My Secret to pace of play!

[Dave2512]

Right if we are really not going to take into consideration that POP is clearly for foursomes whether posted or not. It's funny being on the other side of this. Because often times I think people rush too much and a weekend POP between 4-4.5 hours is nice and comfortable pace for me and hate speed demons. But if this gentleman was just standing there staring at a bunker shot in front of me for 5 minutes or so I probably would've hit over his head and told him I thought he was waiting for me to play through.

Unless I missed it I don't think he stood over a shot for 5 minutes. Honestly I have doubts about his account as told here. As I said before what's the chance there's a disgruntled group waiting beyond a twosome on track to finish in 3.5 hours. If I am behind you and you're getting it done that quick I am ready to buy you a beer. I can certainly play faster than that but if I've made time to golf I'm not keen on blazing through so I can head home and wish I was still golfing.

[johnclayton1982]

Quote:

So your twosome was an entire hole behind the threesome in front of you.  You have only two options at this point:  You either speed up to keep pace with them, or you let the guys behind you play through and keep going at your leisurely pace.

That's it.

Right.  This is why I said we disagree.  If this is rule, why have a POP?  So I'm obligated to keep up with the group in front and ahead of the group behind regardless of the overall speed I'm playing at?  Don't you see how insane that is?

its my round.  I totally agree if I'm playing to five hours, sure.  But if I'm playing at a reasonable pace, why do you get to set my speed because your'e behind me?

Quote:

But if this gentleman was just standing there staring at a bunker shot in front of me for 5 minutes or so I probably would've hit over his head and told him I thought he was waiting for me to play through.

Going to assume you are joking, because that is never acceptable no matter what.  This is the type of crap people who play at a normal pace have to put up with from people who think they're entitled to play as fast as they want and damn everyone else.

Quote:

Not a good analogy considering he mentioned playing faster than the POP by a pretty good clip at that.

Exactly.

Quote:

As I said before what's the chance there's a disgruntled group waiting beyond a twosome on track to finish in 3.5 hours.

Exactly what I thought.  I thought the behavior was ridiculous.  It was on topic, so I posted here.  Getting a whistle isn't that bad, easy to ignore, but its pretty annoying.

EDIT:

Just noticed:

Quote:

Honestly I have doubts about his account as told here.

I didn't have a video camera, but even if we assume its a hypothetical (which it isn't), the same discussion ensues.

[whatwoodtigerdo]

Right.  This is why I said we disagree.  If this is rule, why have a POP?  So I'm obligated to keep up with the group in front and ahead of the group behind regardless of the overall speed I'm playing at?  Don't you see how insane that is?

its my round.  I totally agree if I'm playing to five hours, sure.  But if I'm playing at a reasonable pace, why do you get to set my speed because your'e behind me?

Going to assume you are joking, because that is never acceptable no matter what.  This is the type of crap people who play at a normal pace have to put up with from people who think they're entitled to play as fast as they want and damn everyone else.

Exactly.

Exactly what I thought.  I thought the behavior was ridiculous.  It was on topic, so I posted here.  Getting a whistle isn't that bad, easy to ignore, but its pretty annoying.

EDIT:

Just noticed:

I didn't have a video camera, but even if we assume its a hypothetical (which it isn't), the same discussion ensues.

Well I just assigned 5 minutes as a number I would definitely consider " significant amount of time to make a decision" With the way you are talking I am now thinking it might have been longer. Well to me that is completely unacceptable and sounds like there was some sort of point making going on from your side. Like oh they are making noise I am going to make them wait longer. And to you it seems fine because it's your world and everyone else just lives in it. But when they start whistling and throwing their hands up or I start launching balls at you now we get into discussions about what you deem unacceptable. Why should I care?

[johnclayton1982]

We can have a discussion about whistling or putting hands up (which is what we're doing), but if you're not willing to admit that hitting balls at someone is never an OK response to a pace of play issue I think we're done here.

[whatwoodtigerdo]

We can have a discussion about whistling or putting hands up (which is what we're doing), but if you're not willing to admit that hitting balls at someone is never an OK response to a pace of play issue I think we're done here.

Have I ever hit a ball into someone? No. Do I think some people may deserve it? Yes.

And doesn't really matter to me if we are done here. I will comment on what I want when I read it. Nobody ever changes their minds anyway.

[Golfingdad]

Right.  This is why I said we disagree.  If this is rule, why have a POP?  So I'm obligated to keep up with the group in front and ahead of the group behind regardless of the overall speed I'm playing at?  Don't you see how insane that is?

its my round.  I totally agree if I'm playing to five hours, sure.  But if I'm playing at a reasonable pace, why do you get to set my speed because your'e behind me?

Why are you failing to address the fact that I said you have two options???  You are not obligated to keep up with the group in front of you, but you are obligated to have some courtesy towards the faster group behind you.  Just let the faster people go by you.  You don't have to speed up.  I like to play at a leisurely pace as well, but I recognize not everybody else does, so if I'm not keeping up with the group in front of me, and there is a group on my ass, I need to let them go by, for everybody's sake.

If I'm not doing that, then I'm being selfish and inconsiderate.  There is no two ways about it.

[Lucas]

I've never really had any problems with pace of play myself. I'm way too busy for a 6 hour round. I definitely prefer playing early in the morning or as late as possible just to have an empty course to race around.

[Hardballs]

I've never really had any problems with pace of play myself. I'm way too busy for a 6 hour round. I definitely prefer playing early in the morning or as late as possible just to have an empty course to race around.

This is what I do! We are usually the first out on a Saturday morning, it's bliss! The whole course to ourselves! I don't know if it's just me but I play better when I play at my own speed! If I'm having to wait in between shots, I kinda lose my rhythm, 2 of us played yesterday, tee off 12:37, it took 4.5 hrs, I was fed up of sitting around, I tried to stay calm and pretend it didn't bother me, but by the turn I was livid! Would have walked off at the 12th if I wasn't so far from the car park! And I played my worst golf this year because of it! I saw the problem! 3 x 4 balls, golf society, Leaving empty beer cans on the tee box, looking for balls in places you had NO CHANCE!! Literally swanning around like they owned the place! There was a Marshall out, we got chatting, he was a nice guy, but he wasn't doing his job well!

[Hardballs]

Plus: one less hour on the course = one more hour at the bar.. Right?

[Dave2512]

Depending how I feel the course is a bar. Home course has coolers on the cart. A 6 pack of 16 oz cans lasts about 12 holes.

[Moppy]

Plus: one less hour on the course = one more hour at the bar.. Right?

For what? Talking about golf instead of playing it?

[Hardballs]

For what? Talking about golf instead of playing it?

Yup! Amongst other things. I don't seem to mind sitting around with a beer as much as I mind watching morons on a course!

[johnclayton1982]

Quote:

Why are you failing to address the fact that I said you have two options???  You are not obligated to keep up with the group in front of you, but you are obligated to have some courtesy towards the faster group behind you.  Just let the faster people go by you.  You don't have to speed up.  I like to play at a leisurely pace as well, but I recognize not everybody else does, so if I'm not keeping up with the group in front of me, and there is a group on my ass, I need to let them go by, for everybody's sake.

I see POP as a buffer to both the slowpokes and the speed demons.  The course has said what the pace of play is.  I think it goes both ways - keeps people from playing too slow, keeps people from playing too fast.  If I let them through, then the group behind them through, etc...etc I get off the POP pretty fast standing around.  I don't understand why people expect you to play faster than the huge sign at the first tee that *explicitly tells you* how long a round is going to take.  The sign isn't ambiguous.  It says "A round at this course should take: 4:15".

It doesn't say "A round at this course should take 4:15, unless, of course, you feel like playing it faster than that, in which case you should expect everyone to accommodate you and get out of your way."  It says "A round should take: 4:15", which means it *should* take 4:15. It just seems crazy to me.  Like, if you said "this train ride is going to take 4 hours" and then halfway there all the passengers start bitching because it isn't taking 3.

I understand you don't feel this way, and we are probably not going to convince each other.

[Hardballs]

I don't understand why people expect you to play faster than the huge sign at the first tee that *explicitly tells you* how long a round is going to take.  The sign isn't ambiguous.  It says "A round at this course should take: 4:15".

Is there really such sign? It's very unspecific! Though if it exists I would presume it means "a round should take no longer than 4:15,... for a 4 ball walking! So please avoid slow play and let faster players through!" In which case, I would agree with the sign and wish all courses had them!

[Moppy]

Yup! Amongst other things. I don't seem to mind sitting around with a beer as much as I mind watching morons on a course!

I guess I am really spoiled, since the courses here are never crowded. I will be spending winters in Florida from now on, I hope this is not what golf is like down there!

[Aflighter]

well  theres no way that your foursome is going to keep pace with group in front of you if they have just 3 or less playing.so keeping pace with group in front only applies if numbers are the same.also like has been said already,if the guys in front of you or behind you are placing shorter tees and act like there running towards there ball,take one glance at hole and line up shot then that's not right to ask you to speed up just because they wanna play speed golf.my pace of play is that I get out of cart at my ball.i look at pin placement or colored flag to see where pin is on green then look at skycaddie to get yardage I think it is.then I grab club I need and take stance to hit shot.all in all id say from time I get out of cart till I hit ball is probably 15-20 secs im guessing.if you start thinking about where exactly on green you wanna land ball and thinking about where safe shot is then your starting to bring in more time to your shot.most of the slow players ive been behind theyre either looking for a wayward shot,standing to long in preshot routine,2 or 3 practice swings or taking most there time reading theyre putts.no offense to older gentlemen but m ost of the time the speedwalkers are the older men who don't wanna stiffen up and act like they have a date.

[Aflighter]

furthermore lets think about this.lets go on the theory your foursome shoots a 90 per golfer.ok now give each person 30 seconds to hit each of theyre shots.thats 45 minutes per golfer to shoot there score.for a foursome that's 3 hours just for the strokes.give another 15 seconds between each different golfers shot,thats 1 minute per 4 strokes.with 360 total strokes made that is 90 more minutes.now your at 4hrs and 30 mins.take in account though that the 15 second interval between shots wont really apply after the short putts mainly so you could take lil bit of time off that but that's based on all the shots being found rather quickly.doesnt  take in account balls in woods or rough that you may spend minute or 2 looking for.thats also not taking in account of driving cart time.so if you break all that down ,if your 4 guys shoot 90 or higher then you can easily have a 5 hour round.i hope all this makes sense because I just thought about it haa.

[Hardballs]

There is a difference between rushing, and not playing slow! Nobody should have to rush a game, but if you accept your a slow player, think why! There WILL be a reason, and the reason WILL be one or more or most of the points mentioned in the first post on this thread! If everyone strives to follow these points, there is no need to run down a fairway! And if you still feel a need to run down a fairway, then that's when you should let people through! It only takes 2 inconsiderate idiots to back up a whole course for the afternoon, just try and make sure that idiot isn't you! And if you are that idiot, just play 9 holes until you learn to keep a good pace! Remember it's a sport, not leisurely stroll in the sun, if ya want a leisurely stoll? Go to the beach or walk to a driving range!