First group out - responsibility to play quickly?

[No Mulligans]

I just booked some early tee times with my wife.  I told the pro shop to put us a few times after the earliest time as I didn't want to have to set the pace.  I feel a responsibility to play fast if I'm the first out.  I think everyone should.  You can't go by the general rule of keeping up with the group ahead so you better keep ahead of the group behind, I don't want the 2nd group to have to ever wait after the 1st hole.  That can be difficult if the 2nd group is fast.  My experience is fast players like to play early so they can play fast.

When I have a slow group ahead I call the pro shop and request a Marshall visit the group.

[Golfingdad]

13 minutes ago, DaveP043 said:

Its nothing more complicated than simple good manners.

This is the answer to an awful, awful lot of questions when you boil it down. 

[Big C]

Yes, in the rare times that I am one of the first groups out, I do feel a responsibility to play quickly. Now I'm generally pretty good about playing ready golf regardless, so I wouldn't change too much about my typical style.

But if I happened to have difficulty finding my ball in thick rough, I would not take the full 5 minutes to look for it, nor would I walk back to the tee box. I'd probably give myself a full minute (two tops) of searching, before I dropped and added two to my score. Likewise, if I found myself 50 yards away from my bag with the wrong club in hand, I probably would just suck it up and hit that club, rather than trying to go back and switch. 

During a mid day round, I'd be more likely to take my full 5 minutes, or go back to my back to reclub - with the assumption being that I would make that time up later. But not in the first few groups.

[jkelley9]

If this is a reoccurring thing, then the starter/pro shop is doing a terrible, terrible job.

It's the starter/pro shop's "responsibility" to maintain a good pace of play on their course. This will not ALWAYS happen (because every now and then there will be people that don't know about how their pace of play affects others [newbies], or they just don't care) but it's their responsibility to not allow these folks to get the same tee times and continue that detrimental play. 

It's a player's/group's "responsibility" to let groups play through when appropriate. The fact that these guys do not means they're complete a-holes. And the pro shop should absolutely prevent them from picking up early tee times (at least I would). If they bitched and whined about it (which I imagine they would...) I would calmly explain to them how their pace of play affects the course and would allow them early tee times again if they can agree to maintain that pace, no problem. 

Most courses only start on #1 only I think. Maybe suggest to your pro shop to allow this particular group of regulars to tee off on #9 if they want to keep their tee time.

[Aflighter]

1 hour ago, jkelley9 said:

If this is a reoccurring thing, then the starter/pro shop is doing a terrible, terrible job.

It's the starter/pro shop's "responsibility" to maintain a good pace of play on their course. This will not ALWAYS happen (because every now and then there will be people that don't know about how their pace of play affects others [newbies], or they just don't care) but it's their responsibility to not allow these folks to get the same tee times and continue that detrimental play. 

It's a player's/group's "responsibility" to let groups play through when appropriate. The fact that these guys do not means they're complete a-holes. And the pro shop should absolutely prevent them from picking up early tee times (at least I would). If they bitched and whined about it (which I imagine they would...) I would calmly explain to them how their pace of play affects the course and would allow them early tee times again if they can agree to maintain that pace, no problem. 

Most courses only start on #1 only I think. Maybe suggest to your pro shop to allow this particular group of regulars to tee off on #9 if they want to keep their tee time.

Thats a good idea.Starting on 9 will keep the others from being slowed by them.Of course the unfortunates that have tee time around the time they get back to 1 will be waiting but itll only be  9 hole slow play compared to backing course up for 18.Personally if they are that slow then im not gonna cater to them just cause you can get their money every week.Depending on the course they shouldnt be out there more than 4hrs because theres no excuse that theyre being held up.Since they are walkers I doubt  the course is long and spread out.

[newtogolf]

At my old home club, the earliest 4 tee times on weekends were called rabbit slots.  Only 4 somes were permitted and your group had to finish in less than 3.5 hours.  If you took longer, you were banned from the rabbit slots for the rest of the year.  

[Patch]

Something else I have seen course's do is forget what time the sun rises. Sometimes they don't make the adjustments. The longest day was over a month ago. You could start teeing off at 4:30 am back in June. Now it's more like 5:00 am. I think we lose something like a minute a day now. A 30 minute mistake can really throw a wrench in things if ignored. 

[JonMA1]

13 hours ago, ZappyAd said:

So it made me wonder if you are one of the first groups out do you have a responsibility to play quickly so that the course doesn't get clogged up early?

I will disagree with most others and say that yes, I think the first group out does have more of a responsibility to play quickly. As someone who tries to book the first tee time every Sunday morning, that's how I feel when I'm in that position. If I was ok with slow play, why would I choose that time slot?

Of course if someone can catch me, there's no question about letting them play through.