Pace of play has been on my mind a lot lately, as I have struggled with it in just about every recent game I have had. I grew up at a small 9 hole private facility in upstate NY and the club basically policed it themselves.
As I now am playing the muni facilities of CT, I simply am astounded by the pace of play, and how long it takes to get around a golf course. I often blame the usual suspects, most golfers riding and not knowing how to properly share a cart, players playing from tees that are too far for their skill level, etc. Lately I have been keying on something I'm noticing from my friends that are learning the game as well as complete strangers that I'm paired with, the amount of time it takes on the greens.
Growing up, as a group approached the green and say one person had hit the green in regulation and three people had missed, I would suspect that across most handicap ranges, you would see average pitch or chip shots that would allow the four players to then putt with their next shots. As they move to putting, you may have players 30, 20, 15, and 8 feet respectively (30 footer from the player who hit in reg, the last three distances from the pitch or chip shots). The person with 8 feet left would watch the three players putt and either make, or miss close and tap in, or miss in the 3 to 4 foot range and mark. He/she would then putt from 8 feet. Lately, I feel like I'm the guy with the 30 footer after hitting the green in regulation and I'm amazed at watching pitch and chip shots zinging over greens, chuncking into bunkers, etc. Getting all four players onto the surface seems to have been extended tremendously. On the times where I may be the 8 footer waiting for 3 other players to putt from a distance, I'm astounded at how many players are leaving it 10 feet short, or blowing it 10 feet or more past.
As a young player, I started to establish a routine of when to start really focusing on the shot at hand, and I would do so when one or more of the players were playing their shots, thinking that I'll be next based on a properly played shot from the others. In the last few years, the amount of times I have been getting ready to putt only to have to back off while my playing partners go back and forth is mind boggling. I realize that this is rampant and I think has a huge impact on the pace of play.
When I hear a group on the first tee making bets and there are individual bets involved, I cringe, knowing that players are not going to be picking up and that they are going to be grinding over double bogey efforts.
I have only played 2 rounds in Ireland and 1 in Scotland, but just from those rounds, I can tell I was born in the wrong country, as I think this is something that is reached epidemic proportions in the US....
One footnote, somewhere in the middle of the back nine, when asked if I have any tips, I simply ask, "How much time per week do you devote to working on your short game?". I have yet to hear anything other than "none".