Opinion & Analysis
Opinion: Courses must be proactive to speed up play
USGA President Glen Nager recently announced that, “Golf needs to act,” concerning the problem of slow play. Slow play is an issue as old as time itself, and the answer to the problem, as it always has been, is as obvious as it ever was.
The pace of play on golf courses across the world has to be dictated and policed by the golf course staff. For the same reason we have highway patrolmen and police officers handing out speeding tickets and traffic violations, we need the people that manage golf courses to pro-actively manage golfers.
There has to be someone in control. There has to be bosses. People need to be managed. Without authority there is anarchy, and anarchy on a golf course leads to people being discourteous and selfish and to time standing still.
On one golf course where I play they used to have a grumpy older fellow named Gene. Gene ran the pro shop, acted as a starter and marshaled the course with swift justice. He was a little guy who chain smoked, and had no time or patience for people slowing down the pace. Gene knew that just like the selfish and rude people who drive poorly and unsafely on our streets and highways, there are golfers who act selfishly and rude on our courses if they are not stopped. He understood very well that golf courses are really just small little societies, and that we as golfers are “all in this together.”
If your group was slow and people were backing up behind you, he told you to pick up the pace. He pointed ahead of you and said that two holes were open, and he pointed behind you and showed you the three groups stacked up behind you. He knew no favorites and he accepted no excuses. They were glorious times. Gene recently lost a hard fought battle with lung cancer, may he rest in peace, and that golf course has never been the same since he left. I think about him often when slow players bog down a golf course.
The group I was playing in recently caught up to a young man playing by himself. On the tee box he hit multiple tee shots in all directions, oblivious to the fact that we were watching him on a tee box behind him on the same hole. He proceeded to criss-cross back and forth across the fairway, hitting the balls that were findable. Once he made it to the green he proceeded to “putt” while lying flat on his chest and using the end of his putter grip like a pool cue. The young lady riding along in the cart with him finally noticed us and pointed back to us waiting and watching him. He jumped up, made sure to show us an exasperated look to let us know that we were bothering him, and went back and putted normally several times from other positions. He and his “caddy” then walked the 50-yard walk back to the rough where they left the cart and drove off. He piddled around on the tee box long enough that by the time our group caught him, we once again had to watch him take several practice swings between half a dozen “tee shots” that went everywhere. Then he turned around and gave us the stink eye. It was just delightful.
That fellow obviously represented an extreme to the argument that golf courses need to be policed. Maybe he is part of the 10 percent jerk factor. He might be the same guy who weaves in and out of traffic on the highway as he drives at an excessive speed while eating his breakfast burrito and texting. You might be inclined to flip this fellow the bird as you throw your beer at him and rev your engine to get away, but the best option is for a highway patrolman to handle the situation. An authority figure needs to take control.
The other end of that spectrum is a well-known county judge who also plays at the same club as the pool-putting dufus. He’s a super nice guy, and a man who seems really young to have been re-elected multiple times. But at the golf course he is known as “black death.” No one ever makes it more than nine holes with him. He aligns and adjusts, re-thinks, re-aligns and adjusts. And that is him just putting on his glove. He takes countless practice swings, countless looks down the fairway or at the green and spends forever tinkering the alignment of his club face at address. And of course, he walks slow.
A woman wearing a trenchcoat, who was as short as she was wide, and her playing companion who each trickled the ball down the fairway 10 times before they got to the green, actually had to play through him. My group had been behind the man and the woman, only to see the worst possible scenario waiting for us on the next tee. The judge and his partner saw us standing there, and saw the other two groups backed up on the par three we just left. They decided the best way to handle that was to dig in their heels and ruin the day for everyone. No one else was going through. We could have played six holes in the time the man and woman could play just one hole, and this judge and his partner were three holes behind them “immediately.”
A slow group has no more right to play at a pace that backs up the course than a fast group should expect to fly through a course on a busy day. This isn’t a statement about good golfers versus bad golfers. The bottom line is that golf needs to be fun for slow groups as well as fast groups, and without everyone going out of their way to accommodate for each other, the two speeds need to either be policed or separated.
The people that run golf courses need to get together and declare themselves an ardent supporter and enforcer of a faster pace of play, or as a course that welcomes anyone who wishes to play slowly. It’s time to separate the masses.
To the gentleman who commented on my last slow play story that by gosh he likes to smoke cigars, sip cognac, and take his time on the few occasions where he can get out to the course and he doesn’t want to be asked to finish in four hours, he should have golf courses or time slots that are dedicated to his preferred pace of play. And to the groups that play ready golf and finish in three hours or less, they should have courses or time slots that cater to them.
Granted, some properties are just too massive to expect golfers to be able to finish in a certain time frame, but you can bet that if groups are holding up the golf course and they are warned that they will be forced to pick up the pace or leave, they will find a way to be more efficient in their movements and decisions.
If a golf course wants to opt out of a formal play pace announcement, they need to designate slow play times and fast play times, or at the very least have a presence on the course. But they cannot just say it, they need to live it.
Another place where I play regularly has two courses. Every morning on one of the courses they block off all tee times from 9 a.m. to 12-noon for ladies’ tee times that are never half used. They are either scared to death of the ladies who are members, like the rest of us are, or they want them to not feel like they belong on the course at other times.
One afternoon my group caught up to a twosome of ladies. The two of them got into an argument, and took turns getting in and out of a fairway bunker and pointing at something in the yard of one of the homes that lined the fairway. They stood there for several minutes before they moved on. Our group hit our tee shots once they cleared the way, and to our surprise our tee shots came to rest in the fairway next to the cart they were driving, which was parked 70-yards from the green in the middle of the fairway. They finished putting and saw us parked there beside them. They made no effort to acknowledge us, even as they were five feet away. They took their time and were still on the tee box for the next hole when we arrived there. One of them motioned to the other that we were there again, the other lady must have said she didn’t care if we lived or died.
We waited on every shot for the next four holes, each time having to watch them walk back to the middle of the fairway to retrieve their cart. Finally, they apparently got into another argument about letting us play through. The first lady gestured to the fact that there were now four groups backed up behind them on two holes. The second lady, clearly irritated, sculled her chip across the green, chunked the next one, and three-putted before she stormed back down the fairway to her cart and drove off the golf course. When we called the shop to ask them to help us out after the second hole of waiting, they made it clear that they wanted no part of the situation.
These examples of golfer-on-golfer crimes happened at private courses. This is not about private golf versus public golf, this is about the game of golf turning into the house from the movie “Project X.” Slow players and fast players just don’t mix.
What some people posted about what a round of golf entails for them any time they play was an astonishing eye opener. There were posts of people driving for an hour to play, warming up an hour, playing for five or six hours, trying to squeeze in a little 19th-hole time, and driving home for another hour. I admire their commitment, but that is not a sustainable model for the future of golf. They didn’t mention if they drove for that hour because the course they wanted to play was $15 less than the five or six within 15-minutes of them, but the five or six hours on the course means that the golf course staff wasn’t doing their jobs. A packed golf course does not have to be a slow golf course.
For golf to be successful in bringing back players who left the game or play less frequently because in far too many places it has become an all day affair, courses need to take every step possible in shortening a round. No idea to improve the situation is off the table.
Every little idea can have compounding positive effects. Courses with native areas and gunch need to post them to be played as lateral hazards rather than normal lost ball rules. Golfers need to be started on tees that are appropriate for their skill levels. To ease frustration golfers need to be encouraged to not only play tees that are appropriate but also courses that match their experience and skill set. People need to not believe that nothing can be done that mind set has to change.
The USGA likes to talk about growing the game. Growing the game can have many different meanings. A nine-hour commitment for a round of golf will not catch on for many people looking for an outdoor activity. The game will also not grow from a youth movement learning to play the game more quickly if they learn by watching their favorite golfers and their mannerisms on television.
It’s time we stop giving guys like Tiger Woods a free pass. One only had to watch the European Tour event in Abu Dhabi a couple of weeks ago to see a stark contrast between Tiger’s mind numbing pre-shot routine and green reading processes with Rory McIlroy’s ready golf style. Rory was practically pulling the trigger before Tiger’s shots landed on the green or his putts stopped rolling. Tiger doesn’t seem interested in getting any of that work done before it’s his turn either. It almost looked like he knew he was driving McIlroy crazy with his pace. When people see Tiger’s 10 practice swings and his process of walking slow circles around every putt they tend to think all that time is necessary for them too.
Golf means different things to people. It’s time we stop treating golfers like we all approach it the same way. If there is always going to be fast and slow people, we need to separate them. And the slow people need to be helped to see how easily they could play faster. It’s time for the sellers and providers of golf to re-affirm their professionalism and take control of their courses. They need to use cattle prods to move people along when necessary, shorten courses, adjust the rules, spread out tee times…they need to commit to anything and everything that helps.
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Of all the clubs in our bags, wedges are almost always the simplest in construction and, therefore, the easiest to analyze what might make one work differently from another if you know what to look for.
Wedges are a lot less mysterious than drivers, of course, as the major brands are working with a lot of “pixie dust” inside these modern marvels. That’s carrying over more to irons now, with so many new models featuring internal multi-material technologies, and almost all of them having a “badge” or insert in the back to allow more complex graphics while hiding the actual distribution of mass.
But when it comes to wedges, most on the market today are still single pieces of molded steel, either cast or forged into that shape. So, if you look closely at where the mass is distributed, it’s pretty clear how that wedge is going to perform.
To start, because of their wider soles, the majority of the mass of almost any wedge is along the bottom third of the clubhead. So, the best wedge shots are always those hit between the 2nd and 5th grooves so that more mass is directly behind that impact. Elite tour professionals practice incessantly to learn to do that consistently, wearing out a spot about the size of a penny right there. If impact moves higher than that, the face is dramatically thinner, so smash factor is compromised significantly, which reduces the overall distance the ball will fly.
Every one of us, tour players included, knows that maddening shot that we feel a bit high on the face and it doesn’t go anywhere, it’s not your fault.
If your wedges show a wear pattern the size of a silver dollar, and centered above the 3rd or 4th groove, you are not getting anywhere near the same performance from shot to shot. Robot testing proves impact even two to three grooves higher in the face can cause distance loss of up to 35 to 55 feet with modern ‘tour design’ wedges.
In addition, as impact moves above the center of mass, the golf club principle of gear effect causes the ball to fly higher with less spin. Think of modern drivers for a minute. The “holy grail” of driving is high launch and low spin, and the driver engineers are pulling out all stops to get the mass as low in the clubhead as possible to optimize this combination.
Where is all the mass in your wedges? Low. So, disregarding the higher lofts, wedges “want” to launch the ball high with low spin – exactly the opposite of what good wedge play requires penetrating ball flight with high spin.
While almost all major brand wedges have begun putting a tiny bit more thickness in the top portion of the clubhead, conventional and modern ‘tour design’ wedges perform pretty much like they always have. Elite players learn to hit those crisp, spinny penetrating wedge shots by spending lots of practice time learning to consistently make contact low in the face.
So, what about grooves and face texture?
Grooves on any club can only do so much, and no one has any material advantage here. The USGA tightly defines what we manufacturers can do with grooves and face texture, and modern manufacturing techniques allow all of us to push those limits ever closer. And we all do. End of story.
Then there’s the topic of bounce and grinds, the most complex and confusing part of the wedge formula. Many top brands offer a complex array of sole configurations, all of them admittedly specialized to a particular kind of lie or turf conditions, and/or a particular divot pattern.
But if you don’t play the same turf all the time, and make the same size divot on every swing, how would you ever figure this out?
The only way is to take any wedge you are considering and play it a few rounds, hitting all the shots you face and observing the results. There’s simply no other way.
So, hopefully this will inspire a lively conversation in our comments section, and I’ll chime in to answer any questions you might have.
And next week, I’ll dive into the rest of the wedge formula. Yes, shafts, grips and specifications are essential, too.
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Golf's Perfect Imperfections
Golf’s Perfect Imperfections: Amazing Session with Performance Coach Savannah Meyer-Clement
In this week’s episode, we spent some time with performance coach Savannah Meyer-Clement who provides many useful insights that you’ll be able to implement on the golf course.
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19th Hole
Vincenzi’s 2024 RBC Heritage betting preview: Patrick Cantlay ready to get back inside winner’s circle
Just a two-hour drive from Augusta National, the PGA TOUR heads to Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head Island, S.C. Hilton Head Island is a golfer’s paradise and Harbour Town is one of the most beautiful and scenic courses on the PGA TOUR.
Harbour Town Golf Links is a par-71 that measures 7,121 yards and features Bermuda grass greens. A Pete Dye design, the course is heavily tree lined and features small greens and many dog legs, protecting it from “bomb-and-gauge” type golfers.
The field is loaded this week with 69 golfers with no cut. Last year was quite possibly the best field in RBC Heritage history and the event this week is yet another designated event, meaning there is a $20 million prize pool.
Most of the big names on the PGA Tour will be in attendance this week with the exceptions of Hideki Matsuyama and Viktor Hovland. Additionally, Webb Simpson, Shane Lowry, Gary Woodland and Kevin Kisner have been granted sponsors exemptions.
Past Winners at Harbour Town
- 2023: Matt Fitzpatrick (-17)
- 2022: Jordan Spieth (-13)
- 2021: Stewart Cink (-19)
- 2020: Webb Simpson (-22)
- 2019: CT Pan (-12)
- 2018: Sotoshi Kodaira (-12)
- 2017: Wesley Bryan (-13)
- 2016: Branden Grace (-9)
- 2015: Jim Furyk (-18)
In this article and going forward, I’ll be using the Rabbit Hole by Betsperts Golf data engine to develop my custom model. If you want to build your own model or check out all of the detailed stats, you can sign up using promo code: MATTVIN for 25% off any subscription package (yearly is best value).
Key Stats For Harbour Town
Let’s take a look at key metrics for Harbour Town Golf Links to determine which golfers boast top marks in each category over their past 24 rounds.
Strokes Gained: Approach
Strokes Gained: Approach is exceedingly important this week. The greens at Harbour Town are about half the size of PGA TOUR average and feature the second-smallest greens on the tour. Typical of a Pete Dye design, golfers will pay the price for missed greens.
Total SG: Approach Over Past 24 Rounds
- Scottie Scheffler (+1.27)
- Tom Hoge (+1.27)
- Corey Conners (+1.16)
- Austin Eckroat (+0.95)
- Cameron Young (+0.93)
Good Drive %
The fairways at Harbour Town are tree lined and feature many dog legs. Bombers tend to struggle at the course because it forces layups and doesn’t allow long drivers to overpower it. Accuracy is far more important than power.
Good Drive % Over Past 24 Rounds
- Brice Garnett (88.8%)
- Shane Lowry (+87.2%)
- Akshay Bhatia (+86.0%)
- Si Woo Kim (+85.8%)
- Sepp Straka (+85.1%)
Strokes Gained: Total at Pete Dye Designs
Pete Dye specialists tend to play very well at Harbour Town. Si Woo Kim, Matt Kuchar, Jim Furyk and Webb Simpson are all Pete Dye specialists who have had great success here. It is likely we see some more specialists near the top of the leaderboard this week.
SG: TOT Pete Dye per round over past 36 rounds:
- Xander Schauffele (+2.27)
- Scottie Scheffler (+2.24)
- Ludvig Aberg (+2.11)
- Brian Harman (+1.89)
- Sungjae Im (+1.58)
4. Strokes Gained: Short Game (Bermuda)
Strokes Gained: Short Game factors in both around the green and putting. With many green-side bunkers and tricky green complexes, both statistics will be important. Past winners — such as Jim Furyk, Wes Bryan and Webb Simpson — highlight how crucial the short game skill set is around Harbour Town.
SG: SG Over Past 24 Rounds
- Jordan Spieth (+1.11)
- Taylor Moore (+1.02)
- Wyndham Clark (+0.98)
- Mackenzie Hughes (+0.86)
- Andrew Putnam (+0.83)
5. Greens in Regulation %
The recipe for success at Harbour Town Golf Links is hitting fairways and greens. Missing either will prove to be consequential — golfers must be in total control of the ball to win.
Greens in Regulation % over past 24 rounds:
- Brice Garnett (+75.0%)
- Scottie Scheffler (+69.9%)
- Corey Conners (+69.0%)
- Shane Lowry (+68.3%)
- Patrick Rodgers (+67.6%)
6. Course History
Harbour Town is a course where players who have strong past results at the course always tend to pop up.
Course History over past 24 rounds:
- Patrick Cantlay (+2.34)
- Cam Davis (+2.05)
- J.T. Poston (+1.69)
- Justin Rose (+1.68)
- Tommy Fleetwood (+1.59)
The RBC Heritage Model Rankings
Below, I’ve compiled overall model rankings using a combination of the five key statistical categories previously discussed — SG: Approach (24%), Good Drives (20%), SG: SG (14%), SG: Pete Dye (14%), GIR (14%), and Course History (14%)
- Shane Lowry
- Russell Henley
- Scottie Scheffler
- Xander Schauffele
- Corey Conners
- Wyndham Clark
- Christiaan Bezuidenhout
- Matt Fitzpatrick
- Cameron Young
- Ludvig Aberg
2024 RBC Heritage Picks
Patrick Cantlay +2000 (FanDuel)
With the exception of Scottie Scheffler, the PGA Tour has yet to have any of their star players show peak form during the 2024 season. Last week, Patrick Cantlay, who I believe is a top-5 players on the PGA Tour, took one step closer to regaining the form that’s helped him win eight events on Tour since 2017.
Cantlay limped into the Masters in poor form, but figured it out at Augusta National, finishing in a tie for 20th and ranking 17th for the week in Strokes Gained: Ball Striking. The former FedEx Cup champion will now head to one of his favorite golf courses in Harbour Town, where he’s had immaculate results over the years. In his six trips to the course, he’s only finished worse than 7th one time. The other finishes include three third places (2017, 2019, 2023) and one runner-up finish (2022). In his past 36 rounds at Harbour Town, Cantlay ranks 1st in Strokes Gained: Total per round at the course by a wide margin (+2.36).
Cantlay is winless since the 2022 BMW Championship, which is far too long for a player of his caliber. With signs pointing to the 32-year-old returning to form, a “signature event” at Harbour Town is just what he needs to get back on the winning track.
Tommy Fleetwood +3000 (FanDuel)
I truly believe Tommy Fleetwood will figure out a way to win on American soil in 2024. It’s certainly been a bugaboo for him throughout his career, but he is simply too talented to go another season without winning a PGA Tour event.
At last week’s Masters Tournament, Fleetwood made a Sunday charge and ended up finishing T3 in the event, which was his best ever finish at The Masters. For the week, the Englishman ranked 8th in the field in Strokes Gained: Approach, 10th in Strokes Gained: Ball Striking and 16th in Strokes Gained: Putting.
Harbour Town is a perfect layout for Fleetwood, and he’s had relative success at this Pete Dye design in the past. In his four trips to the course, he’s finished inside of the top 25 three times, with his best finish, T10, coming in 2022. The course is pretty short and can’t be overpowered, which gives an advantage to more accurate players such as Fleetwood. Tommy ranks 8th in the field in Good Drive % and should be able to plot his way along this golf course.
The win is coming for Tommy lad. I believe there’s a chance this treasure of a golf course may be the perfect one for him to finally break through on Tour.
Cameron Young +3300 (FanDuel)
Cameron Young had a solid Masters Tournament last week, which is exactly what I’m looking for in players who I anticipate playing well this week at the RBC Heritage. He finished in a tie for 9th, but never felt the pressure of contending in the event. For the week, Young ranked 6th in Strokes Gained: Off the Tee and 6th in Strokes Gained: Ball Striking.
Despite being one of the longest players off the tee on the PGA Tour, Young has actually played some really good golf on shorter tracks. He finished T3 at Harbour Town in 2023 and ranks 20th in the field in Good Drive% and 16th in Greens in Regulation in his past 24 rounds. He also has strong finishes at other shorter courses that can take driver out of a players hand such as Copperhead and PGA National.
Young is simply one of the best players on the PGA Tour in 2024, and I strongly believe has what it takes to win a PGA Tour event in the very near future.
Corey Conners +5500 (FanDuel)
Corey Conners has had a disappointing year thus far on the PGA Tour, but absolutely loves Harbour Town.
At last week’s Masters Tournament, the Canadian finished T30 but ranked 20th in the field in Strokes Gained: Approach. In his past 24 rounds, Conners ranks 3rd in the field in Strokes Gained: Approach, 3rd in Greens in Regulation % and 24th in Good Drive %.
In Conners’ last four trips to Harbour Town, his worst finish was T31, last season. He finished T4 in 2021, T12 in 2022 and ranks 8th in Strokes Gained: Total at the course over his past 36 rounds.
Conners hasn’t been contending, but his recent finishes have been encouraging as he has finished in the top-25 in each of his past three starts prior to The Masters, including an impressive T13 at The PLAYERS. His recent improvement in ball striking as well as his suitability for Harbour Town makes Conners a high upside bet this week.
Shane Lowry (+7500) (FanDuel)
When these odds were posted after Lowry was announced in the field, I have to admit I was pretty stunned. Despite not offering much win equity on the PGA Tour over the last handful of years, Shane Lowry is still a top caliber player who has the ability to rise to the top of a signature event.
Lowry struggled to score at The Masters last week, but he actually hit the ball really well. The Irishman ranked 1st for Strokes Gained: Approach on the week and 7th in Strokes Gained: Ball Striking. As usual, it was the putter that let him down, as he ranked 60th in the field in Strokes Gained: Putting.
Harbour Town is most definitely one of Lowry’s favorite courses on the PGA Tour. In his six starts there, he’s finished in the top 10 three times, including third twice. Lowry is sensational at Pete Dye designs and ranks 7th in Strokes Gained: Total in his past 36 rounds on Dye tracks.
Lowry is perfect for Harbour Town. In his past 24 rounds, he ranks 5th in Strokes Gained: Approach, 2nd in Good Drive% and 5th in Green in Regulation %. If he figures it out on the greens, Shane could have his first win in America since 2015.
Lucas Glover +12000 (FanDuel)
This is one of my weekly “bet the number” plays as I strongly believe the odds are just too long for a player of Glover’s caliber. The odds have been too long on Glover for a few weeks now, but this is the first event that I can get behind the veteran being able to actually contend at.
Glover is quietly playing good golf and returning to the form he had after the understandable regression after his two massive victories at the end of 2023. He finished T20 at The Masters, which was his best ever finish at Augusta National. For the week, Lucas ranked 18th for Strokes Gained: Approach and 20th in Strokes Gained: Ball Striking.
Over his past 24 rounds, Glover ranks 9th in Strokes Gained: Approach and 13th in Good Drive %. Harbour Town is a short course that the 44-year-old will be able to keep up with the top players on Tour off the tee. He’s played the course more than 20 times, with mixed results. His best finishes at Harbour Town include a T7 in 2008, but recently has a finish of T21 in 2020.
Glover has proven he can contend with the stars of the Tour on any given week, and this number is flat out disrespectful.
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Troy Vayanos
Feb 13, 2013 at 3:32 am
Nice post Kevin,
At my home course the golf starter every Saturday drives around and checks on the pace of play. It helps only to a point but it can’t stop someone from having a bad hole and slowing down the rest of the field behind them.
Adam
Feb 12, 2013 at 5:51 pm
Etiquette certainly needs to be taught to all beginners and refreshed to all players. Every course should have a short note in their carts and/or on the first tee. Just a friendly reminder of what holds the game together. Something like
Please remember to:
1- Rake the bunkers
2- Fix your ball marks
3- Be aware of your pace of play and position.
4- Have fun!
Obviously the last one is dependent on the pace of play, number of ball marks you bounce over and foot prints you land in…
Jeremy
Feb 8, 2013 at 3:12 pm
Great article. Slow play is one of my biggest frustrations with golf. In Colorado you can expect a 5+ hour round on any given weekend in the spring and summer. I think that golfers need to stop thinking they are playing for the FedEx cup. Is it really necessary to take 3 or 4 practice swings only to hit a poor shot??? Golfers should focus on the shot at hand rather than their swing during the round. Also, READY GOLF people. I don’t think the entire foursome needs to watch every single shot of every single player. It is comedic sometimes watching a foursome in 2 carts driving to each players ball. Even funnier (not really) is when after all the effort to play in turn and the golf duffs the ball 20 yards. In addition, get over losing a ball. Do you really need to search for more than five minutes for a lost ball? Get over it and take your drop. My preference is to play in 3.5 hours or less.
brooks williams
Feb 8, 2013 at 1:20 am
Would never happen but spread tee times. instead of teeing off a shot after the group, maybe wait a hole
Joey5Picks
Jul 11, 2013 at 3:58 pm
ENFORCED 10-minute tee times should be the norm. Results in better flow, fewer backups, less/no waiting.
Max
Feb 7, 2013 at 5:09 pm
Where I live we’ve pretty much been forced to accept the slow play on the county courses and if you want to play close to course time you go farther out of the city. Less skilled and older golfers tend to take over the county courses and you end up having to play slow if for no other reason than ability and age. Unless you’re out there before 7 AM expect a 5.5 hour round. Some of the other counties around us are more proficient and will tell any group to speed up. I’ve been on courses where the ranger doesn’t even know who to tell to speed up, and probably because we’re the young group and she didn’t expect to get lip from us she told us…we kindly explained to her that we’re the 3rd group in line and our pace of play has nothing to do with the slow down on the course. Watched her drive away and just clear past the group that was slowing everyone else down…a group of older gentlemen that she just didn’t want to get in an argument with.
But that’s life on the public courses, you want to play fast…play during the week.
Kevin
Feb 7, 2013 at 11:07 am
I don’t see anything wrong with easier, more basic courses advertising themselves as a beginner friendly place in conjunction with more difficult courses advertising as a place where pace of play will be closely monitored. More really difficult courses, Riviera CC for one, ask people to prove a certain handicap to be able to play. There are different levels of softball leagues based on competitiveness, why not encourage golf courses to pro-actively guide players to the right courses for their skill levels? I am can say that I am not comfortable trying to take my kids out to play because I don’t want to get in people’s way.
Chris Wehring
Feb 7, 2013 at 9:56 am
I don’t really have a problem with marshals enforcing a pace of play, but I do not want to spend my money on a green fee and a cart to have a marshal tell me that I need to skip a hole or two. I get a round done in around 4 hours. So, it’s not like I play that slowly. I think, if possible, slower groups just need to let others play through. Also, the quicker players tend to be rude also. So, I think that it needs to change from all ends. It is a gentleman’s sport after all.
Tim
Feb 7, 2013 at 9:10 am
interesting article, particularly like your mention of tiger woods, as he was complaining about the group in front of him at Torrey Pines and rightly so, but I thought it was one of the worst cases of hypocrisy I have ever seen as he is often very slow, and you can be sure if he was coming down that stretch with only a one shot lead he would have been a lot slower, and no one would have dared say anything in case they upset him.
old school harry
Feb 7, 2013 at 8:53 am
“Pace of play” is a misnomer. If It’s 4h 10m at your local track and you play in 4h 15m, you didn’t play at an ok or acceptable pace. You played at a pace that exceeded the absolute longest time allowable. Quit talking about stupid shit on the tee, put the pedal on the floor and hit to the middle of the green. Not one of you out there is good enough to fire at pins. Including myself. Al put it best “Lets go, while we’re young!”.
George
Feb 7, 2013 at 8:18 am
Great article. By the above noted comments there are many side to the story. I am a part time marshall at a southern Ontario course. When on duty I go out of my way to drive the course backwards and when given the opportunity I meet all the players on the course. Our shifts are 6 hours so we have opportunity to usher the groups on and usher them off. If I have a group with a lost ball and it starts to take too long I politely ask them to drop and speed up and quite often will throw them one of my “found balls”. As a believer in the buddy marshall system who engages the groups I have only had one run in with a group and two of the clowns were inebriated. We strive to maintain 15 minutes hole to clock a 4 and a 1/2 hour round. It works quite well.
Mind you the huge fund raising tournaments are another story – our marshalls might not as well be out there other than to make sure nobody gets hurt and stupidity doesn’t cause damage tour course.
Buck
Feb 7, 2013 at 8:07 am
I have only been playing golf for a few years now, and I have played rounds of a full eighteen in as few as three hours and as many as six hours. I have to say, I agree that a slow pace is annoying and we should all take each other into consideration when playing, wheather it be level of experiance, group size or if someone in the group is having a bad round. We are all out there to enjoy the sport, but practice is for the driving range and if you lose a ball, so be it, if it bothers you that much, buy cheaper balls. Marshalls are there to do their job, they should push people to keep pace and be able to tell you why you are being held up. There are enough things in the game to get frustrated about, one of them shouldn’t be wheather you are getting done before dinner when you started before lunch.
Todd
Feb 7, 2013 at 12:11 am
People need to play the correct tee boxes. Courses should make players play from certain tee boxes according to their handicap. Courses must invest in gps on the carts that update groups of their pace of play. It also, helps with hole lay-out and distances which all will speed up play. Players should not be told to skip holes during the round, but switch tee boxes if necessary. I have played at courses were the carts can be monitored by the gps and messages can be sent to the carts about pace of play and where to drive and park the cart. Next, adjust the order of groups being sent out if the tee times are right next to each other. Don’t send a group of tourists out in front of a group of regulars if they have back to back tee times. Other adjustments for 3 sums / 2 sums / ladies / Dads with young kids and ect… should be made by starters. Finally, play ready golf!!!!!!!
chuck stone
Feb 6, 2013 at 10:30 pm
the city owned course i play along with putting in 1.3 million in a new watering system to speed up play where they had brush between some holes that was left to nature they have mowed it down so balls hit there can now be found… also some trees along side of a fairway have had the lower branches trimmed up to where you can now hit a ball when under the tree… another place to help speed up play is where there is creeks across the fairway that curved back and forth they have eliminated the erosion by tapering the sides of the creek which allows you to find the ball and sometimes allow you to hit a ball thats on the bank where before it would be a deep dropoff. they have been putting some smart thinking into how to speed up play especially when some folks will not give up on a ball.
Frank
Feb 6, 2013 at 8:10 pm
This is an interesting discussion. As a newcomer to the sport of golf my experience with slow play comes from a different perspective… As a newbie your obviously not accomplished. You are not confident in determinng yardage distances & proper club selection and accuracy is but a dream. With all these hurdles already in place being scolded & insulted by faster accomplished players does nothing to endear the newbie to the game. When I play I can see who’s learning and trying their best. Pushing a newcomer to the game who has invested in green fees & equipment is hardly welcoming. Golf is already struggling to remain relevant. “Abusing” persons who are new or just trying the sport only drives them away (forever) and reinforces the exclusive nature of the sport.
Jive
Feb 6, 2013 at 3:27 pm
The best policy I have seen was at a course where they have dime store clocks every three holes, you know the old school white face with black numbers, 12 inch diameter, minute and second hands, can run for 3 years off of AA battery. What they did was factor in a 4 hour round, and did the math to figure out how long it should take you to play the first 3 holes: eg. 40 minutes. So they set that clock backwards 40 minutes. So when you get to the fourth tee, the clock will say your tee time (because everyone remembers their tee time, but not how long it should take them to play the first 3 holes). And each clock along the way has been set the same way, so on the 7th tee the clock was set 1 hour and 20 minutes backwards. So if the clock shows a time after your tee time you are too slow. The policy reminds you every three holes so you know early on when you get off track. The clocks are easy to see and has a sign underneath reminding you that it should say your tee time.
ABgolfer2
Feb 6, 2013 at 5:15 pm
@ Jive – our best local muni does that on a few holes. I might adopt Brian’s idea though – play like a turtle and let the marshal be your forecaddie who finds your drives, rakes the bunkers, then fetches your favourite snacks from the clubhouse. That sounds pretty sweet! And all for the same price as the people who are keeping pace? Even sweeter.
Brian
Feb 7, 2013 at 10:43 am
It’s not that they’re playing like a turtle, it’s a lack of talent. No shot clock or heckling from rangers will get somebody that takes 8+ strokes a hole back on pace. If they need help, then help them, otherwise you’re not growing the game and your not maximizing the courses potential for income. You’re going to piss off one group of the other. The spotting/yardage suggestions are even more appropriate if your course has 1-2 holes that tend to be the bottleneck. Just park a ranger on those holes doing nothing but spotting drives and giving yardages. It’s worked at my club.
hardcaliber
Feb 6, 2013 at 2:57 pm
Sooner or later, casual golf is going to have to move to a 9 hole format to keep up with the new modern lifestyle that is becoming more of the norm. Personally, I would love it if my 5 hour round took 4 hours, however the sad reality is that even 4 hours is a huge time when you are trying to balance work and family. I think that 2 hours is kind of a sweet spot as far as scheduling/time commitment goes, around the same time commitment as watching a movie or playing a few sets of tennis. A recreational activity that takes 2 hours is something that can be done on a regular basis, weekly or even multiple times a week. A recreational activity that takes half a day (4-5 hours) is just not something that most people have the luxury of enjoying on any sort of a regular basis anymore. Obviously, we all have varying schedules and time commitments, so opinions may vary widely. I would personally much rather play 9 holes at a relaxed pace than play 18 holes in a rush and be shepherded around by a crotchety old marshal.
Brian
Feb 6, 2013 at 2:03 pm
The USGA can determine an acceptable pace for any given course. If a group is meeting that pace, especially on a busier weekend, and the group behind them is playing with their tails on fire, and there’s no more than a hole or two ahead of them, they should be left alone, IMO. If they’re not meeting that pace, then that should be addressed.
If courses want to get serious about speed of play then they should teach rangers to go beyond policing and start aiding, especially groups that lack talent/experience (which is most often the cause of delays). Spot their drives, drive them to the next tee or their ball(if they’re walking), carry a GPS and get them a distance quickly, ask them what they want to eat/drink at turn and have it ready for them, whatever it takes to get that group caught back up to the pace, or the group in front of them. Then move on to the next group in line that is falling behind.
Mike
Feb 6, 2013 at 4:15 pm
I like the suggestions Brian makes and I would add to those with even raking the traps for players especially if they go from one fairway bunker to the next. Most of the marshals where I play spend their day riding around to the various water hazards fishing out balls for themselves. Too many men play tees way above their skill level also and fall behind at the #1 tee.
ABgolfer2
Feb 6, 2013 at 2:01 pm
* can’t
ABgolfer2
Feb 6, 2013 at 2:00 pm
Some people (not me of course) have never had to play quickly. They’ve never had to keep up with quicker players in the group of get left behind. I don’t see a long term solution for slow play. It used to be possible to avoid the turtles by playing very early, but now I play more at twilight. I played more partial rounds in 2012 due to running out of time than the previous 20 years combined. People say, “if you can devote a 6 hour block to golf then don’t play golf”. Okly dokly – I’ll go find something else to do – some place else to spend my money. My wife was suggesting we get a newer canoe and that’s about the same price as a membership. Decision made!
David Bernstein
Feb 6, 2013 at 1:49 pm
A golf course can’t take green fees or membership dues from players and then force them to skip holes or play faster. If all golfers learned etiquette before they learned a swing, there would be no slow play. The PLAYER needs to understand what their position is on the golf course and how to react. Time can only be lost on a full golf course. So, if the first group of the day plays in 5 hours, then every other group is doomed to play in 5 hours or more. It just takes one group to spoil the day.
Nick
Feb 6, 2013 at 1:13 pm
For many non-golfers, four hours is too long. For many of us avid golfer, four hour rounds are a dream, a thing which existed in better times. Reading the stories of slow play in this article raised my blood pressure and took me back to some very bad memories of waiting for slow players.
God surely has a special place for men like Gene. Every course needs an old codger (and I say that with the utmost respect and admiration) like Gene to straighten slow groups out. Without them, Golf will continue to hemmorage players and more and more course will operate in the red till they shut down. Seriously, number one issue golf needs to address is not freaking anchored putting, COR on drivers, the ball – its pace of play.