Slow Play

[Sandpiper3]

Have you ever arrived to play as a twosome, and been put with another twosome that plays too slow and you end up looking like an a$$hole beacuse you are stuck with them?

Once every month at least... Does suck indeed, but at least its not MY fault, you can see my friend and I waiting almost the whole round

EMC, you say a 4 1/2 hour round is long for you? Man, 4 1/2 hours is a decent to good pace for where i play... So many golfers around here seem to be so slow, and dont even get me started on my jr tournaments.... o man. 5+ man, 5+.....

 

[Fourputt]

Should have given him a closeup of your sand wedge, right before it clocks him! That's serious disrespect, we never, ever have a round over 4 1/2 hours and it's usually 3 to 3 1/2

You must not play many public courses then if you're finishing in 3 hours. If I get out as one of the first couple of groups on a Saturday morning, we can usually finish the front 9 in under 2 hours, but they put 9 holers out on 10, so when we make the turn, it's back to 2 hours plus to finish the back.

 

[ezra76]

Have you ever arrived to play as a twosome, and been put with another twosome that plays too slow and you end up looking like an a$$hole beacuse you are stuck with them?

Oh god yes. I would frequently go down to the hack course by myself and join up with a 2some to try to save everyone some time. I've seen it all, liner-upper 4putters, freeze for 30seconds and slice it 90yds., 4 off the tee, 17 on a par 5.... These guys are really, really bad. Take 30seconds concentrating over a tee shot and then a totally whiff.... "strike one!". I just hit my ball and keep walking. Sometimes I'm waiting up on the side of the green for 7 or 8 minutes, if I hit it in regulation, waiting for them to hack out a green in 8 and a 3 putt.

 

[Eracer]

I totally agree! What I hate is when I might be out playing a quick round by myself and a foursome or two in front of me will not let me play thru when they are being held up by the slower group in front of them. They will say things like "We would let you play thru but you wouldn't be able to go anywhere..." I think to myself ...hmm you are letting them play the entire hole before you tee off.. of course they aren't concerned with holding anyone up because they have no idea...... but if you would let a single go ahead and play thru I can catch them and play thru them also... All the while they ware worried about being a foursome, and they know they can't play thru the slower group, also a foursome, but don't want to be slowed further waiting on the slower group to waiting on me to play thru.. Whew... I know that may be hard to follow... But just a 'lil venting. I try to squeeze a quick round in at my Muni. where I have a membership and it gets understandably slow at times!

Hit 'em straight!

C-bogey

When you are playing as a single you usually have a responsibility to just chill out and play in turn. Singles take up four times as many course man-hours as foursomes do. You own one entire 8-minute tee block by yourself, while a foursome owns 2-minutes per man. You don't have the right to blaze ahead of everybody on the course. If there is a hole open ahead of a foursome in front of you, it is the ranger's job to speed that foursome up, or tell them to let you through. But if the course is stacked up, then you just have to be patient.

 

[Eracer]

Me or my girl?

Me, see avatar.

Seriously though, I flip a little when getting hit on top of. I had a neighbor growing up who had gotten clunked by a ball, he was similar to a stroke victim, paralyzed on one side of his body, tended to drool a lot.

Well, if your paralyzed on one side I can see how it might be hard to get out of the way of flying golf balls...

 

[sandwedge]

We got stuck behind a really slow group yesterday. We waited on them every hole until we got to the turn and played through them when they stopped for concessions. The ranger told us the group in front of them was a full 2 holes ahead of them.

We should have known when we saw one of the guys wearing a pair of jeans out on the course. These guys spend more time standing around watching each other look for golf balls then they did playing.

 

[demon]

3 hour rounds? A little over 4 hours is good for me, if I played a round in 3 hours I would feel rushed.

 

[C-bogey]

Eracer,

If I play as a single I am patient, like you said. As I said before I am only refering to slow play. So I understand what you are saying anout having a responsibility to be patient. But, like you said, the marshal or ranger has a responsibility to speed up play or make some kind of adjustment to the pace of play. And, as stated by many others, we all know that most of todays marshals are glorified ball hawks. I can count on one hand how many times I have seen the marshal or ranger out monitoring the play on the course. I will usually skip ahead a hole or 2 if I am out by myself. But, yeah, two open holes ahead and 2 groups at the tee box waiting is a lil much. But none the less it happens.

 

[Eracer]

Eracer,

If I play as a single I am patient, like you said. As I said before I am only refering to slow play. So I understand what you are saying anout having a responsibility to be patient. But, like you said, the marshal or ranger has a responsibility to speed up play or make some kind of adjustment to the pace of play. And, as stated by many others, we all know that most of todays marshals are glorified ball hawks. I can count on one hand how many times I have seen the marshal or ranger out monitoring the play on the course. I will usually skip ahead a hole or 2 if I am out by myself. But, yeah, two open holes ahead and 2 groups at the tee box waiting is a lil much. But none the less it happens.

Gotcha - yeah it is frustrating when you can see that there is a group three ahead of you that is clueless about pace of play, and holding everyone up. I'm a "lemonade out of lemons" guy, anyway, so I usually just try to ignore it, even if they are doing all the wrong things. I'm pretty laid back, though, and I understand how most folks get fired up about it.

Don't get me wrong, I hate slow play, and will definitely complain to the marshals when people are being idiots, just like I'll complain when a marshal gives my group a hard time when we're not holding someone up, but moderating our pace to stay ahead of the group behind, without worrying about whether we're behind the group ahead of us.

 

[Fourputt]

On my home course the 4th (par 3) and 5th (par4) tees are up on a hill from which you can see most of the course. When the course seems to be playing slow, I'll give it a look from up there. Sometimes you can spot the problem group right away... other times there simply are no gaps.... the whole course is just slow that day. The rangers often use this vantage point to spot problems too, but sometimes you get 3 or 4 groups early in the day that are slower than the average, but who never seem to get far enough behind the groups ahead to cause concern until it's too late to fix it. That can cause the entire day's play to bog down like a chain reaction collision on the rush hour freeway, and there really isn't anything much to be done but suck it up and flag down the beer cart.

I've had times too when we seemed to be waiting on every hole, yet when the round was finished we realise that we played in 4 hours flat, which is quite good for a weekend. It CAN just be a matter of perception...

 

[ol-crank]

problem solved by quick thinking marshall

we were backed up, maybe 3 foursomes, & problem
was two thritysomething moms and their 9/10 year old sons. The kids were hitting the ball pretty good, the moms were terrible. In front of them there wasn't anyone for 3 or 4 holes. When the marshall asked them (on the 11th) to stand aside and let two foursomes play through, you'd think the ladies were being asked to do housework or something. They, in loud tones, said they paid as much as anyone else, and yada yada. The next two holes, things got tense until the marshall suggested they go back to first tee and play as long as they wanted. This was late afternoon and the first few holes were empty. Moms didn't want to but the kids got their way and I bet they didn't get home for a glass of "whine" until after dark.

 

[SiberianDVM]

, things got tense until the marshall suggested they go back to first tee and play as long as they wanted. .

You mean the first tee on this course, or The First Tee? Methinks the latter is where they belonged.

When I was a member at Goshen last summer, I would go out after work during the week and walk 9 holes, between 6pm and 8pm. (I am longing for the long, hot days of summer right about now.) Almost every time I would get behind the same mom and her 3 kids, all riding in the same cart. Mom would usually just drive, while all 3 kids played. They had great swings too.

Never could understand why they just didn't walk. Maybe the short legs had something to do with it. Not one of them was over 4 feet tall.

 

[JEFF4i]

I've little tolerance for slow play. I don't get mad, or let it affect my game for the worse(sometimes I let it focus me, the drive to play better, show them that I deserve to play through).

Often I go off as a single during the summer because I go out at around 6 in the morning. Sometimes the starter will send people off the back nine early on as well. One time I saw ladies with 4 holes to play, when I started my back nine. I caught them on 17. This is ridiculous, and should not be tolerated.

I've numerous stories of people being rude, slow, and all around jack***es because they think that since they paid the money, their slow play is fine. It isn't, read your scorecard.

However, as a single, I expect to wait. For a well paced group in front of me, and they don't want to join up, I play 2 balls or just take my sweet time on every shot, which can be fun, so long as they keep pace.

For reference, solo, without any obstruction, I average a 2:45-3:00 round.