Make the game quicker

[Garland Bayley]

It seems to me soo much time is wasted between holes with slow players.
The time from when the last putt is holed to the time the first shot is struck from the next tee.
Could be almost 30 minutes difference over 18 holes between fast players vs. slow.

If you are playing with a slow group, try to hit first on every tee, it will probably be very easy to accomplish.
You will be amased at how much quicker the round takes.

Question from novice player with my usual group.
Why does Garland tee off first on every hole?
Answer from slow player in my group.
He keeps us in position.

[Mike Hendren]

Random thoughts:

I've always appreciated Barney's take on this.  What's the rush?  Years ago four of us were whining about having to wait while playing a local public course until a friend spoke up and noted that if we were anywhere else we would be wishing we were on the golf course.  I'm happy when I'm on a golf course - what then it my motivation to truncate the experience assuming I'm not unduly holding anybody else up?  The only answer I have is hubris - how dare others not value my time.

I played Fenway last fall as a single with a young, inexperienced caddy.  Without even trying I finished in 2.5 hours with 90 +/- strokes.   Not bad for a guy weighing in at 3 bills.  Frankly, I wish I'd taken a little longer and soaked it all in.  I usually pull a club before I stop walking. I don't read putts, seek yardages, take practice swings, write down scores or extend the futility when I reach dougle-bogey.   But if you want to, fine with me.   With apologies to W. C. Handy when on a golf course "I'd rather be here than any place I know."

Too often we value the next moment above the current moment.  It's a crappy way to go through life.

Bogey

[Garland Bayley]

... what then it my motivation to truncate the experience assuming I'm not unduly holding anybody else up?  ...

We'll classify your post as off topic. The whole topic is about being duly held up.

Your analogy to Barney's posts fail along the same lines.

[Forrest Richardson]

Quicker? How about SMOOTHER?

Flow is the goal…not necessarily quicker. Quicker golf, while it is an underlying goal, can have the effect of putting some groups in for longer waits…"QUICK, let's get to the next tee in a hurry so we can wait for the group to finish putting…"

As Bill Yates will explain: A smooth flowing golf course is one to enjoy and behold. If you are playing the game (walking, riding and hitting shots) you are not bothered as much as when you are waiting. This is not to say that shortening time is not also ideal. But, the common problem with people trying to affect pace is the effect I note above: Creating more waiting.

PERCEIVED TIME does not equal ACTUAL TIME. These are two very key aspects of the modern/time urgent society.

[Doug Siebert]

So in summary, slow play is due to:

cheater lines
lengthy preshot routines
marking balls too often
too much time on the greens
too much time between holes
playing the wrong tees
too much rough, bunkers, etc.
walking back to the tee to replay lost balls
poor cart etiquette
bad players take too many shots
good players pick up bad habits from the pros

I'm sure I'm leaving a couple dozen more out of this list.  Every time there is one of these slow play threads the same reasons are all tossed out, everyone seems to have their pet theories that one thing accounts for a whole half hour of delay, no one wants to admit that it is a large number of things that each account for a relatively small delay that add up to a lot cumulatively.  Because they want to believe that fixing one or two issues will make rounds much faster - it is much harder to fix a long list of things.

[Marc Haring]

No true golfer is worried about the slow play. It's the grief they're going to get from the other half that's the worry!

[Philip Hensley]

Why don't the people who are pissed off about waiting change their behavior.  A great place to practice is on the highway.  You never hear the good stories so I will mention that at Pinehurst this past week we had a twosome in a cart let our walking threesome through without ever having held us up.  Later in the round I was waiting on a group to putt on 16 when I had 215 to the green on my second shot.  16 is a par 5.  Rather than make them uncomfortable and the rest of my group wait on me to hit I bumped the ball down to the 70 yd mark.  That one small sacrifice improved the experience for me and possibly 10 other golfers.

Communication, patience and sacrifice can improve the game far more than a change in the rules.

Great example that doesn't get talked about enough. It's one thing when a guy is waiting to go for it and realistically has no chance. Same applies to long par 4s where the 2nd shot has no chance of getting to the green but maybe can run up just short.

What about letting groups hit up on par 3 holes while the first group walks up. For cartballers this wouldnt make a difference but certainly could for walkers. In Scotland I saw this done numerous times and seemed too frequent to just be a case of running into a thoughtful group of fellow golfers.

[James Bennett]

I heard a technique used for senior interclub play in Melbourne the other day.

Matches between guys 55 and over (single match-play) were being played in 4's (2's would take up too much critical tee time, and the matches whilst competitive are still just 'fun').  It was taking well over 4 hours to get around.

The organising group made an executive decision that when play reached the green, the match furthest from the hole would putt out first before the other group started to putt.  The first group would then hit-off from the next tee straight away, and be joined by the other match when they had finished putting out.

This decision saved 30 minutes per round, and (equally importantly) added to the flow of these games.  A stronger version of ready golf.

James B