I deal with pace of play at my private club daily and we have had some success.
We have a pace rating from our stategolf assoc that breaks down the time "par" per hole.
We have gone from eight to ten minute intervals and it has made a HUGE difference for the better.
For Saturday mornings I have a starter and two marshals and we note when every group tees off and finishes. I have followed up at times with a letter to EVERYONE who played that day letting them know when they teed off (were they late to the tee?), when they finished and how many minutes behind the group in front of them they finished.
Our old Saturday morning system was two tees from 8:00 AM until 10:00 AM at eight minute intervals--32 times or 128 players with a "crossover" for the turn. With a mulligan for the first tee for everyone (try telling a private club member no mulligans
) there is no way a group can get out of the way before the next group wants to tee off.
Also, assuming an average foursome has each player hitting 60% of the fairways (I think that is a high %), then for all four to be in the fairway the odds are just 12%!! Almost every par 4 and par 5 you are guarranteed there is someone in trouble off the tee.
Anyway, the problem for the 8:00 AM group is even if they finished the front in 1 3/4 hours, they had to wait 20-30 minutes to even tee off on the back as by 10:00 the tee was usually backed up. The best case was a 4 1/2 to 4 3/4 round.
Now we tee off on tee starting at 7:00 AM at 10 minute intervals. Last week our 10:30 time was able to finish in 4 hours 11 minutes and the worst times (the 11:30) finished in 4 hrs 22 minutes!! The spacing makes a huge difference.
Last thing we instituted was a policy that did not "allow" groups that were holding up play to let people "play through"!! While it may please the group or two right behind them, ultimately overall speed of play isn't improved on a busy day. Our policy is this:
If a group is behind time, out of position and holding up a group, they MUST pick up their golf balls and get in position--i.e. skip a hole or holes if needed to get in the right spot. It's tough but it works because we absolutely enforce that policy.
Best of all, the membership knows and appreciates that we actually give a damn and recognize that slow players are violating a bsaic rule of etiquette--we have clearly stted that to hold up play by playing slow is a breach of etiquette no different than failing to rake bunkers, repair divots or fix ball marks.
Yes, I've ticked off some people but I'd rather piss off one group than ruin the day of all the groups behind them.