What is your definition of slow play?

What is too slow to you? 10 practice swings before every shot? Reading your 45 ft put from every possible angle? Backing away from a shot because some weird thought popped into your head? Or some set amount of time for each shot?

Slow players don't bother me too much if they know what they are doing. I play with one guy who can't putt to save his life. He has a pre putt routine like a tour pro that can take up to a minute and then hits some ridiculous putt 15 feet past the hole. That kind of gets on my nerves, but is it fair to use skill to determine how fast people should play?

I play extremely fast. I hate people waiting on me. The less confidence I have in a shot, the faster I play it. I feel embarrassed if I spend time on a shot and it turns out terrible. Fortunately I usually play on weekdays now when the course if pretty empty. It is still habit to play fast. Today I played a 9 hole course 4 times. The first time I played at my normal pace. 56% fairway accuracy, 11% GIR, 2 putts/hole, 13% scrambling, and shot +9. The second round I decided to slow down in general and spend much more time "pretending" I could make every putt. That round I had 22% GIR,  1.56 putts per hole, 43% scrambling, and converted my one sand save opportunity to shoot +4. The 3rd round I slowed down even more. Focused on lining up my approach shots and really trying to get them close, and if things felt off I backed away and lined up again. That round I hit 4 of 9 GIR and had 1.7 putts/hole. 4th round I hit my personal best 6 or 9 GIR, putts per hole went up to 2 because of that but I shot +4 again.

I know that if I wasn't playing by myself or if another group was visible behind me I would not have felt comfortable playing that slow. The last 3 nine hole rounds were taking about 1 hour and 45 minutes to complete so I wasn't going terribly slow (I don't think) but when I'm playing fast I can finish 9 holes in 1:20 usually. I'm walking for these rounds by the way.

How fast do you feel like you have to be playing to be following "etiquette"? After all I'm paying to play and obviously have more fun when I'm playing well. I can't help but have my main priority being to get out of peoples way if anyone is even visible behind me (not actually waiting on me).

I see a lot of complaining about slow play on here (not saying it is uncalled for) and am just wondering what exactly you consider slow play. Is the group ahead of you playing slow just because you can't tee off the second you get to the box or is it more if they are doing non golf related stuff like talking or not being ready to play when it is their turn?

IMO, slow play is when you're not keeping up with the group in front of you - for whatever the reason might be.  If there's no group in front of you, slow play is when you're unnecessarily holding up the group behind you - again, for whatever the reason might be.  The group ahead is slow if they're not holding their place behind the group in front of them; if they're doing that, I can't blame them if we have to wait for them.  If they're dicking around unnecessarily and not hitting when the green is clear ahead of them, then they're playing too slow.

Within my own group, I can't put a finger on an exact time or number of practice swings - but you're slow if the rest of us are having to wait unnecessarily for you and/or you're the cause of our group falling behind the group ahead.  Move to your ball with a purpose, go through your pre-shot routine, hit the ball and get going.  If there are groups behind us, now is not the time to go hunting for balls in the bushes, taking ten practice swings to perfect your finish pose, getting your phone out to take selfies, etc.

If the course is pretty empty, I don't care if people in my group want to spend a little more time looking for a ball, roll a couple extra putts/chips after we finish a hole, fish balls out of the water hazard, take a few extra practice swings, or whatever (as long as it doesn't get ridiculous).  I'm not in a race out there and I enjoy a leisurely pace as long as we're not holding anybody up.  We went out as a twosome today on an almost totally empty course and finished 18 holes in about 3 hours - and that wasn't rushing in the least.

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That is the only thing a group can do that is not the first group of the day.

Don't save time by rushing shots, full stop. Nothing leaves me with a worse feeling on a golf course than rushing a shot because there are people behind me. Especially three putting or worse because I felt pressured when I had a shot at a decent score. I just won't do it any more.

I usually play 18 in 4:00 to 4:15. Do I take a tour pro read of every putt, or even any putt? No, because once I stop gaining new information I am actually able to factor into my putt, I am wasting time. But I do read every putt over a foot and a half in the sense that I determine the fall line and get an idea of the slope.  Some people here say that anything that short is a tap in and I should just swat it in. They are more skilled than I am, because I hate having a short putt tail away under the hole, and I have seen it happen.  Do I take a practice swing with my putter? Every time, I hate missing a putt because I mishit the ball.  Do I take 10 practice swings? Why would I? it's not *that* important.  Within one foot or so? I take those as gimmies and move on to the next hole unless for a par or birdie or I am playing under some strict interpretation of the rules at the time.

I take one practice swing on most shots, and if that goes badly, I take another. I hate duffing a shot because I rushed a swing. I duff plenty of shots, but for some reason, it really bothers me when I know I could have done better by just taking a quick practice swing.

That being said, I try never to waste time in other areas of the game. We don't drive together to each shot if riding. We play ready golf, including around the green, adhering to strict etiquette only when it doesn't make a huge time difference. Try to park, when at the green, in such a way as to allow us to clear the green as quickly as possible.  I am always itching to hit at the next tee and ready to hit first, whoever has the 'honors' because I just don't understand what takes people so long to get ready to tee off. Some people are like women getting out of a car getting to the tee, who knows why it takes them so long?

So I guess my vote is if you are putting for bogie, it counts just as much as a more skilled player putting for par, and deserves the same respect from other golfers on the course.  The idea that your strokes don't matter because you are less skilled is just a thought in some jerk's head.

I can see though, how somebody would get upset with a golfer with limited skills promenading around the green like Tiger Woods, plumb bobbing, squatting down and reading from both ends and the side, stepping away from the ball for multiple practice strokes, etc, etc, on a 30 foot putt they don't have a chance in hell of making.

In my experience the "turtles" waste most of their time on everything other than actually hitting the ball.

Well, in my 4th year I finally experienced the dreaded slow play everyone has always talked about.   I never experienced this in PA ... I chose the cheapest tee time on golfnow after work the other day - Minebrook GC.     They so dramatically overbooked the course - I got there at 4:30 PM & there were two foursomes in front of me waiting to tee off, and backed up in front of them.   It was painful.    Granted, the guys in front weren't avid golfers - spent a lot of extra time chasing balls around, but it was literally a 20+ minute wait on each hole.    Took 3.5 hours to get 9 holes in.    Cheap tee time fail ... I won't make that mistake again.   Brutal doesn't begin to describe the experience ...

I get this philosophy. I've been in a 4-some that has absolutely set a blistering pace before. It would be unfair, and unrealistic to say to the group behind us to keep up. Honestly I think that is the wrong message. I would say, don't hold up the group behind you.

For me slow play is not playing ready golf. I can understand sucking at golf, maybe having a slow hole once or twice a round because 4 of the golfers happen to lose golf balls. If you are playing ready golf, you can be a bogey golfer and still play in a 4 hour round.

Unless you are in match play or playing against an opponent who is matching you shitty shot for shitty shot, pick up after your ESC score. If you are off the green, hitting your 7th shot on a par 4, pick it up and mark down a 7 and move on.

Don't you think that not holding up the group behind you is also a little unfair? What if it is your group setting the blistering pace behind a group playing normal speed? I agree with your second comment though about just playing a normal 4 hr round.. I think any time between 3:45 and 4:15 is ok though.. For me slow play is when I see you standing around chatting, taking +5 practice swings and going back and fourth picking clubs and returning them having a hard time making a decision (on every shot!!!!)

Then let us play through

Slow play is anything that stops me from getting 18 done in 2 hours when I'm in a cart playing solo. Honestly though, I felt bad last week because I was playing solo and had to wait several times on the people in front of me. Upon talking to them when we hit that 10th tee they said they had to wait several times on the group in front of them. I asked "would they not let you play through?" to which the guy said "We did the front nine in 1 hr 30 minutes so it was a pretty good pace even with the waiting." I felt like a bit of a heel because I never bothered to look at the time and my perception of how long it took was way off due to how many times I had to stop and wait. As long as the everyone is playing ready golf and the round takes right around 4 hours for a 4 player group then the pace was fine.

That happens far too often. I don't care if you think you're playing fast, or on time, if someone is waiting on you, assuming there's room, let them through! Played yesterday and our 4-ball caught a relatively fast 5-some, who probably got around in 3:30. They let us through. Not too many people would consider 3:30 for a 5-some as slow . Heck, some would call them "blistering", but they recognized that as quick as they were, they were still holding us up. Good guys...

LOL... Of course I would.. Only if that A-hole in front of us won't take those 5+ practice swings before each shot!

This.^^

There's a difference between being behind someone teaching their friend or child the game, and a bunch of bros acting like pros or just playing grab-ass on the course - especially since they probably know better and just don't care. It's that attitude of "I payed for this round and I'll play as slow as I want". There have been many instances where I'll simply skip the hole they're on.

For what it's worth, I've apologized to players in front of me in case they felt like I was rushing them by hitting into the fairway while they were still on the green. The few times its happened, they told me they didn't feel rushed.

True enough, and they did offer to let me play through but I wanted to go get something to drink anyway. Upon coming back from getting my drink there was a good gap and it seemed the pace picked up also. I ended up catching them again after about 4 holes and there were 2 guys behind me finishing up the previous hole that would have ended up waiting. I let those guys play through and just relaxed for about 20 minutes to enjoy the beautiful day. From there on out the play was smooth and uninterrupted. Even with stopping at the turn and waiting I ended up finishing my round in 3:30. If you ask me, for a mid day round on a packed course that's pretty damn good. Now my league nights on the other hand... it is quite possibly the slowest group of golfers ever with 9 hole rounds taking upwards of 3 hours every single week.

Sorry, but I disagree. Slow is slow, regardless of the reason.

My definition of slow play is when I have to wait to play often during a round.

The cause of slow play can be many things.

The solution to slow play can be many things, depending on the cause, but often there is no solution, it's just a busy course, and when that happens every little move is magnified.

I'm a wealth of information, this I know.