Your part in speeding up your group

[Robert72]

I generally putt out and then tell the lethargic turtles, "we're getting behind so I'm going to tee off."   It lets them know there is a problem and I can tee off without feeling I need to hurry.

 

And when they finally get to the tee...I stare at them.

 

Once, I was with a god-awful couple.  I suggested we let the twosome behind us play through.   As the twosome was leaving the green, I stated, "Hey I know these guys and I'm going to join them".

 

I didn't know them. 

 

[I'_rather_be_golfing]

i don't know if it is just me or has it become more and more difficult to approach people about these type of subjects. I played 3 rounds in  Vegas over Labor Day weekend. And each time I was paired up with 2 randoms. And each round we were told to "please pick up the pace" or allow the group behind to go through. The moment the Marshall would leave. They would start to bad mouth and talk crap. in my mind. The Marshall was not rude. And he/she was just doing there jobs. Going forth, I'd rather not play if i can't play with my group. 

 

[Soloman1]

“Yo dude, our clothes are going out of style waitin’ here!”

 

”Yo dude, I have to catch a plane  tomorrow afternoon…”

 

 

[Bushwood Country Club]

8 hours ago, North Butte said:

If most rounds of golf routinely took me more than four hours to play, I would quit playing golf. A round in 4:15 is slow and it's ridiculous that such slow play has gotten normalized as "plenty fast". 

 

If you're out there for four hours and fifteen minutes that means you are literally standing around doing nothing for the majority of the round. There's just no way to get into any sort of flow or relaxing rhythm with that much standing around. Play golf for five minutes, stand around for five minutes, play golf for five minutes, stand around for five minutes, over and and over again. 

 

Making a comment like that says a lot.  You have no idea of the course, the difficulty, or the competitive environment.  I’m trying every round to play my very best.  I’m playing a sport I enjoy. I’m not in a rush to finish. No one is waiting on our group top finish, and generally we’re not waiting on anyone else.  I guess we just have different objectives when we are on the golf course.

[North Butte]

14 hours ago, Bushwood Country Club said:

Making a comment like that says a lot.  You have no idea of the course, the difficulty, or the competitive environment.  I’m trying every round to play my very best.  I’m playing a sport I enjoy. I’m not in a rush to finish. No one is waiting on our group top finish, and generally we’re not waiting on anyone else.  I guess we just have different objectives when we are on the golf course.

I go to the course to do one thing. Hit the ball, walk to the ball, hit the ball again. I never rush, I just like to keep moving and enjoy the flow. There's no flow when I have to stop and wait before every shot.  

 

I realize there are a million other things that people like to do on golf courses but that doesn't mean I have to like standing around waiting on them to do their thing. It's a pity that what people think of as "playing golf" nowadays has gotten so far from the simple, elemental pleasure of hitting a ball, watching it fly through the air and moving to the next shot. 

 

If the first time I'd gone to the golf course 30 years ago, it had been a place like you apparently play I would never have gone back a second time. There's no appeal in it for me, none. I'm sure one day I will no longer be able to find a place for a enjoyable round of golf but for now I seek out those places and avoid the ones that are clogged with slowpokes. 

[mshills]

The sweeping pace of play generalizations always come up and never make sense. 
 

It is a simple fact. Some courses take much longer to play than others. Period. 

[North Butte]

1 hour ago, mshills said:

The sweeping pace of play generalizations always come up and never make sense. 
 

It is a simple fact. Some courses take much longer to play than others. Period. 

And some people waste way more times than others. Period. 

[PhilsFanDrew]

On 9/21/2022 at 8:49 PM, Bushwood Country Club said:

Respectfully, if you are complaining about a 4:15 round, I feel your expectations are unreasonable.  Congrats on being a scratch golfer, but lots of us are trying hard to get that good.  4:15 is plenty fast.

 

While I agree that I generally wouldn't go out of my way to complain about a 4:15 round (especially on weekend), you don't need to shoot around scratch to get a round complete under 4:15.  I play off 11 and play with a group who ranges from 14-25 and we've completed rounds in under 4 hours so long as the group in front of us is keeping pace. 

 

I also rarely see anyone that is truly a slow player a la JB Holmes taking forever to hit a shot.  It's more that too many people are not playing efficiently (not having an extra ball at the tee if a provisional is needed, players waiting in carts for their buddy to hit rather than dropping off and driving to their ball, not getting yardage and selecting club until after a playing partner has hit their approach shot, etc).  These things over the course of 18 holes make a huge difference, especially if you have multiple culprits. 

[MountainKing]

On 9/22/2022 at 9:39 PM, ArtMBgolf said:

The ranger may not know that you are 2 + 2.  If he talks to you the fast player, point him 
to the slow pokes.   Ask the ranger to have a group go through.  That sometimes wakes 
up the slow guys.   Bad golfers can play at a good pace if they don't look for hopelessly 
lost balls, don't pick up at double par, take their time on a 2' putt for 8, etc. 
 
Now there are some decent to good golfers who are still 5 hour players. 
 
I agree with going on ahead when it's open enough that the slow guys are not 
waiting on you at the next tee.           

 

Add play the correct tee boxes, although that really goes for everybody.  We got paired up with two guys yesterday to who insisted playing the 6800 yard tee's with my buddy and I.  These guys were not neccesarily slow in that they kept moving nicely, but they ended up being slow because they were bad and had to take two or three shots to get up to where our drives were.  They were also walkers, which unfortunately in this instance added to the pain.  Luckily they weren't super offline so looking for balls wasn't really an issue with them, it was just the amount of shots.  I did suggest at one point that they move up and play the course at 6000 which would have been more appropriate for them, and they gave me the liking the challange speech.  Neither of these guys had a par, I'm almost certain none of them had a bogey on the card either, and no way either broke 110.  The ranger came out and did try to push us along cause we (they) fell two holes back, and I flat out pointed to the two who were holding us up.  If these guys were on the right tee box, they would probably be able to play bogey golf and would have had zero issues keeping up.