[Dan King]

C. Squier writes:
Lots of holier than thou in this thread.

You aren't the first to accuse me of that.

Instead of complaining about those who are trying to make a living or playing for school

My complaint isn't with the players. A player is going to err on the side of slowing down. If you don't do well in a tournament better not to have speed of play responsible, so they will generally play as slow as they can get away with. The problem is with organizers who don't want to put stress on the players and therefore allow them to play slow.

A tournament should put stress on the players. One of the things tournament golf should be testing is the players handling of stress. Forcing them to pick up the pace will appropriately stress them.

With your list I'd say no. 3 and no. 4.  I don't organize tournaments or take clients golfing. If I did I would insist on a reasonable speed as part of the tournament.

Matter of fact, it looks like I will be organizing the 2013 King's Putter. We will be playing on public courses, so we are stuck with the speed of the groups ahead of us, but I will be insisting everyone keep up or pick up.

Cheers,
Dan King

I made nothing happen very slowly.
 --Gary McCord (1987, on his 13 year PGA career)

[Kalen Braley]

Clint I "motivate" slow groups all the time by hitting my drive right up thier back sides.

However, more often than not, its not the group directly in front of you that is causing the slow play....its usually several groups in front of them and everyone is frustrated.

Remember, all it takes is one slow group in the morning and it can screw up the tee sheet and play for the entire round.  Kind of like how a freeway in Cali can get jammed up for hours due to a fender bender earlier in the day....

[Garland Bayley]

Clint I "motivate" slow groups all the time by hitting my drive right up thier back sides.

...

That's because everyone lets Kalen tee off first as anyone else teeing off would endanger the people in front.

[Tim Gavrich]

I played in a US Open qualifier yesterday and was the old man in the group.  I played with a rising senior at College of Charleston and a rising junior at Duke.  I was pleased with how not-sluggishly they seemed to play, but that didn't extend to the rest of the field.  We waited on almost every single shot and played in five hours.

I asked them during the round if pace of play was enforced at their tournaments. One of them said yes and I responded, "Oh, so you guys play in around 4 1/2 hours?" and he laughed.  So I said, "Then they don't enforce pace of play," and he could not disagree.

[Alex Lagowitz]

There are lots of things you can say about a 4:35 round, but fast should never be one of them. Perhaps bearable might be a better term.

Tournament golfers will play at the slowest pace they are allowed to play. With governing bodies going out of their way to ensure the players are not stressed, tournament golf has constantly gotten slower.  Why not speed 'em up? Wouldn't it be fun to watch tournament golfers forced to play at a 3 hour pace? Yes, there is a lot to consider in tournament golf, but why give them all the time in the world for their considerations? Force them to make quicker decisions -- testing their quick decision making.

Cheers,
Dan King

There is not the slightest doubt in my own mind that golf as played in the United States is the slowest in the world.
 --Henry Longhurst

It seems like this is one of those things that would have to be done from the bottom up.  It would be damn near impossible to force the change on the Tour first, because the players say what goes on the PGA Tour, and all of them have had their agonizing pre-shot routines ingrained on them as central to their success.  So, you've got to start with the juniors and with high school and college, until it becomes second nature to them, and then in a few years maybe you'd have a chance to make the switch on Tour.

Is anyone aware of anyone at the junior or high school level who has done something concrete to establish a swift pace of play?

Tom,

The AJGAs have insane pace of play requirements with a checkpoint at every three holes and a red card system, in which a slow players gets a warning (red card) and then has three holes to get back into position or else the player gets a stroke penally.
Im in college now, but I think their pace was 4:15 for 3 players

At the Patriot league tournament, we played in threesomes and they told us they would enforce pace of play.
The threat itself was enough to make some of us play faster, officials even timed the time we had to play a shot (45 seconds after place the bag down).  No penalties were given out in my group, and we finished as the first group off in 3 hrs 50 minutes, about 30 minutes in front of the group behind us.

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