Four-Balls No More?

Slab

Slab

Occasional Tour Caddy
Joined
Nov 20, 2011
Messages
12,138
Location
Port Louis
Visit site
Something that's not WHS for us to chat over

GM's Barry makes a case for potentially banning them

As all too often happens with articles (and the forum in general) his view doesn't look beyond his nose i.e he's only interested in what he thinks about 4-balls in regards his course/golfing experiences. So it lacks a holistic view and therefore a balanced opinion & dare I say a bit of credibility

Which is a bit sad since his article has a global audience (he doesn't even consider the impact of his suggestion on courses with mandatory buggy use)

Anyway, 4-balls at your place and the wider golf world; Yay or nay?
 
The older members at my club play mainly fourball better ball matchplay, we rarely mark cards. It's quick & we can get round in 3¼ hours unimpeded.

The younger members are obsessed with competitions & we have them through the winter, midweek & weekends. They are played in fourballs & slow down play considerably. I suggested to the Committee that those marking cards should play in a maximum of threeballs but it fell on deaf ears.

Its just about tolerable in warm weather but the standing around waiting in the cold is not pleasant. The television learned pre shot routines of some of the younger ones doesn't help.
 
The article mentions having 4 balls in competitions. If this is the case he needs to swap clubs as ours has 3 balls in medals (as I suspect many will) and works well. Also, if he is a 2 ball in a competition, maybe the club needs to look at the tee times available for the competition and reduce them so all slots are full of the same amount of players.

More clickbait for likes!
 
Reading it, my minds eye conjured up an underused members course with the pro shop collecting little or no green fees on that day. So cutting the course capacity by a third to half all weekend might have minimal impact… so his solution may well be correct in that specific scenario. But the article isn’t qualified or prefaced that way

Imagine the increase in green fee &/or annual subs for a busy members course or heaven forbid a resort course !
 
If we banned 4 balls at our club, half the members wouldn’t get a tee time, certainly on Saturdays and Sundays.

It’s fastest finger first every week, and looking at this Saturday there isn’t a single slot free, solid 4 balls until 12. 9 minutes gap between each, most will play in the comp. Yes it can get a bit clogged up at times, it bottlenecks from the 2nd tee to the 5th or 6th sometimes and then spreads out, but we normally finish after 4 and a bit hours. I’m absolutely fine with that, I’m out to enjoy the golf, company and fresh air rather than finishing as quickly as possible. Finishing after 3-3.5 hours wouldn’t make the slightest bit of difference to me personally.

Like others have said, desperate article written for clicks.
 
Our singles competitions are played in 4 balls. They've been taking an awful length for past 2 years- usually 4.5 hrs. Sometimes longer. I'd be all for only allowing singles competitions to be played in maximum of 3 balls.
It has been brought up by many members to mens club committee but the issue is trying to find space on timesheet if moving from 4 to 3 as there is also a ladies competition to be fitted in and after lunch there is usually a society playing
 
Not sure if he was talking about 4BBB or Singles in groups of 4.
If the latter I agree (unless 10 min intervals). If the former I don't. Most times at least one of the partners will be picking up.
 
Last edited:
Like others, the weekend tee times at ours are mostly full of fourballs at 8 minute intervals from sunrise until lunchtime.
There's rarely a delay to your tee off time and 18 holes normally takes 3.5 to just over 4 hours - even on competition days.
A marshal in a buggy is always cruising around making sure the course is flowing freely.
No issues with fourballs for us; they're clearly the most popular playing format. Get rid of them and, at this time of year, at least 50 members will be losing out on a round of golf every day.
If I've absolutely got to be somewhere else at midday I don't book a round of golf.
 
Maninblack4612 said:
The older members at my club play mainly fourball better ball matchplay, we rarely mark cards. It's quick & we can get round in 3¼ hours unimpeded.

The younger members are obsessed with competitions & we have them through the winter, midweek & weekends. They are played in fourballs & slow down play considerably. I suggested to the Committee that those marking cards should play in a maximum of threeballs but it fell on deaf ears.

Its just about tolerable in warm weather but the standing around waiting in the cold is not pleasant. The television learned pre shot routines of some of the younger ones doesn't help.
Click to expand...
Having played numerous winter opens at South Shields, I can confirm that it is no place to be standing still waiting.

A couple of weeks ago we stood on the 17th tee watching the group in front disappear over the hill and then waited an eternity for them to ring the bell to let us know that it was clear and we could go. This wait was a bit surprising as we had raced around 16 holes and had only just caught them up.

As we waited, we saw a four-ball stood on the 18th waiting to play their second, two non-playing adults and two youngsters, but they weren't actually doing anything, just a bit of back and forth. Intrigued, I stuck my head around the hedge for a look at the 18th green, only to find no golfers anywhere, it was clear. Paying a bit closer attention, it became obvious that a discussion was taking place about distances (it was about 150, I could see that from where I was), then the pre shot routine started.

By now the bell had been rung we had played our tee shots, and we were disappearing over the hill ourselves, where we found two groups in front, a group of short knockers had already teed off and a group on the tee, then ourselves halfway down 17.

The only blessing was that we hadn't caught up with them sooner. Heaven only knows how long they had been out there if that had been the routine on ever shot.
 
One of the most pointless articles I have ever started to read. I say “started”, because I didn’t get to the end of it.
 
I always thought a slow player is just that, regardless of how many they are playing with.
There has been many a time a 4 ball is held up by a 3 or even 2 ball, or even just kept up with a 2 ball.
The author of the article sounds like one of those so entitled persons who considers those not as good as he to be worthless.
A pointless article from a pointless person doing a pointless job.
 
BrianM said:
He’s been in the job a year too long.
Terrible article, should be going through the editor before being published.
Click to expand...
I wonder why, as part of their research for an article, they don't take a look at their own magazine's web forum. It might give them more of a feel for what their readership are talking about than just writing a piece on their narrow "golf professional" viewpoint that makes them come across as petty and a bit precious.
 
Just picked up another of his articles showing surprise that few amateurs have a 2 iron in their bags anymore........Really..?
I've never had a 2 iron, only had a 3 iron for 5 minutes and haven't had a 4 iron in 20 years......
They've been telling us to swap to hybrids or fairways since Adam was a lad and he's surprised....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top