Ranger or Marshall at the courses you frequent: Helpul, Somewhat helpful or useless?

[jasongst]

  Fourputt said:

When a group makes the turn, I record the time, but even if they are slow, I can't do anything unless they are out of position to the group ahead of them. And those to the next group, and so on. If they are outside of the guidelines, I call the ranger on the Nextel and he will get them caught up. Our rangers still have the authority to tell a group to pick up and move to the next hole, and surprisingly, most people are fairly good about it.

And this is exactly as it should be, I say. I love the

idea of rangers speeding groups along and busting jokers who drive their carts up next to the green, but I also loathe the thought of having cranky guys driving around abusing their power. Monitoring groups at the turn and politely asking groups to either speed up or to let people play through, that's what rangers are for. But what I don't want is a ranger who is going to chastise my twosome for playing two golf balls when we are more than keeping up with the foursome in front of us. Also, as a member of a club that's only five minutes from my house, I need some flexibility from the staff. I play solo much of the time, and I will not hesitate to skip multiple holes in order to get around slow foursomes. I certainly don't want some grumpy ranger criticizing me for that either. I guess I'm just wary of the power-hungry ranger who is looking intensely for something to correct you on, even if you are being extremely reasonable. If given a choice between no ranger and an abusive ranger, give me no ranger every time.

[iacas]

  CoolBreeze20 said:

Beginners play slower.

Not necessarily. I know I played faster when I was a beginner. Now I take less strokes, but more time on each stroke. Total time has remained about the same.

Most of the time you're golfing, you're walking. I don't care how good you are - if you walk fast, you'll play faster. Anyway, assuming that better golfers play faster is dumb. PGA Tour pros take five hours in twosomes most of the time on the weekends.

[gsu_paintballer]

  iacas said:

Not necessarily. I know I played faster when I was a beginner. Now I take less strokes, but more time on each stroke. Total time has remained about the same.

This is true. I am a beginner that has only been playing about two weeks. I finish my Mon-Thurs 9 in about an hour to an hour and a half. People have told me on here that it should take a couple hours. So I guess I am moving a little faster than normal

Keeping the ball on the fairway will GREATLY shorten my time. Im pretty sure I blow 15-20 minutes per 9 looking for a ball.

[Guest]

I've never met any that really annoyed me. Actually, I've never really met any that did much of anything.

[DJYoshi]

helpful on private & semi private places.
USELESS on county courses...
you can't really do anything when you're sending ppl out every 8 minutes

[dirtfrmr]

I worked at a couple of clubs here in Kansas city. Both have strict guidelines for pace of play. We were able to control pace most of the time. Every marshall has requested players play faster or move up a hole. The problem arises when player don't agree and then depending on the pro shop or who is in the shop, if action is taken. As well overbooking is a problem at times . Special guest are slipped in by the proshop, which causes grief to all involved. It really depends on the day and the type of player who is out on the course. Certainly some marshall are waiting to die, but more often it is the limitation of the proshop rules and what they are trying to achieve, business wise.
Remember our golf course have tried to become big business and their lies the rub.
I always tried to keep pace of play,but as a volunteer cetain things were outside my control. The change of Management also created a different personality at every course i have worked. The real unfortanate thing is at my courrent course no one ask what you scored for the day, but rather what was your total time to play.

Dirtfrmr..............a golfer who is always in the dirt........btw 7 handicap

[Mr Eagle]

Not many courses in the UK have Marshals and will only send somebody out (useually the junior pro) if there are compliants on slow play.Having said that it seems more of a PR execise than anything eles as little if anything changes.
Its a bit different in the rest of Europe where some of the Rangers are quite intimidating,like watching you tee off (Ive seen one guy after two air shots sent back to the clubhouse) How they can tell what sort of player you are on the first tee is beyond me.They have a very visual presance and I must say it keeps everyone on the move. Reminds me of this;

A guy is taking a practice swing on the Ladies tee when over the public address he hears "would the gentleman on the ladies tee please go back to the mens tee"
He ignores the request and carries on with his warm up
"would the gentleman on the ladies tee please start of the gents tee "
The guy is now well into his pre shot routine when once again
""would the gentleman trying his luck off the ladies tee return to the clubhouse"
With this the guy throws his club to the ground and marches half way back to the clubhouse before cupping his hands to his mouth and yelling
"Would the idiot in the clubhouse shut the **** up while IM TRYING TO TAKE MY SECOND SHOT"

[cvlngineer]

The marshall at the course I play regularly is a great guy, and does an awesome job.

[CoolBreeze20]

  iacas said:

Not necessarily. I know I played faster when I was a beginner. Now I take less strokes, but more time on each stroke. Total time has remained about the same.

Sorry for the "dumb" post then. It is my experience that beginners, hacking 10 times on a par 3, play slower than more skilled players that get it in the hole in 3-4 strokes. Its "dumb" to compare the time Pros take, playing in a tournament, for money on TV..... to regular Joes at the local Muni.

[MrKadash]

  CoolBreeze20 said:

Sorry for the "dumb" post then. It is my experience that beginners, hacking 10 times on a par 3, play slower than more skilled players that get it in the hole in 3-4 strokes. Its "dumb" to compare the time Pros take, playing in a tournament, for money on TV..... to regular Joes at the local Muni.

I don't see where he said your post was "dumb", but I agree it makes no sense comparing the pro's with this thread. I feel that's a completely different animal than your local muni or country club setting. I completely agree with his assessment regarding better players and pace of play. We have a host of players at my club who are a 3 index or better and play agonizingly slow. Checking their lie, staring down their shot, checking the line of their putt from every conceivable angle, etc. I find that players who aren't as skillful don't need to do all that extra time consuming stuff. They just concentrate on meeting the club with the ball and let come what may.