pay for speed

how much (if anything) more would you pay to play a guaranteed (Marshall Enforced) 4 hour round?

My private club membership. Today was slow at 3:30. Didn’t call the pro though.

Nothing. I honestly don’t care how long a round takes. The faster the round gets over, the faster I’m doing something that isn’t nearly as fun as playing a round of golf with friends.

As a friend of mine always says, after a round of golf he’s got, “Nowhere to go, nothing to do, and nobody to do it with.” So why care how long it takes.

A guaranteed max 4 hour round isn't so much to get done quickly, but to avoid the 4.5, 5, 5+ hour round.

Everyone is going to have a different value and that also depends if the course is a $40 or $100 green fee.

I would like to see a course try a 4 hour max day, all AM or for 7-10am, on a single tee, not double tee. Advertise, charge an extra $10-20 and ranger it.

I have not heard of a course advertising this. There are courses, mostly private, that expect a 4 hour pace, but the public courses aren't advertising it.

Metered golf carts. No keys, start 'em with your credit card and the meter stops when they arrive at the cart return spot.

Two things to that: 1)you can do many things "with friends." Golf isn't the only avenue. 2)You get much longer than 4 hours, you're doing a lot of standing around. At some point, the cost benefit to standing around on a golf course vs standing around somewhere else at a fraction of the cost comes into play.

Sorry, I just can't equate being on a golf course to playing golf. PLaying golf is not standing around a long time waiting on nearly every shot.

That works fine, until one group holds up a number of other groups, increasing the cost for the other groups. Now if there was a way to force the first "slow" group to pay for the added cost to the golfers behind them, I'm all for it.

Back in the 90s when I worked in the golf industry (design and construction) there was a course in MN (IIRC) that basically guaranteed a 3:45 round. Players acknowledged the course reserved the right to move a group into position (skip a hole if behind) or ask a group to leave. Again, IIRC, I read where the course was booked a month or more in advance.

Peer pressure (that's a nice term for it) might sort it out after a month or two of an experimental trial. ?

I wouldn't pay anything for a 4 hour round, I still consider that to be slow. I would absolutely pay a premium for a 3 to 3:30 round. Much beyond 3:30, like mentioned, you're getting into the point of standing around. If I'm playing golf, that's what I want to do. If I want social hour there's plenty of ways to get together with the guys and just sit around and shoot the shit for 4+ hours.

To me it's not so much about getting home to do other stuff, life is short, I want to spend as little of it as possible waiting around. If I block off 5 hours for golf, if it's done in 3 that means I can go play another 9 or go practice for 2 hours. The last month of golf has been some of my favorite golf ever with the spaced out tee times and 3 hour rounds. It's sad it's back to normal.

I honestly wouldn't pay for it. I'd just ask the marshals to actual do their job.

Yes, I know it's customer service and people probably treat them like crap, but I have seen a few times (note I play mostly public / semi-private) that they just drive by or not say anything, or even worse IMO skip the group up front causing the delay because they know them, and talk to the groups behind them.

Also, on an etiquette note I think many don't know the best time to let a group pay up and jump ahead. Many people finish the hole then sit at the tee waiting on the group then let them tee off, hit the approach, then they off. On the flip side, I've seen on a course with all the GPS cart tracking that a 3:30 group was trying to play through a backlog of 4:00 groups (the GPS shows pace timers to the pro shop) and all the waiting to let the group play through on every hole because they were full pushed everyone's time up about half an hour.

I do not play and give my money to courses that do not manage pace of play properly. Even if they do manage pace well, I tend to get very early morning tee times, as 4 hours is not a fast round in my eyes. If either the well-managed courses or courses where I get the early times charge more, then so be it, and I'll pay it. If there was a course that said "the first hour of tee times every day costs $15 more per person, and are sold on the condition that a foursome will finish in 3.5 hours or less" then I would pay it unless the course itself was terrible.

Our course (semi-private) has a policy that the first two hours of tee times are expected to complete their rounds in four hours or less. If a group is not matching that pace, calls are made to the golf shop, who will follow-up by visiting the offending group(s). We do not have (or need) a starter, marshal or ranger.

I joined a private club for this exact reason (along with consistent conditions). Our expected PoP is 3hrs 45mins and it only takes that long during the prime time. If you go off before 8am its 3.5hrs or better.

Well, if you play what is normally a 4 1/2+ hour round in 3 1/2 hours, where I play that means 9 more holes for a day of 27. So yeah, play fast please.