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All Rounds Should Be Four Hours or Less

Typhoon said:
What you should do is go online and post the fact that it’s slow and the marshals so nothing on the course website. Hopefully they will read it and do something.

When I’ve gone out to marshal when I see it approaching 6 hours You can’t believe the amount of crap I get from these belligerent entitled a**holes. They don’t care about what you say, they think they own the course. We’ve escorted groups off the course. Then what do they do???? … they write a review on how they did nothing wrong and were thrown off the course etc… some people are just cowards with no clue… the world owes them a living.

You want people to enjoy themselves and it’s a shame to have these selfish ones out there. 4 hours has been the average for as long as I remember and there is no need for it to change. If anything you would think with the USGA claiming handicaps are going down pace of play would be better right??? What the USGA forgets is most people don’t have a USGA handicap so how do you track them?
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I guess it makes sense....the guys playing in 6 hours are the ones less likely to care about others , so the responses aren't surprising.

Many years ago when i was playing a semi-private course regularly, the pace of play was very slow. I felt our group got singled out a lot even though we were waiting on every shot. We were nice about it, and one day the Marshall finally let it out that management had told him he could only discipline the non-members, and not to talk to the members, because he didn't want to upset them

So we were behind a couple of groups that were members waiting on every shot , and he was told to give us a hard time LOL

I actually felt bad for him after he told us that
 
Sean said:
Yes, exactly. During Covid my home course had 15 minute spacing between tee times. All the rounds we played were under four hours, and no one was rushing.
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And what are the tee time intervals and pace now?
 
Bosco... said:
And what are the tee time intervals and pace now?
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Eight minutes. On the first hole last year the group in front of us hit their tee shots into a hazard. It took them close to 20 minutes to play the first hole. By the time we teed off, there were two other groups on the tee.
 
Bosco... said:
4:15 isn’t a bad pace is it? If everyone in a foursome spends 3 minutes looking for a lost ball, that’s an additional 12 minutes per round, right? And that’s if nothing else goes wrong.

Dunno, it’s a silly broad brush to paint with in my opinion. Some days are just faster than others.

I’ll take a 6 hour round over work any day.
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6 hours on the course where you are waiting on every shot/every hole is painful. Would I rather be there than work, yeah most of the time, but it's still not enjoyable.
 
JB said:
Then time should be made up elsewhere. It was four hours forever and just got accepted to be slower

If a single takes 3.5 on their own with nothing holding them up, that’s really slow in my opinion
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Walking or Riding? Or it shouldn't matter
 
MtlJeff said:
I guess it makes sense....the guys playing in 6 hours are the ones less likely to care about others , so the responses aren't surprising.

Many years ago when i was playing a semi-private course regularly, the pace of play was very slow. I felt our group got singled out a lot even though we were waiting on every shot. We were nice about it, and one day the Marshall finally let it out that management had told him he could only discipline the non-members, and not to talk to the members, because he didn't want to upset them

So we were behind a couple of groups that were members waiting on every shot , and he was told to give us a hard time LOL

I actually felt bad for him after he told us that
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There's a course we occasionally play that has GPS in the carts which tells you how far ahead or behind pace you are. The marshal pulled up to us and told us we were behind pace (we knew that), and we needed to pick it up. We pointed to the group ahead of us on the green, who we had been waiting behind all day long, and asked if he wanted us to hit into them or wait until it was safe to play. We told him we had been waiting like this on every shot, and if he could move them out of our way we'd gladly pick up the pace. He grumbled and drove off in the other direction.

I appreciate the effort to speed up the pace, but you need to figure out where the problem is and address it, not randomly harass groups that are in their proper place on the course (directly behind the group ahead of them) just to feel like you're doing something.
 
golfinnut said:
Walking or Riding? Or it shouldn't matter
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I think that depends on the course. On some courses a walker can be every bit as fast as a rider, on others they're at a huge disadvantage.

On my home course, I'm the only walker in our group and I'm usually the first person on the next tee box and I'm hitting by the time the carts pull up. But that's because our course was designed with walkers in mind and there are a lot of shortcuts I can take that carts can't. On other courses, you might be the last one there and still out of breath from the walk while you're teeing off because it wasn't designed for walking.
 
Sean said:
Eight minutes. On the first hole last year the group in front of us hit their tee shots into a hazard. It took them close to 20 minutes to play the first hole. By the time we teed off, there were two other groups on the tee.
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I’d imagine the pace has stretched a bit as well?
 
Ok, so utopia is reached, and all golf courses in North America now enforce a 3.5 hour pace of play, and golfer begrudgingly accept and adapt.

If you prefer a pace that’s faster than that, do you still expect to be let through ff the group ahead is playing a 3:15 pace, but there’s an open hole ahead?
 
Sean said:
Eight minutes. On the first hole last year the group in front of us hit their tee shots into a hazard. It took them close to 20 minutes to play the first hole. By the time we teed off, there were two other groups on the tee.
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That's not the fault of the spacing. That's the fault of golfers.
 
blugold said:
That's not the fault of the spacing. That's the fault of golfers.
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I agree. But eight minute spacing still backs up the course. Expecting a 4some to play a hole in 8 minutes these days is unrealistic.
 
golfinnut said:
Walking or Riding? Or it shouldn't matter
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A few said it but it matters because some tee boxes are seemingly miles away from the previous green. If you've got a pretty reasonable course though it isn't that big of a difference I've found.
 
golfinnut said:
Walking or Riding? Or it shouldn't matter
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If the course allows both, it shouldnt matter.
I mean I keep reading that walking is faster...
 
Daluteh said:
A few said it but it matters because some tee boxes are seemingly miles away from the previous green. If you've got a pretty reasonable course though it isn't that big of a difference I've found.
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In California and Nevada there are newer courses which have tee boxes several hundred yards from the previous green. These courses mandate riding.
 
Louis_Posture said:
Yes, if there is a hole open ahead the group should definitely allow the group following them to play thru.
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Why? Why does your pace preference trump theirs and the courses posted and enforced expectation? I’m open to a logical explanation.
 
Louis_Posture said:
In California and Nevada there are newer courses which have tee boxes several hundred yards from the previous green. These courses mandate riding.
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That's how most courses are down my way. We have tee boxes that are literally a few minutes cart ride away from each other.
 
if the course is packed and every group is in place and waiting there really isn't much anyone can do. No amount of a marshal encouraging pace of play can help if there's no where to go. I get it. When I get frustrated is when I"m literally laying down a towel on the teebox to sit on or lay down on for a 10-15 minute wait even though I can see the next hole or two is empty and you're not allowing me to play through.
 
War Eagle said:
That's how most courses are down my way. We have tee boxes that are literally a few minutes cart ride away from each other.
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I’m guessing they’re tied to housing subdivisions?
 
frontTsociety said:
Why? Why does your pace preference trump theirs and the courses posted and enforced expectation? I’m open to a logical explanation.
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Common courtesy?

It’s like the person that drives in the left hand lane of the highway doing the speed limit.
 
Bosco... said:
I’m guessing they’re tied to housing subdivisions?
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Not necessarily, environment has a lot to do with it, water, protected wetlands, etc.
 
frontTsociety said:
Why? Why does your pace preference trump theirs and the courses posted and enforced expectation? I’m open to a logical explanation.
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'Open hole ahead let the group(s) behind play thru' worked well for a hundred years because it is fair and reasonable for all players.
Courses posting a time number "pace of play policy" was done to appease selfish consumers who feel entitled to ignore proper golf etiquette. Sadly, the result is too often a single group holding up play for the multiple groups stacked up behind them.
 
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