. Kavanaugh was not scheduled to play in the group. A certain other GCA celebrity was, but for some unknown reason, did not wish to play me. The organizers scrambled to find another opponent, and JK agreed to be moved up. We teed off well over 15 minutes late due to the confusion, and the fact that many of the event's participants were in no condition to tee off before noon, not to say anything about dawn.
We did play excruciatingly slow, but well under 5 hours. John and I had a tight match all the way to the end, and I was as responsible as anyone for the pace of play. BTW, John and I were two of the very few walkers that day.
We did not let any groups go through for one simple reason: with the exception of two or three times for a couple of minutes, we had no one pressing us. In fact, behind the next group, there was often one or more holes completely open. I hate holding people up, and have no qualms about letting faster players through.
BTW, it took over 6 hours to play the prior day's afternoon round; possibly an indication that the course itself may have a bit to do with the pace of play.
Most slow players do not realize that they are slow. They should be politely helped.
Many fast players do not have the empathy and sympathy for people who were not weaned on a wedge and find golf to be a very difficult sport. Perhaps not all golfers see a Track & Field influence in the game.
A large number of courses have pace of play objectives including the average acceptable time of a round. At my home course, you are expected to play in under four hours, but I can comfortably get around in 3 hours with a fast group. We have riding fivesomes playing $60/$40 wolf in under 3 hours, and dollar games which go on and on.
Since we all feel that ours is the correct pace and everyone else is either too slow or too fast, what are we to do about it? On the freeway we weave in and out of traffic, blast the horn, and pop the finger. In golf, this is just not polite, and besides, there is not enough metal and speed to avoid the repercussions of our rude behavior.
One possible solution is to be more tolerant of others and do the right things- speed up play to a "reasonable" level and/or allow faster players through. Another, under the the golf is a big tent concept, is to play with people we are more compatible with and encourage the pro shop to set and enforce time guidelines which make sense for the course and clientele. At private clubs, the management with the backing of the appropriate committees can institute tee time policies which in essence allow faster players to get out there and get finished before the slow pokes get to the course.
The ultimate is to join a club with 200 national members and have the place to yourself. I've never tried it, but I suspect that with a cart, I could play 18 holes in an hour putting everything out and still shoot 100. But is that what golf is all about?
Must everything be done at top speed to reinforce our type A personalities? I thought that golf was about "... going into God's out-of-doors, getting close to nature, fresh air, exercise, a sweeping away of the mental cobwebs, genuine recreation of tired tissues." And ".... a cure for care- an antidote to worry. It includes companionship with friends, social intercourse, opportunity for courtesy, kindliness and generosity to an opponent."
BTW, the KPI at Barona was a resounding success despite the slow play. I too wish that we would have played faster, but unlike others on this site, my idea of enjoyable golf is not playing The Old Course in under two hours. I suppose that we could modernize the game to reflect the times even more and erect a scoreboard on each hole complete with a shot clock. But, for some reason, that just doesn't appeal to me.