Ready Golf vs Waiting for everyone at the green

[DrvFrShow]

There are two possibilities: 1) they're inconsiderate players. Every game of golf I've ever played has always waited for everyone to get on the green before putting out. Playing "ready golf" or not. OR 2) they're passive-aggressive asses who feel your pace of play is too slow and no one in the group is man enough to tell you. In both cases, I've lost respect for the lot of them. More in the latter.

[vangator]

15 hours ago, Rip62 said:

I'm fine with ready golf from the tee and even from the fairway but I don't think anyone should putt until everyone is on the green.

If a putt is longer than a chip, the putt goes first.  I don not wait for everyone to be on the green.

[rkim291968]

15 hours ago, gregsandiego said:

I play with some guys that are usually one stroke ahead of me. Sometimes I'll be waiting to pitch on to the green but they are already putting. So then it seems like the whole thing slows down because I can't hit until they put or move aside. Almost like it divides the group into two groups of 2.

Is what they are doing permitted under any kind of ready golf etiquette?

 

 

That does not sound right.  Ready golf within reason and/or common sense is what most others do.   I play ready golf if the course pace requires.  You should look at your pace while at it.  Perhaps, your playing pace is too slow (no offense)?   The pace is going to be as fast as the slowest golfer in the group.  Don't be that guy.

 

 

[Fourputt]

A couple more comments.  Going strictly by the rules a player who is on the green 70 feet from the hole has the honor over a player who is 30 feet from the hole and lying in the rough.  It's distance that matters, not the lie.  With ready golf that isn't as much of a consideration.  

If the guy who is in the rough is still walking to his ball while the guy who is on the front of the green is all ready to try and lag up to the hole (even if he is a bit closer to the hole), then I see no problem.  The guy putting isn't going to hold anything up by his actions - in fact he is helping the group pace of play by not twiddling his thumbs while he waits.  

Situations like this happen all the time and the groups I play with never wait around if they can play without holding up the other guy.

[jgreen85]

12 minutes ago, Fourputt said:

Situations like this happen all the time and the groups I play with never wait around if they can play without holding up the other guy.

bolded and underlined statement to me is the definition of ready golf; perhaps add "safely" before "play." This imo is again why golf is so slow; people seem to enjoy the standing around on the green.

[DaveP043]

19 minutes ago, Fourputt said:

If the guy who is in the rough is still walking to his ball while the guy who is on the front of the green is all ready to try and lag up to the hole (even if he is a bit closer to the hole), then I see no problem.  The guy putting isn't going to hold anything up by his actions - in fact he is helping the group pace of play by not twiddling his thumbs while he waits.  

Situations like this happen all the time and the groups I play with never wait around if they can play without holding up the other guy.

I'm all for this kind of approach, and this is why I mentioned actually communicating with the other players.  If I'm away, and still walking to my ball, I'll suggest that someone else go ahead, if they're ready.  Or if the situation is reversed, I'll let someone know that I'll go ahead and putt, they don't need to rush to avoid holding up the rest of us. We don't all have the same ideas about pace and order of play, so talking about it helps eliminate folks standing around waiting for someone else to make a move..  

[No Mulligans]

I think it's fine to putt before everyone is on the green.

Last round...

One of the players in a fairway bunker chunk it out only about ten yards and still further from the green than me.  I raked the bunker for him.

On another hole a player ten yards from the green thinned a wedge over the green.  The rest of us were on the green.  Two of us putted while he walked to his ball.

It's very situational and it's about courtesy and pace of play.

 

[rkim291968]

1 hour ago, No Mulligans said:

It's very situational and it's about courtesy and pace of play.

 

... and common sense.  

[Gator Hazard]

2 hours ago, vangator said:

If a putt is longer than a chip, the putt goes first.  I don not wait for everyone to be on the green.

And we discussed thoroughly on my thread previously where I did in fact do that:

 

 

[gregsandiego]

9 hours ago, Fourputt said:

All I could go by was your initial description of the situation.  If these are guys you regularly play with, then tell them to get out of your way.  Tell them that what they are playing isn't ready golf, because ready golf takes all of the players in the group into consideration.  You don't step ahead of another player and block him from playing his shot if he is ready to go.  As mentioned above, ready golf is a tool that is aimed at keeping the entire group moving at a good pace, and interfering with another player's shot defeats that purpose. 

We should all step back on occasions like this and examine our own play and see if there is something we are doing that makes it seem as if our companions are acting out of frustration for our slow play, or if they are simply being rude.  

I consider myself to be a fast player,  but I still would ask myself if I was doing something different from my norm that would make someone feel that he has to step in front of me to keep pace.  He is still being rude, but maybe he is also making a point.  

I have on certain occasions reached a point of terminal frustration with a companion, so that I was forced to say something about it.  I would never ignore etiquette to make a point, but I'm not above speaking up to tell the group that we need to pick up the pace.  

In the OP's case I would ask them to please not block me when I'm playing.  And I would ask myself what I could change to improve my pace.

OK let's address the pace question.  If players of different skills play together obviously the "pace" will vary as one guy hits 4 and another hits 7. How can the 7 guy fix that? (Sure he'd like to simply play better :) 

What bugged me in this specific case last Sunday is over and over I look up and these (2) guys are on the green sizing up putts where me and the other half of the 4 some are on hold. They're not even looking back. 

 

 

Edited December 22, 2015 by gregsandiego
add more info

[rkim291968]

20 minutes ago, gregsandiego said:

OK let's address the pace question.  If players of different skills play together obviously the "pace" will vary as one guy hits 4 and another hits 7. How can the 7 guy fix that? (Sure he'd like to simply play better :)

 

I find that unless a player is a beginner, skill set difference does not mean much to the variance of pace.  Between 4 & 7, 4 is only hitting 3 - 4 more times than the guy with 7 HI.   In the course of 4.5 hours of play, that's nothing.

[Gator Hazard]

14 minutes ago, rkim291968 said:

I find that unless a player is a beginner, skill set difference does not mean much to the variance of pace.  Between 4 & 7, 4 is only hitting 3 - 4 more times than the guy with 7 HI.   In the course of 4.5 hours of play, that's nothing.

I don't want to speak out of turn but I think he may mean per hole as in the skill level difference between you @rkim291968 and me (Gator Hazard) for example.  In this example you need 2-4 shots to get on the green whereas I need 4-7 shots to do it (barring most par 3s.  Let's also toss out that you get to the point where you should do the right thing and just pick up your ball).

I would be offended as well if they were doing it the way described.  I would say something to these people and address the issue to allow for discourse, especially if I played with them regularly or semi-regularly.

Edited December 22, 2015 by Gator Hazard

[rkim291968]

10 minutes ago, Gator Hazard said:

I don't want to speak out of turn but I think he may mean per hole as in the skill level difference

I think you are correct.   My bad.

[gregsandiego]

Yes I did mean 7 strokes no HI.

Thanks everyone for your advice. I think the general consensus is wait for the team unless you can go without holding them up, e.g. they're off in the bushes or sand.... 

[dak4n6]

It's pretty simple. Play ready golf regardless of position UNLESS the person who is truly away is ready to hit. In that instance, play whoever is away, and the key to determining which is very simply communicating with your playing partners. There, that was easy.

[Fourputt]

On 12/22/2015 at 6:29 PM, gregsandiego said:

OK let's address the pace question.  If players of different skills play together obviously the "pace" will vary as one guy hits 4 and another hits 7. How can the 7 guy fix that? (Sure he'd like to simply play better :) 

What bugged me in this specific case last Sunday is over and over I look up and these (2) guys are on the green sizing up putts where me and the other half of the 4 some are on hold. They're not even looking back. 

 

 

To answer your first question, it's been my experience that players who play to a high handicap generally play better if they don't try to think too hard about a shot.  By that I mean that a 10 handicapper may take some time over a shot setting his feet just so and focusing on a swing thought and it may actually help him because he has some understanding of his swing and what makes it work.   A 25 handicapper is better off saving all of that for the practice tee and just setting up and swinging with little delay.  

The more you try to think while standing over the ball, the less likely you are to make a good swing.  It becomes a classic case of paralysis by analysis.  Do whatever thinking is actually necessary while you are approaching the ball.  Once you get there, just grip the club and swing away.  That way you can take more strokes than the next guy, but use less time doing so.  When my game goes south, I will follow this procedure, and it usually works for me.  I just stop thinking over the ball, have a single thought (keep my eye on the ball), and I swing.  Even on my worst days I don't hold anyone up.

[jkelley9]

On 12/23/2015 at 5:18 PM, Fourputt said:

To answer your first question, it's been my experience that players who play to a high handicap generally play better if they don't try to think too hard about a shot.  By that I mean that a 10 handicapper may take some time over a shot setting his feet just so and focusing on a swing thought and it may actually help him because he has some understanding of his swing and what makes it work.   A 25 handicapper is better off saving all of that for the practice tee and just setting up and swinging with little delay.  

The more you try to think while standing over the ball, the less likely you are to make a good swing.  It becomes a classic case of paralysis by analysis.  Do whatever thinking is actually necessary while you are approaching the ball.  Once you get there, just grip the club and swing away.  That way you can take more strokes than the next guy, but use less time doing so.  When my game goes south, I will follow this procedure, and it usually works for me.  I just stop thinking over the ball, have a single thought (keep my eye on the ball), and I swing.  Even on my worst days I don't hold anyone up.

I completely agree with this, not from being a good golfer looking down (because I'm not a good golfer), but from watching newbies take several practice swings and do a couple takeaways and rests only to hit a completely different swing speed and form shot afterwards. I was very guilty of this myself until a few months ago. I'm MAYBE a bogey golfer now, no HI yet since I play alone mostly in the last 2 hours of play, but I can still usually hit a better shot with a single practice swing for grip feel only, address, maybe wait 3-5 seconds, then swing.  I don't go all twisting around my grip to make sure it's exactly what I've been doing in lessons or at the range, I don't double check every angle like ball position, left arm angle, face angle, etc. I just take the comfort shot. And it's worked much better this way for me.

Most frustrating part of golf for me right now is when I'm really trying to hit a good shot by taking my time... only to chunk or thin it lol

[dak4n6]

I think one thing this thread makes clear is that playing fast ready golf is not as black and white, cut and dry, or as simple, as many who are frustrated by slow play maintain. TST and many other golf forums are replete with comments like, 'C'mon man! Just play ready golf! It's so simple!' Well, this scenario being discussed by experienced TSTers illustrates perfectly that it is not always that simple.

For a new golfer, maintaining the balance between etiquette and fast play can actually be quite confusing. My wife has adult ADD, and after playing for about 4 yrs, trying to remember grip, posture, alignment, the 20 swing thoughts she has been taught, and then etiquette AND ready play principles on top of all that, can be a little overwhelming for her sometimes. Me, I can play 18 in 2.5 easily with no one in front, but I wish some of those impatient players could realize that it's not that easy for some.

I play regularly with a couple folks who will quite often pull up to their drives in a 4ball and just hit immediately pretty much regardless of any of the other players. I will be pulling a club getting ready to hit, and then I notice 30 yds off to my right and slightly ahead they will be doing the same. Now I have to back off, let them hit, and go through my PSR again. They will then drive up the side of the hole while everyone else plays their approaches with them and their cart in their line of sight. They will then chip or putt while everyone else is driving up to the green and then stand there impatiently by the side of the green while we finish up. That kind of crap has got to stop. It's like the Ahole honking his horn in the middle of a traffic jam..