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Getting really frustrated by the length of rounds.


mark174ace

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I have been playing golf for almost 30 years and I am without question currently playing the best golf of my life at 45 years old. I usually break 80 and absolutely love the game like I did 30 years ago, but I am so frustrated by how long these rounds are becoming simply due to course mismanagement / disinterest.

 

I played golf yesterday and the round started off slow and got progressively worse. By the time we get to the 10th hole there is four groups on the hole (two on the tee box) and that continued on 11 & 12. At that point it took 3 hr 20 minutes to play 12 holes and judging by how it was becoming increasingly slower the final 6 holes would have certainly taken 2 hours no exaggeration.

 

When we were on 10 we realized that there was a fivesome three groups ahead. A couple of people called the clubhouse to complain and the marshall faked outrage about the whole thing when he knowingly let them go off that way. They did nothing about breaking it up even though they gave us the lip service that they were going to do something about it.

 

So I left after the 12th hole because the whole thing was ridiculous and I would have only been able to play 2-3 more holes anyways. I never would have imagined a 10am tee time would have been a 5 1/2 hour round.

 

Here is what pissed me off. When I left the 12th hole and headed back to the clubhouse it turns out that a really bad foursome and the fivesome behind them were holding up the whole golf course. There was only two groups on 16, a twosome on 17, and nobody on 18!!! So I played the 18th hole and left.

 

When are these golf courses going to get it in their heads that there is consistent money to be made on the weekend mornings if you run a tight ship? If word gets out that a quality gold course us having 4 1/2 hour rounds the tee sheet for Sat & Sun will be full by Monday evening and have plenty of repeat customers. I am really starting to believe that golf course mgmt are their own worst enemy in this matter.

 

I am seriously thinking about playing less golf because I am so tired of this crap. I love the game of golf. I love the decision making and creativity aspect of the game, but I am seriously getting turned off by this nonsense.

 

Am I wrong that golf courses are missing out on an opportunity to profit off the poor management of other golf courses? Hotels and restaurants that are well managed and offer quality service can stay in business for a long time. Have golf course mgmt just become indifferent to the whole thing, lazy, lack of true mgmt skills?

 

I have never worked in the golf industry in any capacity and do not care to because I just love playing. I may very well being missing something, or taking too simplistic of a look at the whole thing. Your thoughts? I am beyond frustrated.

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Sat and Sunday golf means either first off or darn close. Sadly after a long week of work thats a 4:30-5:30am reality check. Only way I would ever tee off at 10am would be at a club, period. Those mid morning times are PRIME trolling hours...BB

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Sat and Sunday golf means either first off or darn close. Sadly after a long week of work thats a 4:30-5:30am reality check. Only way I would ever tee off at 10am would be at a club, period. Those mid morning times are PRIME trolling hours...BB

 

yup first off or I'm not heading over till 3-4ish to get in nine and some practice work

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I won’t get tired of saying as long as guys aren’t tired of posting about it. Slow golf can not and will not self correct on the course ever under any conditions, playing through is a one or two group fix. A ranger needs to remove out of position groups and move them to the next place where they are back in position, even if they are required to miss a green tee or entire hole. The kindly gentleman who rangers for free golf is a zero sum effect. Make the assistant pro drive the course. This is simple.

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Side effect of growing the game without proper etiquette training.

Their solution for more golfers was to build more golf courses... grow the game as they say. We know if we grow anything without guidance will result in over grown mess.

 

People already don't want to follow the rules and observe common courtesy , on top of these now adding the entitlement that if they paid for the round , surely they were encouraged to play the game as they wish.

 

I would take my green fees elsewhere.

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My 10yr old Son is coming of age and the FIRST golf lessons he is getting as did I are related to golf ediquitte. Until he is able to keep up that means ONE ball on the course and picking up to maintain pace of play regardless of skill. It's just the way it's gonna be no excuses.

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Unfortunately if you want to play on the weekend you're probably going to experience a long round. If you tee off at 0 dark hundred you could avoid that. In your particular case that was quite ridiculous and it would be a golf course I would avoid in the future.

 

I typically play early in the morning approx May - Sept for the simple reason it is hotter than hell in the summertime here in Sacramento. However it is the rest of the time of year where playing early in the morning may not be a viable option for different reasons. It is during these times I am running into more and more of these problems that used to be more isolated incidents.

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We have that all the time here especially during the spring and fall tourist golf seasons. They could care less about the members that support the course year round. Used to be back in the day the locals would flock to some of the lower tier courses that were not on the tourist track so to speak, But sadly those 4 or 5 courses have closed. All the courses here are after that tourist dollar. Seems to me they also promote drunkenness as in they will sell a lot of alcohol and tolerate drunk and rude behavior. As far as rangers I have sever friends that are long time rangers and they will tell us the management standpoint is "Don't piss off the tourists". Now on the alcohol part I am not being a prude I do not have any problem with anyone enjoying adult beverages during a round just don't be drunk and stupid.

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I won’t get tired of saying as long as guys aren’t tired of posting about it. Slow golf can not and will not self correct on the course ever under any conditions, playing through is a one or two group fix. A ranger needs to remove out of position groups and move them to the next place where they are back in position, even if they are required to miss a green tee or entire hole. The kindly gentleman who rangers for free golf is a zero sum effect. Make the assistant pro drive the course. This is simple.

 

Exactly my point about golf course mgmt getting of their butt and doing something about it. People nowadays have no shame or self awareness. The common belief now is " I paid my $$ so I can do whatever I want"

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Waaaaaaa! My day at the golf course was ruined...

 

Seriously though, 10amish would be the absolute worst time to play on the weekend. Either go off first or late afternoon.

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Just how it is, have to join a private club....

 

My average round last year was well under 4 hours playing at around 8am....but, private club

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We have that all the time here especially during the spring and fall tourist golf seasons. They could care less about the members that support the course year round. Used to be back in the day the locals would flock to some of the lower tier courses that were not on the tourist track so to speak, But sadly those 4 or 5 courses have closed. All the courses here are after that tourist dollar. Seems to me they also promote drunkenness as in they will sell a lot of alcohol and tolerate drunk and rude behavior. As far as rangers I have sever friends that are long time rangers and they will tell us the management standpoint is "Don't piss off the tourists". Now on the alcohol part I am not being a prude I do not have any problem with anyone enjoying adult beverages during a round just don't be drunk and stupid.

 

I'm all for the beverage sold on the golf course to generate revenue.... as long as the golfer could walk the holes and swing the golf clubs. If not, removal from the golf course immediately since they don't know how to handle adult beverage and take away their car keys until they're sober or call for a drive home.

If they're too drunk to drive on the roadway, they are too drunk to drive a golf cart. When will they consider handing out DUI tickets on the golf courses ?

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Unfortunately if you want to play on the weekend you're probably going to experience a long round. If you tee off at 0 dark hundred you could avoid that. In your particular case that was quite ridiculous and it would be a golf course I would avoid in the future.

 

I typically play early in the morning approx May - Sept for the simple reason it is hotter than hell in the summertime here in Sacramento. However it is the rest of the time of year where playing early in the morning may not be a viable option for different reasons. It is during these times I am running into more and more of these problems that used to be more isolated incidents.

 

Used to be, early tee time will fly through the 18, but as more and more golfers willing to sacrifice weekend sleeping-in to an available tee time, in recent years the early birds do not catch worms any more. Unless it'll be the first few tee times when the course first open, be prepared for a 4 1/2 hour round even if one teed off before 8 A.M.

Sad thing is, most the afternoon tee times would be available for full fair until the twilight rate kicks in, then you'll have more slow play and drinkers.

We have another problem besides alcohol beverage on the golf course, since the passing of the State law approving for recreational consumption of Marijuana. People just don't get it, they could not consume alcohol nor weed in public. I had played with several guys whom asked me if I mind their lighting up, I said no and watched their golf game go down the toilet after THC kicked in.

So they got to get high on the golf course which is not enjoyable with a lousy golf game. Why bother !

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I won’t get tired of saying as long as guys aren’t tired of posting about it. Slow golf can not and will not self correct on the course ever under any conditions, playing through is a one or two group fix. A ranger needs to remove out of position groups and move them to the next place where they are back in position, even if they are required to miss a green tee or entire hole. The kindly gentleman who rangers for free golf is a zero sum effect. Make the assistant pro drive the course. This is simple.

Pro's or Asst Pros or not going to ride the golf course, they might get questioned as to why the play is so slow. They don't want to address the issue!
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We have that all the time here especially during the spring and fall tourist golf seasons. They could care less about the members that support the course year round. Used to be back in the day the locals would flock to some of the lower tier courses that were not on the tourist track so to speak, But sadly those 4 or 5 courses have closed. All the courses here are after that tourist dollar. Seems to me they also promote drunkenness as in they will sell a lot of alcohol and tolerate drunk and rude behavior. As far as rangers I have sever friends that are long time rangers and they will tell us the management standpoint is "Don't piss off the tourists". Now on the alcohol part I am not being a prude I do not have any problem with anyone enjoying adult beverages during a round just don't be drunk and stupid.

 

Believe it or not, we're having the same issue here in the Summer Months. Some even came in the off season because of the lower green fee and traveling expense.

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Did you have someplace you had to be?

 

come on man. Plans or not that kind of pace is just not fun.

 

Agreed, courses typically have suggested pace of play. If you are slower than that you are holding people up plain and simple. Their plans, legitimate or not in your eyes, aren't relevant

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Waaaaaaa! My day at the golf course was ruined...

 

Seriously though, 10amish would be the absolute worst time to play on the weekend. Either go off first or late afternoon.

 

As I stated before these incidents used to be more isolated incidents, but it is more common now. As I also said I do play a lot of early golf, but that is not always doable. Yesterday's issue was basically caused by nine players and the golf course allowing a fivesome. The golf course was not even booked solid and as a matter of fact my group teed off about 12 minutes early which makes the whole thing even worse! I have played plenty of times at around 10am and it did not result in a 5 1/2 round. This was a matter of epic golf mgmt failure. I went into it assuming it would be 5 hours with a fairly consistent level of waiting not getting progressively worse to the point of 14 people on one hole. Get a clue.

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Let me say that I completely agree with the frustration. With that being said, I don't agree with being upset at how a course chooses to conduct it's business. They are trying to do what it takes to stay profitable and open.

 

The simple answer is to open your own course and run it your way. I think in that position your thoughts MIGHT change a bit.

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I'm convinced 99% pace of play issues have to do with tee times being too close together.

Did you have someplace you had to be?

 

Yeah, I had to make my tee time for the next morning...

 

To the OP, you need to write a letter to the General Manager. They need to be aware of the situation, and either fix it with their staff, or if they just don't care, then make it known you're done with their course, and will let all your friends know that they just don't care about pace of play.

 

Money wins in the end, use that to your advantage.

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Let me say that I completely agree with the frustration. With that being said, I don't agree with being upset at how a course chooses to conduct it's business. They are trying to do what it takes to stay profitable and open.

 

The simple answer is to open your own course and run it your way. I think in that position your thoughts MIGHT change a bit.

 

There's the solution....buy your own course. Good one!

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They've been struggling with this issue for the last forty years at my club..

I just tee off first thing and recommend the club to put these slower players in the afternoon..

 

I'd love to take my ten year old out to play too but I'd pay with her in the afternoon when it's slower and not so rushed/pressure for her

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Every time one of these threads come up it reminds me how lucky we are at our club. Our pros know the players and do a good job of keeping people aware of pace.

 

I stopped in yesterday and told our Pro we were coming up at 10:00. He went and looked at the computer and said you'd better make it a little before 10:00, the "Jones" "Pokeys"(notoriously slow group, name changed to protect the guilty!) are going off at 10:00.

 

EDIT: Fixed that name for you Mr Jones!


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