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All Rounds Should Be Four Hours or Less

Jeff Spicoli said:
Don’t disagree. I played 18 in an hour and a half the other weekend.
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I do the same, solo. It's easily doable.

For the people that say "enjoy nature"...If i wanted to do that I would take up bird watching.
 
Joshnoble01 said:
The biggest problem with the 4 hour round is people don’t understand that that should be the minimum standard. 4 hours is slow. You should be considerate enough to play that or faster. Not right around there. That’s how we’ve gotten to 420-430 rounds being normal.
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Most have no interest in playing at a solid pace, they would rather just be out there, dilly dallying, and forcing others to wait.
 
War Eagle said:
I do the same, solo. It's easily doable.

For the people that say "enjoy nature"...If i wanted to do that I would take up bird watching.
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It’s rare I can play with hardly anyone on the course. It was nice to get around fast and back to the family.
 
I would rather play a 4.5 hour round where there is no one in front or behind me, over a 3.5-4 hour round where I’m waiting on every shot
 
Jeff Spicoli said:
It’s rare I can play with hardly anyone on the course. It was nice to get around fast and back to the family.
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The course I drive by every morning and afternoon was EMPTY this afternoon, signaling our Northern visitors have migrated back home. I can easily get 18 in at 4pm and be home by 6pm now. Love when the courses down here start emptying out.
 
Not an issue for me. I can play at whatever the pace of play is that day. Slow, medium, or fast, I got it covered.

I do think pace of play on a golf course is a lot like freeway traffic. Just too many folks who's genetics cause them to do the same things at different speeds.
 
Jtubb17 said:
Definitely agree. Round this afternoon was 4:04 and it felt so slow
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Our glorious 36 holes of CPO in 6.5 hours spoiled us.
 
Every round should be under 4 hours and I wish courses would enforce it.
 
Should be waaay less than 4 hours and fortunately most are under 4 around here but golf continues to trend longer and longer.
 
mantan said:
Bingo. The amount of time between tee times plays a huge role.

@outlawx and I played a course on Friday afternoon that does a fantastic job with pace of play. Rounds are almost always right at 4:00-4:15. They run tee minute tee times and the culture of the club is that you're ready to go at your tee time....if not a few minutes before. It was a chamber of commerce 83* sunny day and the tee sheet was completely full. Yet we finished in 4:05.

They have 10-minute tee times. That's just the right amount of time to allow a group to temporarily lose time and make it up without it backing up the course.

By comparison, many of the courses that have 8-minute tee times always back up on a busy day. There's one course we had to stop going to that has 7-minute tee times. It's just not viable.

I get that every course wants to maximize revenue. And at the end of the day if you cram through more groups (with the people at the end just not finishing as many holes as they hoped) you'll make more money. But it's sure nice to have an experience that feels like you're not waiting.
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Blaming the course and tee sheet for the issue is not the solution in my opinion. Golfers have the ability to accomplish this. At THP Experiences we have 15 minute tee time intervals.

4 hours is not a quick pace. I think that is where some of the confusion comes from.
 
Depends if you are walking or buggying IMO. Buggying, yes then 4 hours should be maximum.

Some people like myself don't want to have to walk briskly at all times pushing a bag/cart, especially if the course is hilly. It's very tiring, and that's before you take into account people who aren't as fit as others or have minor health issues.

There are times when I get to my ball but don't want to hit it straight away as I'm breathing heavier. That's not a fun round doing that constantly just in order to "keep up". You don't play well. Some people race around and realise other people might not be able to do the same.

And all that is before you take age into account. Older golfers want a leisurely round with their 3 pals with no pressure to speed up. Then they get a 2 or 3 ball behind them of 30 somethings carrying lightweight bags and who are complaining about speed of play.
 
I generally feel a round should be 4 hours or less as long as not delayed by groups ahead of you.

On my home course the walking between holes I would estimate adds 30-40 minutes to each round vs taking a power cart and we still typically finish between 3:15 & 3:45 when we walk.

The extra 30 minute spread is usually due to the players in our foresome. My course is very tight with heavy forest surrounding so if you have someone wild in the group that can add the extra time.
 
Nick20UK said:
Depends if you are walking or buggying IMO. Buggying, yes then 4 hours should be maximum.

Some people like myself don't want to have to walk briskly at all times pushing a bag/cart, especially if the course is hilly. It's very tiring, and that's before you take into account people who aren't as fit as others or have minor health issues.

There are times when I get to my ball but don't want to hit it straight away as I'm breathing heavier. That's not a fun round doing that constantly just in order to "keep up". You don't play well. Some people race around and realise other people might not be able to do the same.

And all that is before you take age into account. Older golfers want a leisurely round with their 3 pals with no pressure to speed up. Then they get a 2 or 3 ball behind them of 30 somethings carrying lightweight bags and who are complaining about speed of play.
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Then let the faster group behind you play through.
 
Everyone who plays solo or, perhaps in a twosome, should not equate their 90 minute round on an almost empty course as representing a normal pace. The standard is a foursome walking. Racing around a course solo in a cart is fun and quick but that doesn’t happen at most public courses on weekends or busy weekdays.
 
4 hours is not a quick pace. Bad golfers don't need to be slow. Play the correct tees, understand you aren't doing this for a living and learn to play ready golf. It's not that hard.

The problem with golf is it really only takes one toad that believes being outside is wonderful and doesn't mind some extra time at the course and it slows the pace for every group on the course. There are several of those toads in this thread. I suggest they try pickleball as a hobby. :)
 
What is the pace of play at THP events?
 
bkuehn1952 said:
Everyone who plays solo or, perhaps in a twosome, should not equate their 90 minute round on an almost empty course as representing a normal pace. The standard is a foursome walking. Racing around a course solo in a cart is fun and quick but that doesn’t happen at most public courses on weekends or busy weekdays.
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Does 4 hours mean racing?
This is very confusing to me.
 
mts25 said:
4 hours is not a quick pace. Bad golfers don't need to be slow. Play the correct tees, understand you aren't doing this for a living and learn to play ready golf. It's not that hard.

The problem with golf is it really only takes one toad that believes being outside is wonderful and doesn't mind some extra time at the course and it slows the pace for every group on the course. There are several of those toads in this thread. I suggest they try pickleball as a hobby. :)
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Honestly it's not even "Bad Golfers" that are the main cause in my opinion. It's not necessarily someones skill level just how they get around the golf course. Too many people ride in carts and they ride to the first persons ball, one guy exits the cart and does his preshot routine hits his ball and then gets back in the cart and they drive to their cartners ball that was 10 yards away and that guy then goes through his routine when they could speed things up by either dropping the first guy off, or the second guy grabbing a couple clubs and walkign to his ball allowing his cartner to pick him up. This is why COVID golf was often faster, when each player had their own cart, it allowed guys to get to their ball and get ready to hit while others were hitting.
 
Absofuckinlutely
 
5 hours is way to long it seems. 3 hours is borderline rushing with a group of 4. Four hours seems to be the max. Given free run at a course by myself mine in under 2 hours most days.
 
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