Slow golf revisted

If you mean the old guy sitting on a cart with a red flag on it who I saw one time throughout the round and who told me to be more patient -- even though I pointed out that the front took almost three hours to play -- yes, there was a marshall.

It is a public course, he said, and that means volume is how they pay the bills, which is why they have tee times every eight minutes -- and they always have a back-up on the course.

As for someone who said - just relax and enjoy yourself -- I agree, it is supposed to be relaxing. Four hours is nice. Four and a half if reasonable. After that it is no longer enjoyable because it means more than likely you are sitting and waiting before almost every shot -- instead of maintaining a nice pace of play and keeping your rythym with your swing.

Other things that drive me nuts --

1) The incessant need for every person to mark their ball on every green, no matter how far it is or no matter where it is in relation to the other balls. If it ain't in someone's way , leave it on the ground.

2) Groups that don't play ready golf -- if you are at your ball and ready to hit, hit, don't wait for Sergio junior in your group who is trying to find his ball in the woods to hit, keep moving forward.

3) People who write down the score while in the carts at the green -- as opposed to at the next tee.

4) People who feel the need to put their head cover back on their driver or putter after every time they use it.

5) People who decide to give putting lessons to their friend on the green after he misses a short putt......

Again, all little stuff, it all adds up to time wasted.

I have no problem with guys who hole out on every hole, and no problem with guys trying to line up putts right and hit the ball good after a practice swing or two --- but far too many guys waste time with slow, deliberate pace of play that kills the momentum on the course.

 

1. Perfect example. A guy I work with refuses to take a gimmee and will mark every 18-inch or two-foot putt for triple bogey. That alone adds several minutes to a round.

2. When I'm covering tournaments out of town and play with other writers in the morning, we'll often hit at the same time from opposite sides of the fairway. Saves lots of time. One round, me and another guy went off at 6:55 a.m. and were done by 9:15.

3. Drives me nuts.

4. I do that but on my way to the next hole or on the way to the cart. I never hold up my group because of that but I used to play with a buddy who every freaking hole would start searching for his putter cover. I'd just take mine to the green with me.

5. What's worse is when people want to try their putt again while you're waiting in the fairway.

But maybe the worst is when some jackass stops at a pond to look for balls that aren't his and then starts fishing them out when he sees some. Either let me play through or move the fuck on.

I agree that you shouldn't be in a rush and should enjoy a leisurely pace. But when you're waiting over every shot, that sucks the life out of golf.

 

The problem with a slow round is it disrupts the rhythm of the round for everyone else.

You should be able to walk to your ball and when you get there, have the opportunity to hit. As people drag the round out, you end up standing around waiting on the tee box, the fairway, the next green and that is seriously disruptive to the ability to play the game.

 

Most courses have a rule to allow faster players to play through, especially if you meet them on the tee and they're still waiting on their final player to hit.

Also, even though this may not apply to your specific course, Zag...water hazards are also a big time-sucker. You can't get it across and some want to try to get it across again...and again...until they either get it across or agree to drop on the other side.

When I played golf (back when I actually lived on the golf course), I could do a round of nine walking in two hours. And I was terrible. I remember the day I shot under 60 for nine holes. There was extreme happiness that day.

 

God, I'm glad I don't golf.

 

one of the biggest problems is that people don't understand the concept of carts. When you give a rube a cart, they automatically think that it should eliminate all walking from the game.
it's OK to drop a guy off at his ball and then drive over to your ball. Or, leave the cart with the first guy, grab a few clubs and walk across the fairway to your own ball.
it's extremely frustrating to see two guys sitting in a cart waiting at one ball until the green clears before they even start thinking about what club they need. then, they drive to the next ball and repeat the same routine. extremely time consuming.

 

I am a defender (maybe a noted one) of the old ways and "honors" and the away player making a shot as others wait, etc. But anything over 4:45 is getting to be a waaaaay long round. Between 4 and 4:30 is fine.

I think looking for lost balls takes up the most time. Not me, man. One cursory look and then drop.

 

All this is why I haven't played a weekend round on a public course in 20+ years.

When I was a teenager, learning the game, and needed repetition more than practicing business schmooze, I'd bicycle to my local muni (15 minutes away),
be the first one on at 5:45 AM, and be done by 8.

The majority of my social rounds in the past five years have been on a local
semi-private. Twosome's always one of the first one's on (around 7 AM), and
we're always done by 11.

Can't tolerate backup. Destroys rhythm.

 

This is incredible. I agree 100 percent with a Zag post! ;D

 

Common courtesy and common sense. Nothin' like it.

 

I don't want to know what Zag has to say about female golfers.

 

I played the other day on a muni. My buddy is a beginner, so we let a group through. With a 30 minute rain delay, we still played in under 4 hours.

The biggest offense is searching for lost balls. And that comes from lack of experience. Most people hit a bad shot and don't want to watch it. So they have no idea where it is. So they usually drive about 50 yards by where it is (cause they don't want to admit they not only suck but can't hit it over 150 yards) and proceed to waste 5 minutes looking for it.

The other offense is fucking practice swings. It's something I worked on with my buddy this weekend. Take one max. I don't take any. Except around the green (putts and chips) where you have to get a feel for the speed and stuff. And I'm a fucking 5 handicap. There's no need for practice swings on the tee and fairway. You're just going to piss yourself off when you make perfect swings and then slice the ball into the fairway.

Third is unrealistic expectations about your shots. Waiting until groups clear when you can't possibly hit it that far. I had a problem with a marshall a couple of weeks ago that was unusual. My brother and I were waiting for a Par 4 to clear the green before we teed off. The marshal didn't seem to understand that we both could drive the 330-yard hole. Now, I don't drive the ball 330, at least not normally, but we could take it over the water and cut about 60 yards off the shot. So I hit it. Over the green. Pissing the players on the green off. I then told the marshall to go apologize for me. But for the other 99 percent of you. Fucking hit.

The answer?

There is none. Not on public courses. They paid their 30 bucks like you did. And there isn't a club pro out there that's going to pull people off the course. Which is the only way to get the pace back up. I would love to see you have to have a low handicap for the preemo times and higher handicaps play the twilight times. But that won't happen either.

So my advice. Enjoy the round. Get some beer and smoke a cigar. On a weekend it's going to take 5 hours to play, no shakes about it. Especially on a public. Even a semi-private. No doubt on a muni. I've learned to play at a pace to fit in with the 5 hour rounds so not disrupt my rythym too much. Getting up someone's ass on the course isn't going to fucking help.