What Is The Slowest Course To Play?

[Chris_Blakely]

Here are my worst ones:

I have never played Van Cortlandt Park GC in under 6 hours and once played it in 7 hours and 30 minutes.

I have found Split Rock and Pelham GC's not that bad in the afternoon easily playing either in 4 hours or less.

Lido Beach GC played there several times and never finshed in under 6 hours and 30 minutes.

Bethpage Black has suprisingly not been as bad as others describe of the several times I have played, I have average 5 hour rounds.

[Daryl David]

Chambers Bay hands down.  Only way you will ever play in less than 5 hours is to tee off before they open.

[Mike Lacey]

I second Whistling Straits.  Played it in June of '04, the year the PGA was there.  I can't tell you how pissed I was when i tuned in to the tourney and saw that they had chopped down the rough.  It was over a foot high and brutal.  I believe we topped 7 hrs.

Jason - You are way to nice a guy if your guilt kept you from hooking a carabiner onto that single playing through.   

[Eric_Terhorst]

Erin Hills needs to be mentioned, because management there also "expect" a round to require 5 hours--and it generally does.

[Wade Whitehead]

Any course when the group ahead is playing from the wrong tee.

WW

[John Moore II]

Tobacco Road was the slowest I have played in a long time. I did not play 18 holes under these slow conditions though. It took 3.5 hours to play 12 holes there one time. I walked in after that.

When I played Wildwood Green in Raleigh my one and only time, it took 3 hours to play 9 holes so I got a rain check and left.

We had a junior tournament at Foxfire one time that took 6.5 or 7 hours to finish. They started at 10 am and we barely got them finished before dark. This was winter, so it was around 5 before they were in.

[rjsimper]

Los Verdes
18 hole junior tournament
Saturday tee time - 11am
Finished at 5:30.

[Carl Nichols]

Bethpage Black -- summer of 1995, 5:45, for 15 holes.

Agree on Waveland in Chicago -- ridiculously slow (and not a hard course).

[Andy Troeger]

Sounds like its a good thing I was first out at Chambers Bay, Pebble Beach, and Spyglass Hill. Played in 3 hrs, 4 hrs, and 4 hrs 15 minutes respectively. Pebble and Spyglass got paired up, but both groups moved reasonably well.

Spanish Bay, which I played the same day as Spyglass, was 5 hrs 20 minutes to play 16 holes--had to drive the final two holes to see them (what little one could see) before it became pitch black.

[Anthony Gray]

   I played Tobacco Road with an elderly couple close to death from the wrong tees. Over a 5.5 hour round. I was wishing for a tornado.

  Anthony

[Rob Rigg]

Don Valley GC in Toronto - Used to play there in high school if I needed to burn a day. No tee off times available so you'd wait at least 1-2hr then play a 6-7 hr round.

I think you can book a time now . . . so you're only looking at 6+ hours there.

[Sean_A]

The slowest course I have ever played was Hillside.  5.5 hours of slogging between high dunes with harsh rough clinging to the sides.  Not my idea of fun.

Ciao

[Mark Pearce]

On two occasions I have endured a 6 hour round.  I honestly believe that I would walk off any course if it were slower than that.  Those two were a round at Fulford stuck behind a Licensed Victuallers' Association Golf Day and a round on the Jubilee Course, stuck behind a fourball comprising two Japanese and two American visitors.  It became clear on the first tee that none of the four could play and on the second tee that there was no prospect of them allowing anyone to play through.

On both occasions I was playing in a two-ball.  Hell.

[Mark Chaplin]

Spain................

[Gary Slatter]

Doral Blue Course, Monday week before the Doral PGA event 1999, corporate outing with 72 players,  noon start, did not finish after 6 hours.  reason: bermuda rough was so difficult to find balls (or clubs if put down) and carts restricted to paths meant people were taking extra clubs AND LOSING THEM.

[Eric Franzen]

Rounded off two out of my three rounds at Bethpage Black by playing the 17th and 18th in darkness, after spending around six hours out there on a completely backed up course. The turn at the 9th and 10th always seems to take forever with people looking for balls in the hay for an eternity.

[Tim Leahy]

Griffith Park Wilson course in LA  on a Sunday. 3 hrs for six holes, I walked off after six and never have gone back.

[Greg Chambers]

What's the point of this thread?  I think we can all agree that we've all experienced a 6 hour round at some point, and I think we can all agree it sucks.  But what's the relevance to golf course architecture?

[Anthony Gray]

What's the point of this thread?  I think we can all agree that we've all experienced a 6 hour round at some point, and I think we can all agree it sucks.  But what's the relevance to golf course architecture?

  This is evidence that golf takes longer than ping pong.

  Anthony

[Michael Blake]

I've played some damn slow front 9 holes at Lederach.

Nothing worse than them sending you out behind a high school match of a few foursomes.

Wait, them not telling us that we'd be behind them is worse.



Man those kids are slow.

[Bill_Yates]

Greg,
The relevance to architecture is that the design and routing of the course dictates the proper management practices that will ensure smooth playing rounds.

As cited above in all of the posts, lack of an appropriate and effective management response will sentence the players to long rounds, frustration and even anger.

Managers must understand the effect of the course design and build sustainable day-to-day practices to ensure the delivery of a consistent high-quality playing experience.

[Anthony Gray]

Greg,
The relevance to architecture is that the design and routing of the course dictates the proper management practices that will ensure smooth playing rounds.

As cited above in all of the posts, lack of an appropriate and effective management response will sentence the players to long rounds, frustration and even anger.

Managers must understand the effect of the course design and build sustainable day-to-day practices to ensure the delivery of a consistent high-quality playing experience.

  Bill,

  Good points. My home course starts with a reachable par 5.
At times it takes 25 minutes to tee because the group in front of you is waiting for the green to clear so they can get there in two.

  Thanks.......Anthony

[Jerry Kluger]

Kapalua Plantation - afternoon rounds have been known to take 6 hours - great views, par 73, tough lies, mostly tourist play.

[Greg Chambers]

Greg,
The relevance to architecture is that the design and routing of the course dictates the proper management practices that will ensure smooth playing rounds.

As cited above in all of the posts, lack of an appropriate and effective management response will sentence the players to long rounds, frustration and even anger.

Managers must understand the effect of the course design and build sustainable day-to-day practices to ensure the delivery of a consistent high-quality playing experience.

That's what I was trying to get at Bill, thanks.  I too believe that sustainable and responsible course design lends to enjoyable rounds that don't take forever.  I think very few of these posts actually address the reasons why they were so slow.  We should focus on these issues, rather than just listing long rounds.

[Tom Huckaby]

I would guess that in the vast majority of cases cited, the architecture had little or nothing to do with the reasons for the glacial pace.  That doesn't mean that courses can't be designed to promote quick play.  It just means in the worst cases I sincerely doubt the architecture played a role.

But I am ready to be surprised....

In my case architecture definitely had nothing to do with it; it was slow play by way too serious players packed way too tightly on the course, combined with the presence of fog and strict adherence to the rules of golf.

TH