What Constitutes Slow Play?

[StuM]

14 minutes ago, Bonvivant said:

When i got to hole 6 i was held up by a twosome in a cart. No biggie, figure they are playing 9, and didn't let me play through.

Assuming it was open ahead of them and nobody on your butt just skip past them and play the next hole then double back to play the hole you skipped then jump forward again.  That works better on some courses than others, just depends on the layout.  Also, if there are people on you butt to begin with it makes doubling back a little harder since you will run into them.  Alternative is call the ranger to come out.

[Bonvivant]

4 minutes ago, StuM said:

Assuming it was open ahead of them and nobody on your butt just skip past them and play the next hole then double back to play the hole you skipped then jump forward again.

If i was in a cart (which I should have been imo because I've played the course in 58 minutes with a car because it's only 5k yards), I may have done this.

 

5 minutes ago, StuM said:

Also, if there are people on you butt to begin with it makes doubling back a little harder since you will run into them.

Pretty sure we were the only 3 people on the course.

 

5 minutes ago, StuM said:

Alternative is call the ranger to come out.

This is the option that I chose, maybe just to "teach them a lesson" I guess. Maybe in their minds they thought that I would hold them up because I was walking and they were riding, but either way it was somewhere in between frustration and infuriating.

[Darkfrog]

1 hour ago, StuM said:

Alternative is call the ranger to come out.

I wish my course had a ranger to call. I've called the pro shop a few times before for some egregiously slow groups bogging down the entire course (like when there are three groups waiting to tee off while someone from the group ahead looks for a ball in trees for 15 minutes). Unfortunately, most of the people who work there just seem to be local college kids, and there's not much they can do. It's not their fault or anything, the course just isn't staffed well enough to do anything about slow play most of the time.

[StuM]

This may be slightly off topic but there is a course near me, Pine Trace, that is rather strict with pace-of-play.  Once my wife and I were in the fairway @ 100 out and the ranger came to us and said we needed to pick up the pace.  I pointed out to him there was a foursome on the green and he should go speak to them.  He replied, the group behind complained about us.  I looked back and said "Who, there is nobody on the tee box?".  He just drove off with a nasty look on his face.  I am guessing he went to the wrong hole to speed a group up.

[Double Mocha Man]

10 minutes ago, StuM said:

This may be slightly off topic but there is a course near me, Pine Trace, that is rather strict with pace-of-play.  Once my wife and I were in the fairway @ 100 out and the ranger came to us and said we needed to pick up the pace.  I pointed out to him there was a foursome on the green and he should go speak to them.  He replied, the group behind complained about us.  I looked back and said "Who, there is nobody on the tee box?".  He just drove off with a nasty look on his face.  I am guessing he went to the wrong hole to speed a group up.

He had his script down, just had the wrong twosome.  Pretty funny, but he still gets free golf.

[Double Mocha Man]

17 hours ago, StuM said:

Assuming it was open ahead of them and nobody on your butt just skip past them and play the next hole then double back to play the hole you skipped then jump forward again.  That works better on some courses than others, just depends on the layout.  Also, if there are people on you butt to begin with it makes doubling back a little harder since you will run into them.  Alternative is call the ranger to come out.

I lose my mojo when I have to skip holes. It isn't golf anymore, it's more like hopscotch.

[StuM]

23 minutes ago, Double Mocha Man said:

I lose my mojo when I have to skip holes. It isn't golf anymore, it's more like hopscotch.

I hate shipping and backtracking also, but is us an option occasionally.

[The Flush]

My son and I played as a twosome today and got stuck behind a clueless slow foursome. There was another 2some in between us and the 4some and they actually let them play through. But then they sat on the tees and waited for the 2some to get off the green before teeing off.  This was on a par 4 with a 90 degree dogleg.  It is practically impossible for non tour players to hit that green. There is no reason they shouldn't have teed off and been waiting at their balls when we reached the tees. We ended up waiting several minutes for them to tee off and then we skipped that hole and never saw them again. We did go back and play that hole at the end.

[StuM]

At least you finally got to play the whole.

[Roblar]

I was reflecting on this thread today.  Two factors that contribute to slow play within a group:

• Lost balls
• A drawn-out, complicated, pre-shot routine

I hit trees twice and lost sight of where my ball went twice today. My partner had the same thing happen to him too. In three of the fours cases, the ball actually bounced through, farther than we though possible at first. In one case, we never found the ball.  We lost 15+ minutes just to looking for lost shots.

My playing partner has a long pre-shot routine.  I think we lost about 20 minutes over the course of the round to his routine.

We played as a two-some, and were fast enough to be let through by a foursome in carts and a threesome that was walking. However, it took about 2:50, and it felt slow.

[iacas]

You lost 15+ minutes looking for four golf balls?

[Double Mocha Man]

Roblar... Your playing partner with the long pre-shot routine better be shooting close to par. Or watching a lot more of Matt Jones play golf.

[Billy Z]

I played 18 yesterday in a 3some of friends, and the course had us going off on the back nine to start. Our group is characterized by good paced 'ready golf'. The first 9 holes took us about 2.5 hrs to get through, just brutal. Seeing the back 9 was somewhat open, we replayed it instead of the front 9. We were behind a twosome, a young couple, who played 'ready golf' type golf. Our 3some kept up with them all the way and the same 9 holes only took us 1.5 hours to play. Ready golf is an attitude, a respectful format that considers other golfers desires and needs, not just your own.

[Darkfrog]

Last Sunday I played (luckily) ahead of what was possibly the slowest foursome I have ever witnessed. My group teed off at 7:10am, and the guilty group at 7:20am. I was playing in a foursome, all of us walking, and we were on a "standard-for-this-course" 4:15 pace, keeping up with the foursome in front of us. Due to the way the course winds around, it's pretty easy to see where groups ahead and behind are positioned.

When we all had putted out on #4, I looked back and the group behind us was in the fairway on #3 (1.5 holes behind 🤬). When we putted out on #9, the group behind wasn't even in the fairway of #8 (probably 2 holes behind 🤬 🤬). When we putted out on #10, the group behind was on the #8 green (3 holes behind 🤬🤬🤬). The next time I saw them, my group was on the #18 green, and the group behind us was teeing off on #14 (5 holes behind 🤬🤬🤬🤬).

I didn't stick around to see them finish, but they were probably on pace for a 6 hour round. I'm guessing all the groups playing behind these guys were pretty angry. I was just glad I didn't get the 7:30am tee time.

[StuM]

1 hour ago, Darkfrog said:

Last Sunday I played (luckily) ahead of what was possibly the slowest foursome I have ever witnessed. My group teed off at 7:10am, and the guilty group at 7:20am. I was playing in a foursome, all of us walking, and we were on a "standard-for-this-course" 4:15 pace, keeping up with the foursome in front of us. Due to the way the course winds around, it's pretty easy to see where groups ahead and behind are positioned.

When we all had putted out on #4, I looked back and the group behind us was in the fairway on #3 (1.5 holes behind 🤬). When we putted out on #9, the group behind wasn't even in the fairway of #8 (probably 2 holes behind 🤬 🤬). When we putted out on #10, the group behind was on the #8 green (3 holes behind 🤬🤬🤬). The next time I saw them, my group was on the #18 green, and the group behind us was teeing off on #14 (5 holes behind 🤬🤬🤬🤬).

I didn't stick around to see them finish, but they were probably on pace for a 6 hour round. I'm guessing all the groups playing behind these guys were pretty angry. I was just glad I didn't get the 7:30am tee time.

A 5 hole gap and nobody played through them?  There were some very patient golfers behind that group.

[Darkfrog]

5 minutes ago, StuM said:

A 5 hole gap and nobody played through them?  There were some very patient golfers behind that group.

There were no groups between the slow guys and my group. It was kind of shocking, (1) how unaware the slow group was of how out of position they were, (2) that they did not let, or the groups behind them did not ask to play through, and (3) that the course management was not made aware of, or did nothing about it.

[dennyjones]

I played Monday.  The front nine we played in 1:45, we waited a bit but not too bad.  When we made the turn we were the third group on the hole!   Every hole we played on the back nine, when we finished the previous hole, we were the third group on that hole.  That pace continued until we finished.   We finally saw a ranger at 17 and I commented but I should have called them on the 11th hole.   We still finished in about 4:15 but that was a grinding slow pace of play and nobody asked to play thru.   My mistake, I won't be hesitant to call the clubhouse in the future.  There were at least 3 open holes in front of them. 

 

[TRUCKER]

4:15 is a "grinding slow pace of play?" 🙄