how long is too long for a game of golf?

[hovis]

what is clear about the reply's in this thread is there is two groups of golfers. those that play golf and have other things to do that day and others that play golf and have nothing else to do that day.

I play with a guy that has a 4 hour window to play golf. that includes travel. when the course is empty a round takes under 3 hours easy. but when you have a group of golfers in front that have nowhere to be then this causes a problem. my friend doesn't moan because his time restrictions are his fault but you get the idea

 

[DanFST]

It takes what it takes, I don't have a problem with a round taking 4 odd hours normally.

What does annoy me is people with no awareness of the group behind, It rarely happens to me, but me standing next to my ball for 5 mins on the fairway is not on. Golf is about the day and the company for me, but my group will have a laugh whilst someone is lining up on the tee or practise swinging or whatever. I've seen groups having a cigarette next to there bags with no one on the tee box, that's incredibly annoying! I also have a problem with obnoxious people rushing through a round If you want to get a quick round in, don't play on a Saturday morning and expect to push your way through. You hitting your teeshot whilst i'm waiting for the group in front to move, so i can take my second will always mean i'm not letting you play through.

 

[North Mimms]

Don't think I have ever seen players just standing on the tee doing nothing, unless they are waiting for the group ahead to get out of range!

Really?
It's amazing how long a group of 4 blokes can take to decide who is going to play, or just have to have a chat or finish the joke...
As far as I'm concerned, you walk off green , walk to next tee and someone should be standing on tee with club in hand within 10 seconds

I've been playing to the 7th green assuming that the group on the 8th tee are waiting for group ahead, then reach my green and look down their fairway to see group ahead on 9th tee!

 

[delc]

Really?
It's amazing how long a group of 4 blokes can take to decide who is going to play, or just have to have a chat or finish the joke...
As far as I'm concerned, you walk off green , walk to next tee and someone should be standing on tee with club in hand within 10 seconds

I've been playing to the 7th green assuming that the group on the 8th tee are waiting for group ahead, then reach my green and look down their fairway to see group ahead on 9th tee!

We tend to play "ready golf" at our club!

 

[North Mimms]

We tend to play "ready golf" at our club!

You might, but we have a core membership of ditherers!

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Sorry but slow play spoils people's enjoyment of golf

The answer isn't - deal with it , it's find out why people were having to wait on each shot and change that reason

Sometimes people just need to be told

The problem is most clubs aren't interested and too many members are entrenched in their habits. If the club doesn't make the effort then the members won't and even then the club needs to make it a long term commitment and not a quick fix or knee jerk reaction. As it happens, pace of play isn't a problem at my place so I've not any particular axe to grind but I've been at others where it is. As a guest and fresh eyes you can see the issues but what can you do other than mention it to your playing partner

 

[richy]

Richly was being sarcastic

Thanks Phil. At least some people are sharp enough

 

[Fish]

The problem is most clubs aren't interested and too many members are entrenched in their habits. If the club doesn't make the effort then the members won't and even then the club needs to make it a long term commitment and not a quick fix or knee jerk reaction. As it happens, pace of play isn't a problem at my place so I've not any particular axe to grind but I've been at others where it is. As a guest and fresh eyes you can see the issues but what can you do other than mention it to your playing partner

As I've said earlier, I think clubs can help more by spreading comps out, you could have a monthly medal start from 7.00 (summer) until 1pm on both Saturday & Sunday leaving the afternoons for the social golfers and that way you haven't got a a rammed full field on a single day, it may attract more entrants as there would be more tee times available but spread over 2 shorter days rather than 1 could go some way to alleviating the problem?

 

[Slab]

I believe that clubs & courses themselves are a far bigger problem/contributor to a slow pace of play and are probably quite happy that players continue to blame one another

 

[ColchesterFC]

Maybe the answer to all this is to have a Par 3 as the first hole. Quite often golfers on the 1st tee will hit as soon as the group ahead are out of range, and this means that the 8/10 minute gap between groups is already reduced. With a Par 3 first up the group behind has to wait for the green to clear before they can play. By the time they have hit and walked to the green the first group should all have teed off and be walking down the fairway on the second. By the time the second group have putted and walked to the second tee the first group should've played and be walking towards the green. This should cause a natural spacing throughout the day.

 

[dufferman]

Maybe the answer to all this is to have a Par 3 as the first hole. Quite often golfers on the 1st tee will hit as soon as the group ahead are out of range, and this means that the 8/10 minute gap between groups is already reduced. With a Par 3 first up the group behind has to wait for the green to clear before they can play. By the time they have hit and walked to the green the first group should all have teed off and be walking down the fairway on the second. By the time the second group have putted and walked to the second tee the first group should've played and be walking towards the green. This should cause a natural spacing throughout the day.

That might be good for new courses, but I can't see my course building a new tee box halfway up the 1st fairway and dropping a shot on the course...

 

[ColchesterFC]

That might be good for new courses, but I can't see my course building a new tee box halfway up the 1st fairway and dropping a shot on the course...

I understand where you're coming from but what about building a new green halfway up the 1st fairway and moving the 2nd tee back to add a shot to that hole? That way you don't lose a shot from the course. I know not all courses could do it, especially where the first two holes run parallel to each other, but could be a solution for some courses.

 

[Slab]

I understand where you're coming from but what about building a new green halfway up the 1st fairway and moving the 2nd tee back to add a shot to that hole? That way you don't lose a shot from the course. I know not all courses could do it, especially where the first two holes run parallel to each other, but could be a solution for some courses.

Might work on the odd course but if its not the first hole that's the cause of the course 'choke point'â„¢ then it doesn't actually fix that courses slow pace problem

 

[ColchesterFC]

Might work on the odd course but if its not the first hole that's the cause of the course 'choke point'â„¢ then it doesn't actually fix that courses slow pace problem

Possibly, but if it maintained the gaps between groups starting by forcing them not to tee off as soon as the group ahead are out of range then hopefully as groups approach what is traditionally the 'choke point'â„¢ they should be more spread out and ease the pressure on that bit of the course.

 

[louise_a]

Our first is a par 3 but we still get backlogs.

 

[Slab]

Possibly, but if it maintained the gaps between groups starting by forcing them not to tee off as soon as the group ahead are out of range then hopefully as groups approach what is traditionally the 'choke point'â„¢ they should be more spread out and ease the pressure on that bit of the course.

Doesn't make any difference, if the course choke point occurs on a hole that takes 13 minutes to play through and your shiney new par 3 1st hole means groups are going out 9 minutes apart. By the time 20 groups have reached the choke point its stacked up like the landing pattern at Malaga airport

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Maybe the answer to all this is to have a Par 3 as the first hole. Quite often golfers on the 1st tee will hit as soon as the group ahead are out of range, and this means that the 8/10 minute gap between groups is already reduced. With a Par 3 first up the group behind has to wait for the green to clear before they can play. By the time they have hit and walked to the green the first group should all have teed off and be walking down the fairway on the second. By the time the second group have putted and walked to the second tee the first group should've played and be walking towards the green. This should cause a natural spacing throughout the day.

Funny enough our opener off the whites is a 229 yard par 3. Not easy but as you rightly say with everyone having to wait for the green to clear we tend to stick to the ten minute slots. With the second being a par 5, the group in front are normally playing their seconds if not walking on time the group behind come onto the tee and so the round flows.

Problems tend to occur at our 6th (178 yard par 3) which seems to be a bottleneck but again once that's negotiated it runs fairly smoothly. Four hours is the norm and we tend to stick to it (if not a fraction under) for both social and competitive rounds so I can't really complain. There are times when you do get a group (we have a small roll up that goes out before ours at weekends that are notorious but refuse to take any notice of requests to speed up) that can cause an issue but by and large all's good

 

[delc]

Maybe the answer to all this is to have a Par 3 as the first hole. Quite often golfers on the 1st tee will hit as soon as the group ahead are out of range, and this means that the 8/10 minute gap between groups is already reduced. With a Par 3 first up the group behind has to wait for the green to clear before they can play. By the time they have hit and walked to the green the first group should all have teed off and be walking down the fairway on the second. By the time the second group have putted and walked to the second tee the first group should've played and be walking towards the green. This should cause a natural spacing throughout the day.

Par 3's do tend to be bottlenecks, because only one group can play them at a time. Our long par-3 6th hole often causes a hold up, particularly as some players need more than one shot to get there. Don't know what you can do about this, other than banning Par-3's! Maybe making them call up holes might help, but I suspect that 'Ealth 'n Safety' and the risk of players been hit by golf balls as they wait by the green might preclude this! :mmm:

 

[chellie]

Surely a starter on the first tee on competition days ensuring people tee off at the correct time and not early could help.

 

[Deleted member 15344]

Would either be a cost implication or a volunteer required not hard to find for clubs these days