2 Comments

1. 

   Bob Jones

   Aug 5, 2019 at 4:51 pm

   My solution to slow play is to show up at 8:00 in the morning on weekdays when the front nine is stacked up, and go off the back nine solo. I finish my nine in about 90 minutes and obviously never get held up.

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2. 

   ChipNRun

   Jul 26, 2019 at 12:20 pm

   In local Amateur circuit play, slow play is sometimes a major issue. I see two root causes when the “circuit is slow.”

   1. First round of year: You have people that haven’t played the circuit before, who think they know the rules of golf, BUT don’t. These are the clowns whose tee ball is still rising when it crosses the OB line. Do they hit a provisional? NO. They drive down to the OB area, stomp around in the underbrush, then declare a ball OB. They then drive back to the tee and hit a second shot. This adds 10 minutes to everyone’s round.

   On opening day, the starter encourages everyone to play at decent pace. And, it’s not uncommon to see newbies put “on the clock” while still on the front nine. The bad offenders then receive a “counseling” session post-round. What happens is that several newbies will realize that playing within the rules and playing quickly is not something they can handle, so they absent themselves from further Amateur circuit events. Opening day always draws a 20% larger field then subsequent rounds.The follow-up rounds move much more quickly.

   2. Greens crew oopsies. An interesting local course has began picking up more circuit and scramble play recently. The problem here lies in the rough lines on holes bordering the course. If it’s a Monday play day, chances are these areas haven’t been mown in a week. Some of the tee shots are semi-blind: if a player tugs one or pushes one into shady 6-inch deep rough, there’s a good chance of a lost ball… which leads to slow play.

   Solution here would be for the tourney to arrange for someone to mow the roughline, and to post someone in the roughline to watch for errant balls on these holes. Most courses have one or two holes where a spotter could prevent bottlenecks caused by tee balls disappearing in the shag five feet from the fairway.

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