Is this bad etiquitte or not?

[PiKapp23]

My PGA Pro father would practice putting and chipping while waiting as long as no one was being held up behind him. He believe that we should not hit full shots into greens (and thus leave ballmarks) and do not putt/chip at the actual hole because more traffic around the hole is just making it bumpier, especially during weekends when course is very busy and thus maintenence is less. He would usually put a tee in the ground or drop a coin and putt/chip at that. Ballmarks, divots and even spike marks do temporary damage to the course and should be properly repaired when and kept as minimal as possible.

[Fourputt]

Singles aren't bad, but if the course is crowded and you've got groups lined up and waiting then giving a single a slot that a foursome could take slows down play. Under such conditions a single can't play any faster than a foursome. The single can't play through because there isn't open space, so a single takes up as much space on the course as four people. It just makes sense that a single wait for an opening, which usually doesn't take very long. I play as a single quite often and I have no problem waiting for the clubhouse to pair me up with another group, and if they do elect to send me out to play the back 9 first I likewise have no problem joining up with a group (or letting them play through) out on the course if the opportunity presents itself all with the goal of keeping play moving as fast as possible. At the courses I play tee times are at best a rough outline for the order of the morning and what usually happens is that if you can tee off prior to your time slot the starter will ask you if you are ready to go. Likewise it isn't unusual for starting times to be running behind and when that happens you can bet that the clubhouse won't be willing to let a single go off in the place of a full foursome.

This is quite different from the way starting times are managed on the courses I play (and on the course where I work). Tee times are set times, there is no flexibility in them except for the unavoidable situation of a frost delay early and late in the season. Otherwise, if your tee time is 9:09, you are on the first tee and ready to start play then. And you have cleared the fairway by the time the next group is ready to play at 9:18. We do NOT have backups on the first tee. There are no foursomes backed up waiting to play because of such a situation. Such a situation would be unthinkable. What's the sense of a reservation if the times have no meaning?

If a course can't get players off the tee on time then it seems clear to me that there is something wrong with the spacing of the starting times.