FYI - There is another thread about Bill's book.
As many know, Bill and I became great friends. Sadly, my last conversation was a private phone call of which we basically said our goodbye's. That made for a difficult day, at least for me.
On the matter of teeing off when the group is "out of range", this was among Bill's most famous "tests" when he would visit a course. When we played Olivas Links (one of my designs, CA) we found the starter all set up with a pleasant podium, score cards, pencils and water bottles. Here, a nice older nice man given the 'starter' status told us about the native areas, the paspalum turf and other course facts. I played along. He was extremely nice. But, as Bill would say later, also "clueless"!
Bill announced to the starter that our tee time was 10:20am, and then asked him when we should hit away. "As soon as that group moves around the large tree at the right," came the answer. So, we complied...but only to appease this nice old timer.
Bill had his stopwatch with him. And would write notes every few holes. Later on he explained in detail how the policy of "hitting away when it's clear" was the absolute bane of the course and its congestion. "One little thing," he said, "would make all the difference here."
Of course that assignment never came as Olivas Links (and Kemper Sports) did not have a line item in their budget for Pace of Play Consulting! I always joked with Bill about this — "Bill, the problem with what you do is that no one knows where to get the few thousand dollars to pay for your evaluation and training!"