Dear foursome in front of me.....

[Clugnut]

... I know it is slow today. I get it. And I appreciate the fact your foursome is composed of two single and a pair, or at least I hope so from the three carts you're using. But, you are a hole behind, and you're not even trying to catch up. I rarely get the chance to play other than on Wednesdays, so when I can get to the course on a Friday afternoon at 2:30, I'm happy. But, you are raining on my parade. There are other people on the course, some of us have families to get home to. Its almost 6 o'clock. I should have been home half an hour ago. My wife has called 3 times already. Supper is overcooked.

My group is comprised of three singles. One is an eighty year old man who can't hit it more than 175. But, at least he plays when it is his turn. He could get around this place in 3 hours, so what is your excuse? Carts not fast enough?

My word, you aren't? No way! You are not shaking hands on the green, are you?!? And having a little chat!?!? I've been waiting to hit my second for ten minutes, you clods! Should I summon the drink cart girl for you? You can just set up camp there! Like your own personal backyard!

Finally, your clearing. But the lead dill hole has to walk back to his cart, which he left thirty yards short of the green. Why am I not allowed to open fire on this guy? It'd be a hard shot, 160 out of a fairway bunker to one of his shins. Great, finally clear. So I now have the honor of running around, putting out, and running to the car for an above legal speeds blast home.

I just wanted to write you and say that it is inconsiderate a-holes like you that will be the death of this great game. The game is way bigger than you, though. So just remember that when someone buries a sand wedge in your shin.

Yours in Christ, Clugnut.

[mddubya]

Dear Lord, please forgive me for this and the little pygmies, AMEN

[SiberianDVM]

Dear single hackers behind my GF and me:

I'm sorry you're having to wait. After a year of lessons on the range, I decided she was ready to try 9 holes. So I reserved a tee-time and a cart, we showed up early amd teed off.

She was nervous even with no one around (I picked an evening when the course is always near empty) so she duffed her first shot. A couple of shots later I have her pick up and drop near the green. As she is lining up her first ever putt on a real green, she looks back up the fairway and sees you standing and waiting to hit: from 220 yards out on a 380 yard hole. Obviously you blasted that 160 yard downhill tee shot.

So it makes her more nervous and she blades it across the green. It's OK really, so we go to the next tee box, and look back as you duff your 2nd shot 30 yards into the trees.

As we are getting ready to hit our 2nd shots on #2, we see you on the teebox already. Somehow you managed to find you ball and hole out in about a minute and a half. Miraculous.

So on the #3 tee we wait to let you play through. !5 minutes later you mosey on up, we wave you through, and you proceed to slice 3 into the woods.

About that time, the jackass in a cart behind you, who is obviously pissed, comes flying by the teebox just as I am getting ready to swing and races to skip us and you. I call him a ****** ******** and try my best to bean him with my teeshot. Missed.

Finally, we can enjoy the rest of the round. GF did pretty well from #3 onward.

Ever think about pairing up with someone?

[ualtim]

Bad day at the course, Clug?

[MGP]

I there is a hole open (consistently) in front of them and you are pushing them from behind, they should let you play through. Case closed.

Heck, last time I was out, I was a double with a friend of mine who only plays maybe once every month or two. He was trying to "get his game back" and hacking it up a bit. We started quite a bit ahead of everyone else but by about #7 a single had trickled up throught the pack and caught us. We let him play through and he was gone out of sight with a couple holes. At the turn, we let a twosome of women who were moving right along and had caught up with us at #9 play through.

We kept a nice even pace all day, let a group and a single play through. We didn't slow anyone else up. I wish everyone would do that.

[Eracer]

Clug, I hear you, and I try my best to get around as quickly as possible. But I do lament that we've allowed our "hurry up and do it NOW" life to infect our golf. Wouldn't it be nice if we could all relax a bit on the course? Wouldn't it be nice to be able to take our time and enjoy life a bit more? I get pushed and prodded from the moment I wake up in the morning, until the moment I get home. I've got drivers who need me to get the hell out of their way so they can catch up to the tangle of traffic ahead, co-workers who all need me to work on their issues FIRST, no time for a relaxing lunch, customers who bitch at me because UPS didn't get the camcorder they ordered yesterday at 3:00pm there in time for their baby's birth (never mind that they've had some indication that the blessed event has been coming for, oh, say nine months,) and finally, finally comes the weekend, and a chance to get out on the course and play.

Play - it means enjoy a recreational activity. I don't want to have rush around the course. I don't even want to worry that the group ahead is one, two, or three holes behind. The only reason that really matters is because the owners of the golf course feel they're losing money. I don't want to even think about the group behind me. They should enjoy the game, and not worry about mine. But that's not golf today. Golf today is about the rush of life intruding into the one place it shouldn't intrude - my next golf shot. We're all getting so programmed to think that golf has to be played quickly that we're forgetting what golf is supposed to be. Relaxing.

I do realize that I'm not the only one on the course, and that I do have to manage the frustration I feel from having to rush (and if you play a round in under 4 hours, you ARE rushing (at least on an American cart game course. On the Scottish links it was easy to play a round in 3 1/2 hours.) So I move along, and I try to keep my cart in the right spot. And I hit my shot as quickly as possible. And I hurry up if I mishit a chip, and I rush my short putts, trying to gain that extra 30 seconds. And I shake hands with my opponents on the green after a round. If that's not fast enough (and in the American way) sue me...

[Clugnut]

Originally Posted by SiberianDVM

Dear single hackers behind my GF and me:

I'm sorry you're having to wait. After a year of lessons on the range, I decided she was ready to try 9 holes. So I reserved a tee-time and a cart, we showed up early amd teed off.

She was nervous even with no one around (I picked an evening when the course is always near empty) so she duffed her first shot. A couple of shots later I have her pick up and drop near the green. As she is lining up her first ever putt on a real green, she looks back up the fairway and sees you standing and waiting to hit: from 220 yards out on a 380 yard hole. Obviously you blasted that 160 yard downhill tee shot.

So it makes her more nervous and she blades it across the green. It's OK really, so we go to the next tee box, and look back as you duff your 2nd shot 30 yards into the trees.

As we are getting ready to hit our 2nd shots on #2, we see you on the teebox already. Somehow you managed to find you ball and hole out in about a minute and a half. Miraculous.

So on the #3 tee we wait to let you play through. !5 minutes later you mosey on up, we wave you through, and you proceed to slice 3 into the woods.

About that time, the jackass in a cart behind you, who is obviously pissed, comes flying by the teebox just as I am getting ready to swing and races to skip us and you. I call him a ****** ******** and try my best to bean him with my teeshot. Missed.

Finally, we can enjoy the rest of the round. GF did pretty well from #3 onward.

Ever think about pairing up with someone?

That behavior is also unacceptable. The deal with these jokers was that they just screwed around. They took forever to play their shots. It wasn't a case of a beginner learning to play. I understand everyone needs to start somewhere. Its just a disregard for everyone behind them. Crazy. You let a single play through. Good move for you and them. The guy that flew by on your backswing? you should have pulled it at him!

Originally Posted by ualtim

Bad day at the course, Clug?

Actually, an awesome day. I got to play with some new people, and played well. It just bugged me. It also made my wife look bad, even though it wasn't her fault. She had a right to know where I was, and I should have been home at 5:30. I just can't play golf as much now because it just takes too long, mainly because people can't seem to get done in 3-3:30 hours. It may be time to join a private club.

[Clugnut]

Originally Posted by Eracer

Clug, I hear you, and I try my best to get around as quickly as possible. But I do lament that we've allowed our "hurry up and do it NOW" life to infect our golf. Wouldn't it be nice if we could all relax a bit on the course? Wouldn't it be nice to be able to take our time and enjoy life a bit more? I get pushed and prodded from the moment I wake up in the morning, until the moment I get home. I've got drivers who need me to get the hell out of their way so they can catch up to the tangle of traffic ahead, co-workers who all need me to work on their issues FIRST, no time for a relaxing lunch, customers who bitch at me because UPS didn't get the camcorder they ordered yesterday at 3:00pm there in time for their baby's birth (never mind that they've had some indication that the blessed event has been coming for, oh, say nine months,) and finally, finally comes the weekend, and a chance to get out on the course and play.

Play - it means enjoy a recreational activity. I don't want to have rush around the course. I don't even want to worry that the group ahead is one, two, or three holes behind. The only reason that really matters is because the owners of the golf course feel they're losing money. I don't want to even think about the group behind me. They should enjoy the game, and not worry about mine. But that's not golf today. Golf today is about the rush of life intruding into the one place it shouldn't intrude - my next golf shot. We're all getting so programmed to think that golf has to be played quickly that we're forgetting what golf is supposed to be. Relaxing.

I do realize that I'm not the only one on the course, and that I do have to manage the frustration I feel from having to rush (and if you play a round in under 4 hours, you ARE rushing (at least on an American cart game course. On the Scottish links it was easy to play a round in 3 1/2 hours.) So I move along, and I try to keep my cart in the right spot. And I hit my shot as quickly as possible. And I hurry up if I mishit a chip, and I rush my short putts, trying to gain that extra 30 seconds. And I shake hands with my opponents on the green after a round. If that's not fast enough (and in the American way) sue me...

I feel ya. I am just frustrated because I thought I could have a guilt free round and be home when my wife got home. Didn't happen. When this kind of stuff goes on, I play less. Period. I have trouble convincing SWMBO that I can go out for a quick 18. A quick 18 doesn't exist on the weekend. It should be relaxing. It is a game. But you can talk and play at the same time. But the in depth social chit chat can be saved for the nineteenth hole. You're not slowing anyone down there.

Just play ready golf. Slow, steady, and ready. I'm very happy with that. Get your yardages and pick your club while you are waiting. You don't need to stand at your ball with your hands on your hips. But, when the green clears, get out of your cart, go through your routine, step up and hit it. Repeat, repeat, repeat. This is still a slow relaxed pace, it just cuts out the wasted time. Relax, have fun, and don't waste time. S'all I'm sayin'.

[SiberianDVM]

I've never played at a truly private club, so I can't say. What would be the reason why a private club would be faster, other than (hopefully) less people playing? Jerkoffs are everywhere.

On this course, Forest Hills, I have had rounds ranging from 3.5 hours to 5.5 hours. Never seems to be any rhyme or reason to it.

[Eracer]

Originally Posted by Clugnut

I feel ya. I am just frustrated because I thought I could have a guilt free round and be home when my wife got home. Didn't happen. When this kind of stuff goes on, I play less. Period. I have trouble convincing SWMBO that I can go out for a quick 18. A quick 18 doesn't exist on the weekend. It should be relaxing. It is a game. But you can talk and play at the same time. But the in depth social chit chat can be saved for the nineteenth hole. You're not slowing anyone down there.

Just play ready golf. Slow, steady, and ready. I'm very happy with that. Get your yardages and pick your club while you are waiting. You don't need to stand at your ball with your hands on your hips. But, when the green clears, get out of your cart, go through your routine, step up and hit it. Repeat, repeat, repeat. This is still a slow relaxed pace, it just cuts out the wasted time. Relax, have fun, and don't waste time. S'all I'm sayin'.

I'm with you. It would be nice if the whole course stayed in some perfect gestalt, where everybody stayed right on top of the moment without any hurry. In short, if everyone just played golf. But that's not the way it is. People get slow, and then people behind them get fast, and then the whole bloody course turns into a tangled mass of nerves. I agree that everyone needs to do the things you said. That's golf. But I get just as mad at playing partners who tell me to hurry up as they make their 10th rushed swipe at a two-foot putt (then don't count the miss,) and walk off the green as I'm lining up my six-footer. They're rushing because the fivesome in back of us is picking up their second putts (because putting slows the game down) and is starting to hit into us. It's becoming a mess - that's all I'm saying.

And I just can't get my head around a 3-hour round on a modern American course played in carts. I can't even conceive of it. I feel like I play reasonably fast and I think four hours is a pretty quick round (you guys that have seen me play are free to chime in on whether my perception is accurate.) But 3 hours? I think I'd be out of breath as I ride in the cart to my next shot.

[Clugnut]

Originally Posted by SiberianDVM

I've never played at a truly private club, so I can't say. What would be the reason why a private club would be faster, other than (hopefully) less people playing? Jerkoffs are everywhere.

Less people, and serious players who can get it around. The country club is right across the street from where I play, and I have never seen two group on one hole. Well, maybe once.

[mddubya]

I'm afraid most any public course is going to be a nerve pit on any given weekend. There are just to many people, the courses are setting tee times closer and closer to accommodate more people,(make more money), and nobody seems to know the rules or etiquette of the game any more. Personally, I think in an ideal world, before a person was allowed to buy a set of clubs the should have to read, understand, and pass a test on the rules and etiquette of the game. But seeing as how this isn't going to happen, what I've found is that if I sit in the cart instead of standing behind my ball as I wait, I don't get near as nervous or angry. It's a shame we have to find ways to control our anger while we pursue the sport we engage in as a form of recreation, but such is the modern game of golf. But, I suppose we need to recognize the fact that if more and more people weren't taking the game up, (slowing us down as they learn), there most likely wouldn't be but one or 2 courses in any given area and they would be even more crowded than they are now.

[King Par]

I played in a pretty slow foursome. People would wait on us, catch up with us at the teebox, etc.

Here's my reason why I didn't give the other 3 a lecture and tell them about letting other people play through, please correct me if I'm in the wrong somewhere:

We played a pretty tight course. The holes were close together. So I could look across the 12th fairway, to 15 and see that there was two foursomes waiting there. There was a foursome on the green in front of us. And on the 12th green and teebox. This was the 11th. I couldn't see the 13th/14th but had no reason to doubt that there were anyone on them. As I saw a lot of groups leave before us. Needless to say, this was a slow day all around. They were a twosome, playing suuuuper fast, leaving the flag in, no practice shots, etc. But it was packed for 3 or 4 holes in front of us, with foursomes. So in letting them play through, I thought we'd just be putting ourselves behind.

[Clugnut]

Originally Posted by King Par

I played in a pretty slow foursome. People would wait on us, catch up with us at the teebox, etc.

Here's my reason why I didn't give the other 3 a lecture and tell them about letting other people play through, please correct me if I'm in the wrong somewhere:

We played a pretty tight course. The holes were close together. So I could look across the 12th fairway, to 15 and see that there was two foursomes waiting there. There was a foursome on the green in front of us. And on the 12th green and teebox. This was the 11th. I couldn't see the 13th/14th but had no reason to doubt that there were anyone on them. As I saw a lot of groups leave before us. Needless to say, this was a slow day all around. They were a twosome, playing suuuuper fast, leaving the flag in, no practice shots, etc. But it was packed for 3 or 4 holes in front of us, with foursomes. So in letting them play through, I thought we'd just be putting ourselves behind.

No problems with that, KP. If you're stuck, you're stuck. No point in people playing through if they need to get through 5 groups to do it. That will make the pace even worse.

[tailStrike]

Originally Posted by mddubya

... what I've found is that if I sit in the cart instead of standing behind my ball as I wait, I don't get near as nervous or angry.

I try to do this myself. I know I don't like people staring me down while making practice swings as I am putting and try not to do the same to other people. Just increases the nerves and makes them play even slower. Plus, if I stand over my shot too long, I usually over think it and strike the ball worse.