Manners V's Slow play ??

bladeplayer

bladeplayer

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Our 12th is a shortish par 4 , i can drive the distance most times off the whites & alot of the time off our blue medal tee,s.. we will use blue for this question . .. I get to the tee & the group ahead are walking on to the green so out of manners i wait til they are finished to play just in case .. MANNERS.. because ive waited the group behind are coming to the tee as we are walking off , they see no one else on the hole & wonder what the hold up is , SLOW PLAY.. What should i do ?? play or wait ? seems either way i chance upsetting some one .. esp if i wait & dont make it , the group behind wonder whats going on .. i hear people say lay up , but this is index 17 & the only advantage i MIGHT have over the 17h'capper is that i can get it on or close & up my chances of birdie or mayb eagle .. what ye think??
 
In these situations I usually wait but tell whoever Im playing with to walk ahead. Means I can catch up pretty quickly and also makes it plainly obvious to the group behind what is going on.

That said, more courses should appreciate which of their par 4s are driveable and make them call up holes (ie once all 4 are on the putting green they should step aside and let the group behind drive), especially in club comps.
 
It's not about manners or slow play it is about safety.

It isn't rude to bomb a drive into a group, it is dangerous.

Of course, you should wait.
 
If you are not confident enough in making the drive most of the time especially under pressure I would just lay up and leave a wedge in. If you are then just relax and play it and it will be obvious once they see the entire hole what you were doing.
 
I would wait,unless they let you drive off before continuing the hole.Then you could mention to the players coming up you are going to let them drive too before continuing yourselves.As you consistently drive the hole,the best option is to wait.I dont thinks its manners or slow play,just good golfing ettiquette.
 
I'm not sure this is the right way of thinking, but I'd decide based on how your ball will arrive there.

If it's like the 9th at Beau where you'll try to land on the green then it's an obvious 'wait'.

There is a hole where I play that a good one that lands in the fairway might get there. I might reach the green once or twice out of ten tries, and when the ball reaches the green it's only going to be rolling and isn't going to hurt anyone.
Fair enough, it's not nice to have a ball roll up when you're putting, but every time I've reached with a group on the green I've gone to apologise on the following tee and got the response "Don't be silly mate, that was a great drive".
 
Ask you club to make it a call up hole where the group in front reach the green then call the group behind to tee off. We have this on a couple of holes and it keeps the pace of play up and keeps everyone safe.
 
Our 5th is designated a call-up hole on the scorecard - it's completely ignored. I've never been called-up and I've never called anyone up. It just doesn't happen.
 
If you want to go for the green you are entitled to play the shot you want to play and if you think you can reach then in my view you should wait.

Personally I don't really like balls rolling onto the green when I'm putting even if it is a great shot although I know it happens unintentionally. However, I don't mind waiting because the group in front are playing properly and respecting other players. Waiting for the green to clear is in that category. That isn't "slow play" in my book.

Slow play is not being ready to hit when it's your turn, dawdling, marking cards on greens, leaving trolleys in front of greens, etc. That is annoying.
 
Play it how you want to. If the others in your group aren't going for the green, let them play first. Providing you haven't been holding the group behind up on the way round then they shouldn't have a problem. We use to have a few bottlenecks on the old Royal Ascot course where some of the par 4's were driveable. Personally I never had an issue. The pace tends to spread itself back out again anyway
 
The first at our place is exactly the same.

I think the club should make a call on it and make it a call up hole.

I'd wait. A few seconds/minutes isn't going to hold up play too much.

Just make sure you don't knob it off the tee. Then everyone behind will wonder why you waited.......
 
Our 3 long par 3's are all driveable (or long iron/3 woodable (if thats even a word)) and our club rules state if they are on the green, the next group can tee off. I guess this applies to the shortish par 4's too.

This speeds up play considerably, and as the drive is likely to land before the green and roll on there isnt an issue of it caning someone on the full.

So i expect to see drives coming onto the green when im putting. This is normally to me being my first club so dont have an objection to it. When my mates played there last weekend they felt it was a little weird and couldnt get used to it though.
 
I don't get that at all....

You're happy to see a ball come trundling through, past your feet while you're about to try to sink a birdie putt for 4 points..???
That has to put anyone off if it comes through as you're actually putting.
And you wouldn't be very impressed if the offending ball actually hit your ball just as it was about to dive in the hole from 35 feet.....

Unlikely but I bet it's happened.
 
We have a couple of call up holes on our course and I find it the ideal time to let people play through, the fourth is a par 3, which is call up, the fifth is a long par 5, so when we have a buggy behind us, we use the fourth to let them close up, and let them know that we will let them though at the fifth, then we tee off the fifth, get walking, and look back and step aside when they reach the tee. No one gets held up and the buggies get past at an easy place. I cant walk faster than a buggy, so I dont like holding them up.
 
I don't get that at all....

You're happy to see a ball come trundling through, past your feet while you're about to try to sink a birdie putt for 4 points..???
That has to put anyone off if it comes through as you're actually putting.
And you wouldn't be very impressed if the offending ball actually hit your ball just as it was about to dive in the hole from 35 feet.....

Unlikely but I bet it's happened.
Click to expand...

You are in a different position to me though. You've been playing for a while, I have only just started and this is the rule where I am learning my trade, so to speak.
I know no different, so for me its normal. Does it actually really happen that often (ball coming onto the green while putting?) no not really, but occassionally yea. I'd see it before it hit my ball and stop it doing so, so no big problem. Ive had balls hit my bag before.

Its the clubs rules, everyone accepts them and I havent heard anyone moan about them. Infact quite the opposite, if you dont tee off while theyre on the green the group behind are likely to say something like "time to tee off gentlemen"

As i said, it works and speeds up play.
 
We use to have a couple of call up holes but it never really seemed to make a difference. The 1st has become a sort of call up as the low sun in the morning makes it hard to see where the shots go so the groups in front have taken to putting out first and then ball spotting for the players teeing off.
 
Bizarre.....

If that's the rule then fair enough but it sounds a little strange to me, deliberately firing at a par 3 green while there's people still on it.
It's a little different if you accidently manage to drive through the group ahead as they're probably walking on and it's not going to interfere with a shot but I wouldn't like to routinely have balls running onto a green I'm still playing on.
 
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