Pace-of-Play Poll

[VealCutlet]

Originally Posted by wadesworld

However, I will say that I don't enjoy it when the pace of play is so fast that I feel like I can't spend adequate time on a shot.  If I've got a difficult chip, I don't want to just walk up and hit it so I can get it on the green somewhere quickly.  I want to evaluate it and take enough practice swings to feel confident with the shot.  That might require 3-5 practice swings, but with a chip, that doesn't take very long.  Same thing with a putt.  While I'm not going to examine it from every angle and spend 5 minutes reading it, I do at least want to walk around to the back of the hole and see it from there (which I do while others are putting), clean the ball and get comfortable over it.  I don't want to just walk up and knock it towards the hole so we can hurry.

I think what you're describing is what happens when the pace of play gets too slow.  You wait around for what seems like forever, then you finally get a chance to hit your shot, and inevitably you rush and make a crappy swing.  The anxiety of waiting is psychologically taxing, and often leads to bad shots...slower play...ad infinitum.

[Stewie007]

70.2/128 and 6400 yards from the White tees.

I voted sometimes because it doesn't happen to me all that often. I tend to favor twilight tee times and most people stay out of the afternoon heat. I suspect that will change this fall as the temperatures dip. Today pace of play was ~ 4 hours. Not really slow, but the groups in front of us were all 4somes so it didn't play too quickly even though we were a twosome.

I don't think that taking a lot of shots is always the problem. Its the looking for the ball that is the problem. That accounts for a great deal of the time. I think there is a balance considering finding balls. A lot of these courses with time clocks are pacing them as if everybody in the 4some is hitting a perfect shot. That is as unreasonable as expecting to be able to look for your ball for as long as a tournament pro. We're paying to use the bloody course, don't tell me I have to spend 5 seconds looking for my ball in your ridiculously cut rough just 5 feet off of the fairway that sucks up balls. One day on a course it was so empty, that I had time to look, and it took me nearly 5 minutes to find it sitting completely swallowed up just a yard off of the cart path.... and that was only because I just happened to step on it. If it were busy obviously it would have been considered lost.

However, it IS unreasonable for golfers to expect to be able to play relaxed golf on a busy weekend. I was playing a round once with a painfully slow 4some ahead. I finally found out why when I had to go in as it got dark. This guy was taking 10 practice swings and when he finally hit it, it was just a skull 25 yards directly to the right..... Then there are the "PGA Tour Pros" spending time recreating every putting alignment aid witnessed on the real PGA Tour. Once I even saw a guy mark and lift his ball on the green for cleaning after EVERY putt!

I personally will take much more time on a course when it isn't busy. I have had courses all to my self and I would get a chance to re-hit shots for practice just to see if I could replicate the results. However, on busy days I can't imagine playing as if I can just make everybody wait. I just get a little pissed off when people behind my group get bitchy and taunt quietly from behind while we have to wait for the group that is about 250-260 yards out.

"Look at this guy, he ain't gonna hit it that far. Just hit it dude."

I actually heard him and decided to do it for some stupid reason.... He couldn't be close enough, right? I wound up having to catch up with them to apologize for dropping it just behind them to bounce and roll surely into their general vicinity. I don't remember this attitude when I was a teenager playing golf. Everyone plays as if they're a pro and they're a lot more rude than people used to be; golfing as if their game is the most important one on the planet. Unreasonable slow play IS just that, unreasonable and I agree it should be dealt with accordingly. However, unreasonably fast pace expectations just because the course fired the starter and paces their course on a "as many as we can fit basis" is just about as bogus.

Ehh.... long post... sorry I like to write... hehehe.

[BuckeyeNut]

75.1CR 141slope 7122yds........

Pace is never an issue because I tee off first!!!!!!  IMO....if pace of play is an issue on any course, play earlier.  You're asking for slow play by playing later...

[hanalei]

4hr + rounds, and if a ball comes rolling by me from the group behind, ill either throw it in the bushes, step on it, or keep it if its good.

[LuciusWooding]

Originally Posted by VealCutlet

Par 71, 69.7/118/6260 yds. Typically 5 hours and 30 minute delay from original tee-time.

I answered "always", because I play most of my golf at NYC/Long Island public courses.  There are just too many people in the area and not enough courses. These courses basically have no rangers to keep the pace of play reasonable. Combine that with general cluelessness about course etiquette and pace of play, and it's a recipe for disaster.  Another issue in NYC is that as the courses have upgraded their facilities, they have been booking outings at a staggering rate.  Great for business, but as a public facility, bad for the people who are essentially providing the business the public space.

I looked at the outings calendar at my local course recently and saw that virtually every Wed-Friday through September/October were booked with outings...which just means the course is closed and public golfers have to run over to the next course, which will either have an outing of its own, or will be overcrowded with public golfers.

On Long Island: play farther east. There are not only tons of courses out east, but many of the better ones and larger and more linksy ones are out there. Not as cheap, but much better pace. And certainly if you can get a membership, most of the really good private courses are out east. That said, it can be trouble during the weekend no matter where you play, and if you're near the city you have an hour+ drive each way, worse on the return trip.

For me, I seldom play with more than a single partner, often alone. Despite my misfortune of having a really slow partner sometimes, I'll get done in 3 hours flat with a lot of open holes ahead of me. Usually it's at least 4 hours but rarely much over 5, but honestly I don't have a problem with it. Crowded courses aren't a problem for me as long as they keep moving, that's the staff's fault allowing too many on. Slow but not crowded courses, on the other hand, are more annoying but I can ask to play through or join up or whatever, or skip a hole or get them yelled at by the staff, or practice or hit a second ball or whatever. Crowded= no options, but I don't get all pissed. Plenty of things to get mad at in my own game anyway.

I don't bother playing primetime rounds on weekends because that's retardedly slow and crowded and more expensive; it's only an option for those who can't play during the week at all.

[Fourputt]

Originally Posted by hanalei

4hr + rounds, and if a ball comes rolling by me from the group behind, ill either throw it in the bushes, step on it, or keep it if its good.

Sent from my Holographic Touch Android.

So with you nobody gets a chance to make a mistake or to explain - you just go ballistic.  Must be nice to be perfect.

[sean_miller]

Other people are always too slow.

[FarWest]

When I started playing, almost 30 years ago, anything over 3 hours was considered unacceptable, but nowadays it seems that 4 hours is the miimum time allowed, and 4 1/2 hours can be acceptable, even on the shorter courses.  Although I would be considered a quick player I find that I now fall into the 4 hour tempo, and struggle to play quicker than that in a fourball, even though the guys I play with regularly are decent mid handicappers ( 8 to 12).  A lot of the slow play I've encountered is generally down to poor etiquette or poor manners.   Pacing around greens, and marking even tap ins drives me insane, as does the failure of the first guy to hole out to pick up the flag.  Leaving bags in front, or on the wrong side , of greens, are other pet hates.  I can just about tolerate slow play on a fine day, but in poor weather I can get very cranky about it.

[lumpuckeroo]

My home course (69.5/120) moves pretty well, but it also depends on the time of day.  Early Saturday and Sunday morning move pretty fast but there is a large group that likes to play 8:30-10:30, getting behind that group and you will have a pretty slow round.