
One other related note, I can't believe how many people don't know the proper way to let someone play through. More often than not, when I've played through on a course, the group ahead of me waits at the next tee box, without teeing off. Then they let me tee off, then wait for me to clear before hitting their tee shots. Obviously when allowing someone to play through this way it takes a bit of time. The correct way is to tee off while I finish out the previous hole, let me tee off then we all go to our second shots at the same time, at which the group playing through moves ahead while the slower group locates tee shots and selects clubs. Much faster than the way most people seem to handle it.
What you leave out of that second scenario is that the first group then still has to wait for the second group to get up to where their second shots ended up, hit those balls (or putt out if, as is most likely, they’re on a par 4), and clear. You also leave out the fact that the group playing through *also* has to locate their tee shots and select clubs, just as the other group does. So... I’ve been thinking about it and I don’t really see a difference in the two scenarios you describe. Let’s take a look:
In the first one, group A waits for group B to hit their tee shots, waits for group B to walk up to their balls, and waits for group B to hit their second shots and clear the fairway.
In the second one, group A still has to wait for group B to hit their tee shots, still (after both groups walk up to their balls) has to wait for group B to hit their second shots, still has to wait for them to walk up to their balls (after hitting their second shots), but then has to *additionally* wait as they putt out and clear the green if a par 4, or hit their 3rd shots and clear the fairway if it’s a par 5.
The only difference between the 2 scenarios is that in the first one, group A waits on the tee box while group B putts out behind them, whereas in the second one, group A waits in the fairway while group B putts out in front of them. Since that’s a wash, I’d prefer to wait on the tee box where I can socialize with my playing partners, as opposed to being scattered in the fairway waiting to hit our second shots.















