What Is The Slowest Course To Play?

[Anthony Gray]

   What is the slowest round you have ever played and why?

            Anthony

[Jim Franklin]

Bethpage Black because New Yorkers don't care that the course is hard, they just want to play there. Two or three foursomes on each tee, it was painful. I have played it more than once and it was only REALLY bad once, just bad the rest.

[Patrick Kiser]

Pebble comes to mind...  Reason needs no explanation I think.

   What is the slowest round you have ever played and why?

            Anthony

[Deucie Bies]

Pebble Beach.  Not sure why, but my guess is that there are a lot of hackers that paid a lot of money or are playing the course because their company paid (maybe not so much in these times) and are out there just to enjoy the day/golf course.

[Michael Warren]

Pebble is pretty slow, but when I used to play in high school tournaments I would play rounds that would be around 6 hours.

[Kyle Henderson]

Which ever course is hosting the U.S. Open during practice rounds during the J.B. Holmes era.

[Sean Leary]

I have played Pebble 5 times and it has never been that slow. Chambers Bay is way slower.

[Matt_Ward]

Agree w Jim F -- BB is a MEGA CRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAWL !!!!

95% of the people attempting to play it need to do the following ...

1). Get lessons !

2). Play a different course at Bethpage

3). If that fails play a different game

Fact is -- six hour golf is commonplace there -- if you viewed BB from the sky it would look like the greatest Easter Egg hunt of ALL TIME.

I'd give an honorable mention to Pebble Beach too.

[Tom_Doak]

The Bear, at Grand Traverse Resort, is very slow if it's busy at all.  Lots of deep greenside bunkers ... if you play behind somebody who is not a decent bunker player it's a nightmare.

Slowest round ever?  A junior tournament at Sterling Farms that took seven hours, on a course I used to play (by myself, first off the tee) in two hours flat.

[PCCraig]

Waveland GC in Chicago, IL right in the middle of summer.

It once took me 4 hours and 10 min to play..............9 Holes!!!!

3+ for 9 holes is commonplace there anyday that there is sunshine.

[Kalen Braley]

Any muni in norcal on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon.  5 + hour rounds are not only common, but sadly most just expect it.

[Ronald Montesano]

Agree w Jim F -- BB is a MEGA CRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAWL !!!!

95% of the people attempting to play it need to do the following ...

1). Get lessons !

2). Play a different course at Bethpage

3). If that fails play a different game

Fact is -- six hour golf is commonplace there -- if you viewed BB from the sky it would look like the greatest Easter Egg hunt of ALL TIME.

I'd give an honorable mention to Pebble Beach too.

Wow, these ideas are revolutionary...I'm sure that no one has ever put these down before...

[Anthony Gray]

  No Tobacco Road Yet?

  Anthony

[Patrick Boyd]

Pebble is definitely a crawl and the Marshalls can be on the prickly side occasionally.

The slowest round I ever remember playing was at Delaveaga in Santa Cruz in the middle of summer a few years ago.  I left 6 hours and 11 holes into it.

[Matt_Ward]

Ron M:

Thanks !

I'll be sure to switch my spot in line the next time I'm at BB and you can e-n-j-o-y the day -- literally the WHOLE DAY when at the Black.

[Tom Huckaby]

There is no doubt that Pebble Beach can produce some very slow rounds.

But just to ensure it doesn't get stereotyped:  I played it this past mid-October, 11am tee time on a Sunday, absolute prime time.  We finished at 3:30, without rushing or trying to go fast.  We waited very little.

So either pace of play has improved there, or I just got very lucky.

Slowest round I have every played was in a tournament at Torrey Pines South, many years ago.  I'm pretty sure we cracked the 7 hour mark.

TH

[C. Squier]

Whistling Straits - Straits Course

6+ hours and what made it worse are the "marshalls" on every 3 holes that kindly ask how your day is going.  Loved the course, but it was pure torture playing it....in a bad way.

[Tom Birkert]

As mentioned, Pebble Beach and Bethpage Black are pretty bad.

This side of the Pond I'll go with The Old Course. Shared greens etc - the women were taking upwards of 6 hours in their British Open last year. Although that may or may not be due to the fact they seem incapable of lining themselves up for a shot...

[David Whitmer]

I once teed it up at Grand National Links course in Opelika, Alabama. After we got off the ninth green, we had been on the golf course for 3 hours and 10 minutes. Even though the ninth hole is very far from the clubhouse, we called it a day. That was probably 10 years ago, and I have not been back since.

[Mark_Rowlinson]

Heaton Park municipal in northern Manchester. The problems are any number of blind shots, a risk-and-hope drive over a gipsy encampment, dense rhododendron bushes lining some fairways, a fearsome all-carry water hole, ball thieves, several short par 4s on which the macho brigade want to drive the green, several short par 5s they think they can reach in two.... It would be a really entertaining course if only you could get it to yourself. As it is all players should be made to wear hard hats, it can be so dangerous.

[Jason Topp]

6:30 am - Spyglass  - 1st group 5-1/2 hours.  The danger of playing as a single and being paired up.  

I tried to escape the group after 9 holes and they came running after me from the halfway house.  If it happened to me today, I would have left them after 3 holes and told them why I was doing it.

Funny thing was - after letting a single play through, we did not have anyone wait on us.

[Anthony Gray]

6:30 am - Spyglass  - 1st group 5-1/2 hours.  The danger of playing as a single and being paired up.  

I tried to escape the group after 9 holes and they came running after me from the halfway house.  If it happened to me today, I would have left them after 3 holes and told them why I was doing it.

Funny thing was - after letting a single play through, we did not have anyone wait on us.

  Jason,

  The dangers of a single golfer. I wish I had more time.

   Anthony

[Jeff Tang]

On a consistent basis Arcadia Bluffs, most of the time I've played it it's a rush to get in before dark.

[Michael Goody]

The Presidio. 4 hours for 9 holes one time.

[Jay Flemma]

Bethpage Black because New Yorkers don't care that the course is hard, they just want to play there. Two or three foursomes on each tee, it was painful. I have played it more than once and it was only REALLY bad once, just bad the rest.

The NYC public courses are worse...six and a half hour rounds (Forest Park, Dyker Beach, Split Rock, that thing in staten island...), over crap tracks and lousy terrain which was routed poorly.