Golf Club Pace of Play

[leezer99]

Our GC, as I'm sure with most others, has a pretty significant Pace of Play issue. For instance, at our last tournament the first group came in at 4 hours and 15 minutes while the last group took 6 hours and 15 minutes to complete the round. Has anyone out there had similar problems in their GC's and what have you done to combat slow play?

[shades9323]

So which group held up the last group? Find out where it starts.

[whetstone]

Right now, our club doesn't have that issue, thankfully. We only employ a starter or a marshall on holiday weekends, any other time just get in where you fit in. I've been told that it's a little slower on weekday mornings when the retirees play in 4somes, but I've never had to wait longer than a couple of minutes.

[markflpc]

Most courses I play at are too slow because if I can't play in 3 hours I think I've played slow. I know it would be unreasonable for me to think that everyone should play that fast, but is under 4 hours asking too much?

[Knockglock]

A lot of the golf courses that I play a lot have SIGNIFICANT pace of play issues. It is close to unbearable. By far my #1 biggest pet peeve. I've even had to reduce my rounds at the courses that i've found have horrible pace of play, and I avoid them on the weekends all together (when the pace of play is just disgusting). I've had rounds we kept pace with the group in front of us and had a 3 hour 9 HOLES! Literally there was groups 2 deep waiting to tee off at every tee box. Sooo frustrating!

I've found that a 3 hour round is completely impossible unless I have the course to myself, and a 4 hour round is welcomed. 5 and 6 hour rounds have become the norm. Even at courses that aren't very crowded its still a problem. I was playing a course with only a couple other groups. First few holes is great, we fly through at our own pace (not rushing or anything), but then we get stuck behind the only other group on the course who started like 6 holes ahead of us. After being stuck behind them for a while we decided to just skip ahead a couple of holes and then we came back to the holes we skipped. It was nice, probably one of my fastest rounds ever, I think it was sub 3 hours.

And I can't even remember the last time I was asked to play through. It seems to happen quite a few times when I just started playing and then now that i've improved a lot I never get asked to play through. So annoying! just let us play through! When I started, we always let faster players play through. Now that I don't play military-shank-grandma golf anymore I'm usually one of the faster groups but still let singles or two somes play through. Why are so many people so inconsiderate to not let OBVIOUSLY faster groups play through!??! It's horrible to get stuck behind some hackers that keep chunking and shanking and taking eight shots to move up the fairway and then they don't let you play through. I used to be one of those myself but I wouldn't hesitate to pick up my ball if I was slowing pace down so bad or let people play through.

[dave1980]

I play a course 6000 yards off of the yellow tees, usually takes a 2-ball 3 hours, if in a 3-ball it's around 3 hours 15-30 minutes and a 4 ball is 4 hours.

Medal play see's us no matter what (3 ball or 4 ball) playing 4 hours.

Frankly anything over 4 hours and I would be questioning where the hold up has resulted from, I can recall a round whereby my partner and I were comfortably cruising around the course with no-one around for 3 holes or so, by the time we got to the 3rd we could see a group of 3 women and 1 guy up ahead at the 6th, using past experience we worked out that by about the 9th or 10th we would expect to be catching them (early part of our course is slow in relation to rest of course).
By the time we were at the 6th we could see the 4 ball standing on the burn at the 7th taking photo's of each other, fair enough - they were visitors, unsure of the course layout we would catch up shortly and be let through....



Well that is what would be expected in normal circumstances, we ended up spending 10 mins or so on the tee at a few holes before deciding enough was enough and cutting across in front of them (I should add that there is a little loop to my course around the turn containing 3 holes), wouldn't usually bother about only getting in 14 or so holes however it was one of those occassions where you are playing well and would be keen in keeping a score

[Dub]

Home course has gps on every cart.


It keeps you updated with your pace: 2 minutes ahead......12 minutes behind.....etc.

I think this helps.


I know they monitor cart postions from the proshop and occasionally send messages to carts: advance to next hole, pick up pace, etc.

[Fat Slice]

Our club plays at a good pace. If there is a member of guest who is slowing things down, the other 3 people in his group will hurry him along.

[mc0388]

What time are you teeeing off? Slow play can mostly be avoided by teeing off very early or late afternoon. Playing between 10am and 2pm is usually no bueno...

[2bGood]

To answer the question. Our GC pace is also 4 hr 15min. We have had a few issues with pace on mens night with shotgun starts where rounds go to 5 hours. The membership is a bit divided on what to do about it. Some of us want to limit the field to speed thing up, others consider it a fun night and the more the better.

Regular AM rounds tend to be on pace or under it (3.5hours today for me). Afternoon rounds on the weekend can get long (4.5 hours). We are trying out a marshal on the course but it does not seem to help much. Of course the volunteer marshal seem to just drive around and wave. We also have several clocks on the course that tell you if you are on pace.

We used to be "on the clock" a few years ago. It was a good system as you had to check in to the clubhouse when the round was done, if you were over 4hr15m & longer than 8 minutes behind the proceeding group you got a warning, second time you had your tee time booking privldges suspended for a period of time, third time - longer suspesion etc.

We got rid of it as pace of play was working well enough that no warnings were being issued. We may have to go back to it.

Though we have some pace issue, I still love being in a privae club as 90% of my rounds are under 4 hours

[WUTiger]

One short nine-hole public course I sometimes play has slow play problems this season related to the economy.

The managers laid off a couple of greens crew people, and mowing isn't what it used to be. If you're not on the fairway, you're in rough 3 to 4 inches deep. You wedged out if you could find your ball.

Plus, a spring storm blew down a large tree on the edge of the landing area for a long hole. This hole has a blind tee shot, so people spent a lot of time trying to figure out where their balls went. It took them a couple of weeks to be able to afford to clear out the tree.

Everyone moved along nicely last year.

[jaragon126]

Our golf league was very similar ... ungodly long rounds.

I think enough of us complained & stopped playing in the tournaments that they did decide to do something.

For several years now they stamp our cards on the first tee; stamp our cards after the 9th hole and again after the 18th hole.

The league committee kept track of all these statistics for a few years & came up with this pace of play rule for our tournaments:

All members of a group that finishes the front nine 11 minutes or more behind the group directly in front of them, will be assessed a one stroke penalty.

If the penalized group finishes the back nine 10 minutes or less behind the group in front of them, the penalty will be withdrawn. If the penalized group finishes the back nine 11 minutes or more behind the group in front of them, all members will be assessed an additional one stroke penalty.

So we actually get penalty strokes added to our tournament scores.

Harsh penalties ... Yes.

Being able to play our rounds without having to bring along sleeping bags ... PRICELESS!

[right handed phil mickelson]

I think our course is somewhere around 3 hours and 45 minutes for the pace of play.

Of course, I played 18 holes last night in an hour and a half. :)

[colin007]

i play at a muni and the pace is ungodly...the problem is the rangers. they dont want to tell the regulars to pick up the pace. theyre all friends, and they dont want to be the bad guy and tell their buds to hurry up even though its their job. on the other hand, they have no problem yelling at younger people like me, and im about to turn 30...lol.