Tips on playing efficiently

[jshots]

In my opinion a lot of etiquette rules go out the window when playing a casual round of golf. In fact I think most of this should hold true during tournaments too. As far as pace of play goes, there isn't really one big thing that slows groups down I don't think, it's a bunch of smaller things. So to the OP efficiency is really the perfect word to describe it.

-Unless you're with a group that is heads up enough to know who is up on the teebox on each hole and can execute that quickly, play ready golf. Many groups I play with tend to spend too much time the low score from the last hole on the box when someone else is ready to hit.

-Think about your shot when approaching it rather than waiting until you get to the ball to start thinking about the shot you're going to play. I play with a group of guys much older than me on Sundays and they pretty much blab about random things until they get to their ball, and often times have to finish their conversation before they will hit.

-If you ripped a drive down the middle, or are in any spot where you aren't going to have trouble with your next shot, help other players find their balls/get yardages/ etc.

-Don't get in a rush. It sounds counter intuitive, but when you get into trouble take your time.To be efficient I really think you need to go through your same routine on every shot, even if it takes a little bit longer. 9/10 times for me if I knock a ball in the trees and don't find it for a few minutes I get in a rush and hit another bad shot which results in more time and typically a chain reaction of bad shots, and those chains of bad shots are what I think are the biggest factor in slowing a group down.

[mdl]

Yeah I thought the leaving the green early thing might bother some people here.  If you're not bothered by ready golf, I otherwise consider myself a very polite and amiable playing partner, always quiet during setup and stroke, always out of sight lines, always fix ball mark(s), mark my ball on the green, never step even near a possible putting line, cheer good shots, don't throw clubs or scream and complain (maybe excepting the occasional "Really?" or "Come on", or whatever), don't get loud and drunk, etc.  And if my group's playing on pace, keeping up with the group in front, or the course is open (very rare for me where and when I play) and we're playing at a reasonable pace, then yes, if I'm done first I'll get on flag duty.  I'm not obsessive about finishing in 3:30 instead of 3:45.  I'm just obsessive about not contributing a second to the course pace being 5:15 instead of 5:00.

I guess that's why I think it much more rude to fall behind the group in front of you if you're already playing a slow weekend public course round than it is to leave the green after putting out.  And of course I never do anything that would affect the putts or routines of any of the following players unless they're simply bothered in principle that I'm standing over by the next tee box instead of on the fringe of the green.  It's not hard to put your hand over your irons as you walk and silence bag chatter.  And I make sure I'm out of sight and don't walk off the green if my walking line will interrupt the routine of the next putter.  I've played with plenty of other randoms who did this same thing and it never seemed rude to me.

And I thought the honors thing got dropped with ready golf?  I have played very few rounds where the randoms I was partnered with didn't feel free to tee off first if they were ready first, even if other players in the group scored better than them on the last hole. In fact, I've played comparatively many more rounds where everyone will make a big deal about letting one player tee off first on the next hole if they made some spectacular shot to birdie the last.  Making a big deal because it's so abnormal to care about honors...

[dak4n6]

I got another one:

Whenever possible (especially from the tee) players should watch each other's shots land. The more eyes on the ball, the greater the chance of finding it quickly if it goes awry.

Makes steam come out of my ears when I hit a tee shot and I'm not quite sure where it came down, and I turn to my son to ask him if he saw it, and there he is texting..and he replies "Huh?" Last few rounds I had to make him leave his phone in the car, and he was like a heroin addict going through withdrawal.

[hendog]

  mdl said:

Originally Posted by mdl

And I thought the honors thing got dropped with ready golf?  I have played very few rounds where the randoms I was partnered with didn't feel free to tee off first if they were ready first, even if other players in the group scored better than them on the last hole. In fact, I've played comparatively many more rounds where everyone will make a big deal about letting one player tee off first on the next hole if they made some spectacular shot to birdie the last.  Making a big deal because it's so abnormal to care about honors...

In tournaments I will play honors unless the person with the honor tells me to go ahead. Otherwise its ready golf with 1 exception. I will NOT tee off in front of a birdie or better if I was par or worse. If I do then that's all I think about when I'm over the shot. Bad JuJu man.

[mdl]

  Jason M Henley said:

In tournaments I will play honors unless the person with the honor tells me to go ahead. Otherwise its ready golf with 1 exception. I will NOT tee off in front of a birdie or better if I was par or worse. If I do then that's all I think about when I'm over the shot. Bad JuJu man.

Yeah I'm obviously not a stickler for honors in non-tourney rounds, but I agree it's much more common to keep honors for someone who scored birdie or better, and I'm also much more likely to keep to honors for a birdier. I'm just arguing the point that in general I think it's more rude to fall behind when the course is playing slowly than it is to do something like head off to the next tee early. When playing with strangers I haven't found that a general, "Looks like we're a bit behind" comment does much to change my group's pace of play, and I've found getting ready to tee off while the last guys are putting is one thing one can do to try to keep pace if the group is behind on an already slow day. Maybe I should make more of a point of getting explicit on the first tee and sussing out what degree exactly other players in my group feel ready golf includes what I'm talking about or whether some players have some things they think are beyond the pale even if they want to play at least some degree of ready golf.

[Golfingdad]

  Jason M Henley said:

Originally Posted by Jason M Henley

In tournaments I will play honors unless the person with the honor tells me to go ahead. Otherwise its ready golf with 1 exception. I will NOT tee off in front of a birdie or better if I was par or worse. If I do then that's all I think about when I'm over the shot. Bad JuJu man.

I agree with you.  Oddly enough, if I am the one who made the birdie, I really could not care less if somebody else tees off first.  But somebody else birdies, I make sure to let them have the honor.

[hendog]

  mdl said:

Originally Posted by mdl

Yeah I'm obviously not a stickler for honors in non-tourney rounds, but I agree it's much more common to keep honors for someone who scored birdie or better, and I'm also much more likely to keep to honors for a birdier. I'm just arguing the point that in general I think it's more rude to fall behind when the course is playing slowly than it is to do something like head off to the next tee early. When playing with strangers I haven't found that a general, "Looks like we're a bit behind" comment does much to change my group's pace of play, and I've found getting ready to tee off while the last guys are putting is one thing one can do to try to keep pace if the group is behind on an already slow day.

Maybe I should make more of a point of getting explicit on the first tee and sussing out what degree exactly other players in my group feel ready golf includes what I'm talking about or whether some players have some things they think are beyond the pale even if they want to play at least some degree of ready golf.

The problem I see with this is that you are being rude to those you are playing with in order to not be rude to people behind you so your net rudeness is even so to speak. I hate holding up groups behind me as well but my most immediate concern would be to the guys I am playing with. If you are a regular at a course or its a club, you will see these guys again and they will remember you as the d!ck who walks off the green. However, the guys behind you most likely will not remember you as 1 of the 4 guys who was in front of them holding them up.

I applaud your commitment to speed up rounds but you might want to reconsider this particular one. Just my 2 cents.

[colin007]

1. No honors. 2. If you get to your ball, and look around and nobody else is ready to hit, go ahead and hit your ball. I don't care if there are others farther away, I'm not out hereto wait for you so i can hit because there's supposed to be some kind of order. Same on the greens. If i look around and the clowns i get put with are all looking at each other wondering who's supposed to go, i go to my ball and putt.

[kris]

  colin007 said:

Originally Posted by colin007

1. No honors.

2. If you get to your ball, and look around and nobody else is ready to hit, go ahead and hit your ball. I don't care if there are others farther away, I'm not out hereto wait for you so i can hit because there's supposed to be some kind of order. Same on the greens. If i look around and the clowns i get put with are all looking at each other wondering who's supposed to go, i go to my ball and putt.

Exactly, I really can't stand playing with others who insist on defining an order to every hole. Honors on the tee has always seemed pointless to me, and I don't see the hubbub about putting "out of order" when everybody else is just standing around wasting time. I have been finishing my rounds recently in 3 1/2 hours, and I am fairly leisurely. I don't understand those who need 5+ hours to play 18 holes.

[colin007]

I don't understand those who need 4 hours to play 18 holes...

[Aquaguru]

  Jason M Henley said:

Originally Posted by Jason M Henley

Other than the side bar argument over which post was responded to this is a really great thread.

The biggest issue I run into where I become the drag is when I am playing with my regular friends, all of whom are 25+ handicappers, and I am going for a green on a par 5 in 2. It will be well within my range but everyone else pretty much has to wait on me. I think I more than make up for it by actually getting close if not on the green and in general the rest of the round I am taking considerably less shots but those situations always bother me because I hate being the drag.

I agree to this.  The group I play with I usually always have a chance of hitting the green in 2 on a par 5.  Where as my partners might take 3-5 shots to get on the green.  So I have made it a point to go ahead and hit your approach shots until you get greenside or in distance to hit the green until the green clears.  Then I hit my ball while they are all 100-150 yards up ahead of me.  By the time I get to the my next shot the rest of the group will be either on the green or greenside.  This way I don't have to change my game plan or slow anyone down.  I have found that this makes play move alot faster.

Also in my group we do not stop and watch players hit.  We don't care if you walk by us while we are playing, its really not distracting or it shouldn't be.  I don't think its rude and it keeps the pace up.

[colin007]

  Aquaguru said:

Also in my group we do not stop and watch players hit.  We don't care if you walk by us while we are playing, its really not distracting or it shouldn't be.  I don't think its rude and it keeps the pace up.

This. We need more of this.

[Jimdangles]

Man, everybody keeps talking about how long it would take them to finish a round. I generally dont even take practice swings. I have never had the chance to know how long it takes me to play a hole here in Southern california. My buddies and I have never been the group to slow down a round. A good round is if we dont have to wait for more than a minute or so on the tee box to tee off. For this reason we try and play honors but only cuz we have time to say, hey looks like mitch has honors with a par or whatever and then he can set up his tee and wait a minute for the fairway to clear.

I am basically saying this because I am jealous of you guys that even have a "slow time" at your course.

For this reason I 100 percent agree that you should never lay up just to speed up play. I dont usually come across par 5's that A) im in the fairway and B) I didnt hit a 3 iron to get there so it is reachable. If I am playing poorly I understand picking up to speed up pace but the guy who is hitting greens in 2 and has that confidence with that club that they can reach the green probably isnt slowing up play. I dont even like rushing the guy who probably isnt capable of hitting the green but may have the potential too. When I was starting I was about 250 out and distance wasnt my problem. I was waiting for the green to clear to hit just incase, and one of my uncles friends says bull shit your gonna hit just shoot. made a little bet and made me try so hard that I ended up topping the ball because i was trying to crush it. Same guy who says no way you can hit that green with a 6 iron . Ill bet you 20 to 1 you wont hit the green. I ended up over shooting the green and missed right.

Some of these tips are trying to rush. Just be ready like people said, KNOW YOUR YARDAGES and take notice of distance stakes and flag position before.

[zeg]

We usually play honors off the tee, but if someone is delayed and going to hold things up they'll waive their position and go last. Not a big deal.

Re: going ahead and hitting because you haven't hit 220 today, I strongly disagree. You should base this decision on more like the longest you hit with any consistency. Just because you've been having a bad day doesn't mean it's about to turn around. It's not worth risking carrying a ball into a group on the green just to save a few seconds. This is assuming it's a shot you hit reasonably often, and I mean carry. It's embarrassing but not dangerous to roll a ball 20 yards into a group, but you're not going to hurt anybody. But if even once in a dozen shots you carry the ball to the green, just hold up.

In general, playing at a reasonable pace is important. However, not at the expense of safety and usually not at the expense of having a pleasant round. Playing to a sufficiently fast pace is the goal, not playing to the fastest possible pace. The groups I've played in are quite capable of hitting a sub-4 hour round without leaving to the next tee early (this is ok for catching up if you're falling behind, but I don't see the need in general), endangering others, feeling bad for taking a minute or two to look for a lost ball, etc.

[onesome]

  colin007 said:

Originally Posted by colin007

I don't understand those who need 4 hours to play 18 holes...

My friday mens club round takes more than 4 hours and we don't abide by honors, we usually will keep things moving when a player is having difficulty on a hole we will putt out while he gets to his ball and so forth, we play from tees that are sloped at 139 and the worst score was 95 and best was 72, I shot 83 so it's not like we have a ton of players that can't handle playing from there it just takes a little bit of time when playing more difficult conditions, I think we finished in 4:15.

[pepsiplusconker]

Guys, I have just joined a club near me.

Played about 5 or 6 rounds already, mainly with a friend. Any way, each time I have booked, they have never asked how many people are playing, so the other day, the course was absolutely packed with 3 and 4 balls.

Is this standard practice, because surely you can't have 5 or 6 four balls teeing with the same gap in between, as 5 or 6 singles.

I'm pretty sure its not right any way, but thought I would see what other places do.

[scv76]

  dak4n6 said:

Originally Posted by dak4n6

OK, so as I suspected, there are some disagreements on how to play efficiently, but this is going pretty well so far.

I've got a few more:

1) For cart riders, take your club and go, or take the cart and go. If the tee shots of two riders are close together, fine, the cart can be driven somewhere within close proximity to both balls. But if the two balls are far away from each other, the cart and one player should go to one ball, while the other player should take his club and either be dropped off or walk to his ball. If he is unsure of club selection in the case of walking, he should take two or three to cover the possibilities. This allows both shots to be fired with little delay in between., and when multiplied over a foursome over 18 holes, the time savings are significant.

2) Anyone using the forward tees should advance to those tee boxes and be ready to hit while others in the group are hitting from the back tees whenever possible, i.e., when the forward tees are up and to one side, or when there are obstacles behined which they can wait.

3) Shorter hitters (e.g., my wife and daughter) should go ahead and hit first if the group in front is not within their range even if they are playing the forward tees or are not away.

Might want to add for cart riders, looking for the ball when you don't know where it is... take a few clubs you may possibly use with you..that way you won't have to got back to the cart.

I have been guilty of not doing this, and now make an attempt to remember to bring a few clubs with while the search goes on.

Another cart problem I see (especially my cart partner) is when our group has one cart of blue tee players and one cart of white tee players, he does not sure our cart is first in line . What happens is after the last blue tee player hits, he walks forward to the white tees and starts his routine. I then am stuck with having to wait until the blue tee players get back to their cart and stow their clubs before I can move the cart forward. (I'm talking about times when you can't get around the other cart and when there is a large distance between the two sets of tee boxes)

ie : 2) not too sure about this one...I have to play from the the whites in our club due to my high hdcp while others are playing the blues..I feel very unsafe prematurely moving up the path to the white position while someone is teeing off behind me. Seen too many oops shots in my life to risk it

[scv76]

This is what we have been doing in our club matches as well

Edit: really helps speed things up, and it takes a lot of pressure off the golfer who is having difficulty on the hole

  onesome said:

Originally Posted by onesome

My friday mens club round takes more than 4 hours and we don't abide by honors, we usually will keep things moving when a player is having difficulty on a hole we will putt out while he gets to his ball and so forth, we play from tees that are sloped at 139 and the worst score was 95 and best was 72, I shot 83 so it's not like we have a ton of players that can't handle playing from there it just takes a little bit of time when playing more difficult conditions, I think we finished in 4:15.