How long should a 4 ball take to play 18 holes?

Without delays, how long should a 4 ball take to get around a golf course?

and have you ever encountered a 5 ball during a round. I have seen them a few times in Bangkok.

Our local courses will chastise your group if the pace is over four hours.  The better players in our league (most of them walk, BTW) can do it in closer to 3:15 or so.

it all depends on the skill of the group. as long as you dont suck COMPLETELY you should be able to do it in under 4 hours.

Most people do though.

Looking at the score card for the course I play most often it says 4:16.  If you take longer than that your holding up play, if you're shorter than that and you're pushing people, back off or ask politely if you may play through.

There is no perfect time for an 18 hole round. It depends on the course layout, the weather, the time of day, and on the skills the players bring to the course that day. It's not all about index either. Some old guys who never hit the ball farther than 180yards can shoot their 92 as fast as other guys can shoot a 72. Your course sounds like a naturally fast track with a lot of rabbits. I've played courses like that and I've played courses where 4 players at our skill level would struggle to get done in less than 4:15, let alone 3:15.

a 4 some walking in 3:15?  Thats fast for 2 people to play 18,  must all be semi-pro and never miss a shot.  Or maybe they're the only ones out there, at that pace they would constantly be catching anyone ahead of them.  4 hours is reasonable for a 4 some.  I seldom play in more than a 2 some,  drives me nuts to wait on 3 other players and anything more than a 4 some should be against the law.

I play pretty fast solo, I finished a round in 2 hrs and 50 minutes the other day but no one at all was in front of me.  It was great.

Never really played with a foursome but id imagine it would be pretty easy to finish in 4 hrs or less.

Not semi-pro at all - just playing ready golf.  Not racing either.  The caveat is - our league has no one....and I mean no one....in front of us.  Our slower guys often get out in the first group, so the faster pace isn't the norm - rather just possible when the better/faster players get out first.  Our course is not real happy if you are turning #9 in more than 2 hours.  2:00 front nine, 2:06 back nine - I believe is their MAXimum pace-of-play posted.

I think you've got to break it down into two parts.  What is the typical time it should take, and what is the maximum acceptable?  I think averaging about 4 hours is about right.  Sometimes you should be a bit faster, sometimes a bit slower.  If you're ever much past 4.5 hours, you need to speed up and/or play easier tees.

It's hard to say "it should take X hours" because we all have some days where you encounter unexpected but legitimate slow-downs.  If you have to spend a few minutes looking for a ball on a couple holes, or wind up having to go back to the tee, the pace guidelines shouldn't force you to abandon the rules of golf.  You should be able to handle a couple holes where that happens within an extra half-hour's time, and it shouldn't be happening every round.

In general, if you're playing at a reasonable pace, this means you'll be waiting on a few holes because even if everyone plays at exactly the same pace, someone out there is going to encounter an event like this.  If you're playing a full course and you are never waiting, you are probably playing too slowly.

Ps. I find that some courses are poorly designed and have bottlenecks built right in.

Consecutive decision holes is a big one. I play a course with a few dog legs that can be carried. One stretch has a dog leg par 5 with about a 220 yard carry over water, followed by a driveable par 4 with a pond in front (> 275 carry if you aim at the pin, but you can bail out to the right for a 250 carry to a decent place to pitch from) followed by a par 3, then another dogleg par 5 that's about a 6 or 7 -iron if you cut off the corner or hit a draw, then a driveable par 4, then another dogleg par5 which can be carried to right where shorter hitters are hitting their 3rd shot. If you're playing in a mixed group with long and short hitters that course grinds to a halt during that stretch. With 4 long hitters it's the fastest 6 hole stretch you'll ever play.

Agree that it depends on the course.  I've played courses in a foursome where we finished in 3:45 without rushing, and I've played other courses where a foursome would take 4:30-4:40 without playing slow at all.

Some courses could speed up play if they hired a couple of fore-caddies on the difficult and blind shot holes. One caddie could probably cover a hole going out, and an adjacent one coming back in, using stakes to mark wayward balls.

I have suggested this for scramble tournaments, but no course has ever followed my advice.

Hi, first post here. And no, I have not yet ever actually played golf. I've taken some lessons, been to the range, hit some irons in the field behind the house a bunch, all in preparation for my first ever golf outing. And I bought the wife some clubs and lessons so we can start playing together. Really looking forward to it.

However, it's sort of intimidating, to the wife especially, but to me as well to some degree, to ponder going out there for the first time ever mixing it up with experienced players who are going to be pissed off waiting for "the noobs" to move along. We're going to play late afternoon and with an experienced couple to minimize the irritation factor to experienced players, and I hope you aren't behind us! OMG, what if we take too long? Reading this thread probably was not a good idea for a new golfer.

Good idea! My wife and I started out the same way. But even as newbies those 6 hour afternoon rounds seem to take forever, so we shifted to the mornngs after a few rounds. Our only problem when we first started playing mornings was we worried more about keeping up with the group in front than we did enjoying the game.

But get yourself out there - 4 months on the range didnt prepare me for my first round.

When you first start out the nervousness will set in with strangers, but after a few rounds you will see how many people out there are close to your skill level (until you join a private club - that is a whole other story)

I too (as someone stated above) am curious where this "you gotta play in under 4 hours" crap came from. You got somewhere else to be, get off my golf course!  ;)

Having said that, most rounds I play (except occasionally during peak Snowbird season) are completed in less that 4.5 hrs. And I play every Sunday morning, with other rounds added when I can. Last time I played by myself was New Year's day, no one was on the course except a twosome I played through on 15, and I finished 18 in 2hrs 20min. Cleaning my clubs, putting my head covers back on, drinking my coffee, etc., etc.. Wasn't hurried at all. Except that it was too short! Ended up going around again, because two and a half hours of golf wasn't close to being enough!

Maybe I'm different, but when Sunday rolls around, I want to spend most of the day at the course. I'll eat breakfast, hit some balls, putt, play a round, maybe hit some more balls...

I'm in NO hurry to get home. It's my one day to relax, and by God, I'm going to enjoy it! If the round takes 5 hours, so what? If I have good company on the course, it's no biggie.

But then my wife is always telling me I'm different...  :)