Do You Support the PGA's "Tee It Forward" Effort?

[David in FL]

I am done playing golf on weekends, can't handle waiting on the ball chasers. Watched a group of young guys playing back hit ball after ball in every direction. On every hole they were in the native area searching for errant drives. I bailed after the third hole when the wait behind me got two groups deep. It took two of the kids 3 shots to get out of range on the par 5 number 4. I looped back to the first tee on ranger trails to start again behind the log jam, I really wanted to get in 9 before dark. I played through another single before catching the log jam again on 8 tee. Everyone was backed up on 8 and 9 waiting for the ball chasers and the slow group ahead of them. I played 7 holes in the time it took them to complete 4.

Sounds miserable.

No options for a different course?  Even if you have to spend a few more bucks, it might be worth it to get away from that kind of nonsense.....

[Lihu]

Going forward I will play during the week when I can book the last time of the day. The goal being most everyone has gone for the day. If that doesn't work I am done with golf.

Wow, you must have had a really bad experience on the course that day.

Weekday mornings are usually the best for pace of play.

[hacker101]

I voted yes, after this last Sat playing with Lihu and feeling like I had a target on my back on the 18th with the group hitting up on us, I am all for finding away to move everyone in a faster pace.

All I see now are people getting much more angry due to the pace on a busy Sat afternoon. Next will be road rage on the fairways, a bit surprised some one has not been really hurt at this point.

[Dave2512]

It's been getting progressively worse as we get deeper into the season. I am okay with the random long day but it's like a plague the last few weeks. If I don't get stuck behind people I'm skipping holes and bouncing around the course. What I don't understand is most of the time the people playing terrible golf and slowing everything down appear to be having a really good time, laughing, cheering putts short enough to kick in.

All I know is it drives me nuts to see someone ahead playing the same tees I do taking multiple shots to get out of range. Some of these courses aren't just a couple yards different between tees like an old park style course. At my home course the difference between whites and blacks is nearly 1000 yards, 6032 to 6950. On the card the recommendation to play black tees is a handicap range of 5-11 but I see guys shooting 30 over back there. The course is open but the native areas are thigh deep now. Yet every time I am there people are wading through it looking for balls. It just doesn't set up well for someone like that. You have to kill drives to avoid fairway bunkers in the 240-260 range. If you are short of the bunkers your second shot is more than 200 yards to the green.

Like I said last time of the day. I'll get there just before and start a little late. Unless they put someone out after me I should have a little buffer.

[David in FL]

It's been getting progressively worse as we get deeper into the season. I am okay with the random long day but it's like a plague the last few weeks. If I don't get stuck behind people I'm skipping holes and bouncing around the course. What I don't understand is most of the time the people playing terrible golf and slowing everything down appear to be having a really good time, laughing, cheering putts short enough to kick in.

All I know is it drives me nuts to see someone ahead playing the same tees I do taking multiple shots to get out of range. Some of these courses aren't just a couple yards different between tees like an old park style course. At my home course the difference between whites and blacks is nearly 1000 yards, 6032 to 6950. On the card the recommendation to play black tees is a handicap range of 5-11 but I see guys shooting 30 over back there. The course is open but the native areas are thigh deep now. Yet every time I am there people are wading through it looking for balls. It just doesn't set up well for someone like that. You have to kill drives to avoid fairway bunkers in the 240-260 range. If you are short of the bunkers your second shot is more than 200 yards to the green.

Like I said last time of the day. I'll get there just before and start a little late. Unless they put someone out after me I should have a little buffer.

Are you playing by yourself?  Playing alone is going to always be frustrating, even playing behind a group of relatively fast players.

[Lihu]

I think the issue is that the economy and the number of golfers is improving at the same time. We probably just got used to faster paces in the past 6-8 years when less people were playing on the courses.

Our party ( me, my son, @hacker101 and so n) last Saturday was stuck behind some seriously slow golfers, what's funny is that we didn't book until the morning we went.

This same course on Friday evenings is deserted, or any weekday for that matter.

Weekends should just be reserved for new golfers, and we should probably just resolve to slow play on weekends. This being said, courses should put the tees forward and not tell us. With this, I firmly believe that we can get that pace of play below 5 and a half hours on weekends.

[Dave2512]

Are you playing by yourself?  Playing alone is going to always be frustrating, even playing behind a group of relatively fast players.

About half the time alone. I not a speedster these days. I enjoy being out as much as anything. The torture is less the time than the frustration of watching it happen. Honestly I am fine with playing to the POP as a single. Even if I am out and the course is empty I will chip and redo putts after finishing a hole. But lately it's been around 20 minutes a hole slow and I can't do it.

[Fourputt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by David in FL

Are you playing by yourself?  Playing alone is going to always be frustrating, even playing behind a group of relatively fast players.

About half the time alone. I not a speedster these days. I enjoy being out as much as anything. The torture is less the time than the frustration of watching it happen. Honestly I am fine with playing to the POP as a single. Even if I am out and the course is empty I will chip and redo putts after finishing a hole. But lately it's been around 20 minutes a hole slow and I can't do it.

There have to be more options.  I can't believe that anyone in the Metro area is stuck on one course when it's that bad.  Or is the north area just loaded with clueless players?

[rehmwa]

What I don't understand is most of the time the people playing terrible golf and slowing everything down appear to be having a really good time, laughing, cheering putts short enough to kick in.

A bunch of hacks having a great time is a big part of golf.  It's good to see, but also frustrating to wait on them when their shots go astray.

But I'm not sure which tees they play from matter as much other than they hit a few extra shots in the round which doesn't net much time at all.  The most time lost is them looking for lost balls and not playing ready golf.

1 - looking for balls, when the skill level is so bad, it doesn't matter how far away they are - I see them looking in the trees and rough from the drive, or the iron shots, or sculled pitches, frankly any shot has about equal chance of getting somewhere hard to find.

2 - ready golf - if we can get these guys to just hit their shots without "excessively" waiting around for each other, it could help.....but that goes for any group IMO

[Lihu]

A bunch of hacks having a great time is a big part of golf.  It's good to see, but also frustrating to wait on them when their shots go astray.

But I'm not sure which tees they play from matter as much other than they hit a few extra shots in the round which doesn't net much time at all.  The most time lost is them looking for lost balls and not playing ready golf.

1 - looking for balls, when the skill level is so bad, it doesn't matter how far away they are - I see them looking in the trees and rough from the drive, or the iron shots, or sculled pitches, frankly any shot has about equal chance of getting somewhere hard to find.

2 - ready golf - if we can get these guys to just hit their shots without "excessively" waiting around for each other, it could help.....but that goes for any group IMO

Let them play range balls! Or rented balls, anyway.

Courses should let these people take a small bucket with them, the faster they play the more money they get back from the deposit?

Joking, but now that I think of it. . .

[rehmwa]

Let them play range balls! Or rented balls, anyway.

Courses should let these people take a small bucket with them, the faster they play the more money they get back from the deposit?

Joking, but now that I think of it. . .

.....

it's not such a bad idea at all really...

[Dave2512]

There have to be more options.  I can't believe that anyone in the Metro area is stuck on one course when it's that bad.  Or is the north area just loaded with clueless players?

It's a symptom of being so far out. If I don't play in this area it's a lot of driving and the city courses are usually booked open to close. To get from where I live in Brighton, near Barr lake, to Westminster is about 40-50 minutes in traffic. I have booked times as late as 6:40 PM at the 9 hole course at Hyland Hills. But that's a pretty long day, working 9-6 then driving 40-50 minutes twice to play 9 holes. Weekends it's not a problem but I work until 6. Just to get to the home course a few minutes away requires leaving a little early to get there before they put carts up for the day.

I've never seen so much slow play before just the last 3-4 weeks have been bad. But it's been real bad. I think some of it due to I've simply played too much golf. It doesn't feel like a special day or anything. I'm not as excited to get out as I once was. My goals are more score and goals related now than when I just went to have fun. If I get there and it's a death march it feels like a waste of time. I'm spending around $150 on tee times just to leave angry because I've either had to wait or skip holes. So some of it is on me. If I get there and start wishing I wasn't it's usually not a good time.

[Lihu]

It's a symptom of being so far out. If I don't play in this area it's a lot of driving and the city courses are usually booked open to close. To get from where I live in Brighton, near Barr lake, to Westminster is about 40-50 minutes in traffic. I have booked times as late as 6:40 PM at the 9 hole course at Hyland Hills. But that's a pretty long day, working 9-6 then driving 40-50 minutes twice to play 9 holes. Weekends it's not a problem but I work until 6. Just to get to the home course a few minutes away requires leaving a little early to get there before they put carts up for the day.

I've never seen so much slow play before just the last 3-4 weeks have been bad. But it's been real bad. I think some of it due to I've simply played too much golf. It doesn't feel like a special day or anything. I'm not as excited to get out as I once was. My goals are more score and goals related now than when I just went to have fun. If I get there and it's a death march it feels like a waste of time. I'm spending around $150 on tee times just to leave angry because I've either had to wait or skip holes. So some of it is on me. If I get there and start wishing I wasn't it's usually not a good time.

Wow, golf is expensive out there! No wonder you're mad.

[Dave2512]

Wow, golf is expensive out there! No wonder you're mad.

Sorry that should be 150 a week, $25-28 a tee time, I play 4-5 times a week. But still it's a hefty expense.

[Lihu]

Sorry that should be 150 a week, $25-28 a tee time, I play 4-5 times a week. But still it's a hefty expense.

Sure. Even for $25 greens fees, I would want to get in 18 holes. I usually do, but on different courses. I often swap courses and end up playing parts of 2 different courses, so I haven't been officially scoring them. I think the last time I got in something like 22 holes. I kind of lost count, but was exactly 18 strokes over!

Good being friends with the course ambassadors, and riding in a cart.

[Shindig]

I am done playing golf on weekends, can't handle waiting on the ball chasers. Watched a group of young guys playing back hit ball after ball in every direction. On every hole they were in the native area searching for errant drives. I bailed after the third hole when the wait behind me got two groups deep. It took two of the kids 3 shots to get out of range on the par 5 number 4. I looped back to the first tee on ranger trails to start again behind the log jam, I really wanted to get in 9 before dark. I played through another single before catching the log jam again on 8 tee. Everyone was backed up on 8 and 9 waiting for the ball chasers and the slow group ahead of them. I played 7 holes in the time it took them to complete 4.

Was the marshal asleep on hole 14?

[nick1998bunker]

I like it. 2 years ago as an 8th grader on our highschool team, I had to play the back tees for the spring. I was hitting mid to long irons in. That summer I moved up and dropped 10 strokes off my game by hitting mid to short irons in. Now it's kinda hard to move up because I'm hitting it farther, and the optimal landing zones are far enough back that it only makes it more difficult if I move up.

[mcanadiens]

I recently had my first experience playing in a group hitting the tips while I was hitting the whites. They were pretty good about it and it wasn't a real big deal. I did find myself kind of rushing at first, but I got over it.