Anyone notice lately that the courses you play are terrible at scheduling players in when the courses are virtually empty? I played Sunday and yesterday, did not finish Sunday because I was by myself with four sets of foursomes in front of me who were terrible and no one would let me play thru (I asked a few times, response back was I could not really go anywhere with the groups in fron t of them) which was fine as I know a single player should not get special treatment, they had a two some behind me then a single behind them. I could have paired up with the twosome behind me but that really wouldnt have help my cause in trying to finish. Same thing happened Monday, I teed off at 12pm and did not finish until 5:55pm but at least I finished. Course was empty besides my time slot. A nearly 6 hour round for just one person...?

I am not sure how they can fix this, maybe space out the tee times more on slower days or just not let singles out at all and everyone gets paired up? I also notice that on the slow days they have no starter or no course ranger out patrolling the fairways encouraging quicker play. Maybe that is the issue? Either way, I was quite annoyed and maybe just played my last round of the year because I do not have the nerves or patience to be out on a miss managed golf course on the slower golfing days, and yes I know they try and cut back staff but the two courses I played did not cut their rates from peak so.... This only seems to happen in the fall when leaves look like golf balls on the course, there is little staff and all the hackers come out, and there are hackers and then there are hackers, the guys and gals who hit the ball 10 ft at least three times then get lucky on the fourth shot but still have 100 yrds into the green, they are basically taking 8-10 strokes every hole and refuse to give up!

This is the only reason why I would ever consider joining a CC and each year I get closer and closer to doing so.

Just curious if this happens to anyone else and how they feel about it.

Thanks

Part of the problem is that the days get so much shorter in terms of daylight. Same amount of people trying to fit their rounds into a much shorter day makes for a much more congested course..

Interesting forum topic. The weather in Chicago has been pretty decent the last few days and I've snuck away to get a couple of rounds in. The pace of play has been atrocious...5 hours on average. Yesterday we had a foursome stuck behind a 3some that was incredibly slow. There are no rangers monitoring pace of play as the courses are minimizing labor cost to try and keep pace with the fall rates.

Fortunately (unfortunately) we had THAT GUY in our group who entertained us with his knowledge of golf and many other things...but that's a response for another topic.

HAHA THAT GUY!

I have noticed it recently but it doesn't bother me too much as I tend to tee off either really early or on off peak hours.

I guess I don't understand your post.

In the first paragraph, you say the course is virtually empty but mention four foursomes in front of you and a twosome and single behind. Doesn't sound that empty?

The second paragraph, the course was empty but it took 6 hours?? Who was holding you up if the course was empty?

Not getting the point...

If the course is relatively empty and you know the layout, why not skip a hole or two ahead and pick up the missed holes at the next opportunity? If I'm behind a slow foursome when it's empty at my local muni on the back to back short par 5s, I go from the 4th tee to 7 then play them after 9 or 18. I won't do it if it's busy, but I'll agree that it sucks when you know there are several open holes if you could only get by that one group....

To the first two posters, I live in the Chicagoland area as well.

The courses were basically empty except for the timeslot I chose to play in. I suppose had I teed off 30-45 minute before, I would have had no one in front of me. Maybe just bad timing on my part but this has been happening a lot more as of late. I will say this as well, this time of the year does sometimes bring in a frost delay in the am tee times so courses can get backed up by 45 min to an hour and as someone already mentioned, the shorter days do not help. Maybe I am just overthinking it but I can tell you that its very annoying thinking that a 12pm tee time is enough time to play golf and then it turns out it isnt even with the sun going down around 6pm.

So basically it comes down to me having to make a 8am tee time but if its sort of cold out the that will get pushed back to 9am plus a few minutes so I might tee off by 9:30am and if I am lucky, will finish by 3pm. Almost an 8 hour day at the golf course when I want it to take 4.5-5 hrs max.

I know, I am complaining too much... Thanks for letting me vent.