When is the last time it took you 5 hours to play a round of golf?  I guess I am a half full kind of guy.  If you play a 4 hr round of golf that does not infringe on the others time, what does it matter?  I really belive that some people think that all purist play fast and therefore they must also.  This is the way they play in the UK so we better play fast also.  Play fast but don't let it ruin your day if a group in front of you is playing within the allotted time.

Four hours is not my allotted time.  It is my clubs.  I can get around faster, but when you play in 3 hrs you start to infringe on those that are playing within the a clubs determined time.  

Best way to quicken up the pace of play comes before you tee off...

WAIT for the group in front of you to reach the green and pull out the flag before you hit your first tee shot.

It does wonders on the first par 3, and probably shaves twenty minutes off a round if a booked tee shot is regulated as such. Unfortunately, the scourge of the 8 minute 9 minute alternating starting time all but eliminates this possibility unless the players are good or quick, however, ten minute tee times are perfect.

A starter who tells you to do that is worth his weight in gold.

Question: How do you guys define 'keeping up with the group in front?'

RE Blanks:

I'm frankly amazed that anyone would start such a thread.

Slow play is such an overwhelming problem in America that we hardly need anyone to even suggest we need to slow down.

Like Tom Doak, my most enjoyable experiences playing golf were overseas (circa 1980's) - mostly Ireland - where playing under three hours was expected. The pace and rhythm were wonderful.

I also remember going out to Saunton in the UK in the late 1990's with Russell Talley. Having hurt his ribs playing ball the day before, Russell left me to play alone.........following a four ball playing for the club championship.

Given the circumstances, I thought it best to let the four ball clear the first green before teeing off. After all, I was a single following four guys playing for the club championship.

On the 16th hole I caught up to these gentlemen and was forced to wait about 2-3 minutes.

Later, when I made it to the clubhouse, all four men apologized for holding me up. They said they were embarrassed to do that to a visitor.

When that kind of attitude makes its way to the States, perhaps an occasional "slow down" message would be okay.

But, we are a long way from that.

We need to do far more to encourage people to move on a golf course than we are currently doing.

When I was a kid, there were plenty of grumpy old men who taught kids to move along.......unfortunately we just don't have those guys anymore.

By far the largest justification for slow play that I have witnessed, is the ME ME ME attitude, that is pervasive in American society and golf.

You show me a considerate golfer, and I'll show you someone who gets aroound in an efficient and timely manner.

Frankly, as a player, I prefer a continuous flow to the game, and not a lot of start stop (at least minimally) within the foursome.

I had a round like that yesterday, at least the first 13 holes of it. The course was sopping wet so it was cart paths only (I appeared to be the only soul on the property not in a cart, alas) and I knew the pace would be slow. I was able to adjust my walking pace to take the same amount of time as my cart-path-bound playing companions. I'd say there were only a handful of times that anyone had to wait even a few second on another and we ended playing pretty much honors golf even though it didn't matter.

At the turn I looked at the starter's clock and we were a couple minutes shy of two hours. That's about the point at which "taking my time" getting to the ball transitions to "stop and wait" before shots. When the carts are allowed on the fairway I can walk at my normal pace and the carts guys either keep up with or stay just ahead of me at about a 1:40-1:50 pace per nine. The game is so joyful at that pace whether you're playing well or poorly. Walking and hitting the golf ball fall into such a natural rhythm when nobody is holding you up for random intervals while they jerk around.

When we got to the fourteenth hole, gridlock ensued. There were two groups waiting and it took us almost two hours to play the last five holes (and three of them are short, drop shot Par 3's). Torture. If our match hadn't been close I'd have probably walked in and practiced my chipping for an hour instead of standing around the golf course.

Postscript: Yesterday was an occasion when I get to marvel at the way good, strong young players hit the ball nowadays. My partner in our little fourball was a 16-year-old who is a good but not great player at the state level. He hits the ball so very high that you think it can't possibly carry far but it does. Driver-wedge or driver-chip on lots of holes (he was playing from the regular men's tees with us middle-agers) and if he hits it in the woods he can loft a short iron up and over the pine trees that goes 100 feet in the air but still carries 140-150 yards. That's the first big-hitting lefty I've ever played with and it was fun. My own ball is the only lefty ballflight I usually see so when he'd start one high and left (just like my own shots) my system would go on high alert to see how far into the woods it would end up. Instead it would of course hook about 20 yards and finish back in the fairway (funny, mine never do that).

RE Blanks,

So I can play another 18.

Doug,

Your bring up an excellent point about Par 3s... pace of play is helped immensely if you let the group behind you hit up while you are preparing to putt. It gets people through the bottleneck.

RE Blanks,

If you take more than 3:30 to play 18 holes, you're doing something, or a lot of things wrong.

The set up and golf swing take about 10 seconds.
If you score 100, that takes a total of 16.6 minutes for 18 holes.  What are you doing with the rest of your time ?

If you walk at 2 miles per hour, it only takes two hours to walk a 7,000 yard golf course.  That's 2 hours and 16.6 minutes.  What are you doing with the rest of your time ?

When people ask, "why is golf losing it's popularity ?"
It's in part because they don't want to spend 6 hours doing what should take 3 hours.   Time is precious and shouldn't be wasted.

Play faster, you're holding up the entire golf course.  

All these absolutes are pretty funny.

Are you guys forgetting that how the course is laid out has a little bit to do with this?

I'd like to see any of you have four golfers all play out their own ball, even in match play as I did, and get around Bandon Trails in less than four hours.  Same goes for the other two courses up there really.  Oh, I suppose with the right incentive it could be done - one could run, pick up on every green, etc. - but playing normal golf, well...

Given a flat course with no long green to tee hikes, well I accept your absolutes - it ought not to take more than 3 hours to play a match play round.

But the course layout changes things - a LOT.

TH

I just returned from a trip to Colorado and surrounding mountain time zone states and there is a facility within the greater Denver area that promotes the fact of four hour rounds.

I'll be posting more info on this but I can say from the reactions I gathered that having such a mandatory time limit is certainly most welcomed by many.

You can print money -- but once time is lost it's forever gone. Golf should not be comparable to Death March at Baatan.

Pat, what is your allotted time?  Do you have one?  

Sounds like a good system.  

But until your club establishes an allottment of 3:30, the group that finishes in 4 hrs is not out of line.