R&A survey to tackle the pace of play problem

[MadAdey]

Although I agree, if the ball is almost certainly not findable and if it is its unplayable why not hit the provisional, give a cursory glance for the original of maybe no more than 20 seconds. Move on if its not obviously visible.
In rough that deep you need the ball to be easily found to be able to play it with any authority.
If its not sitting pretty then you're not getting it out.
A quick look, if its not obvious move on and take the medicine.
Searching in knee high rough for a ball that you either won't find or can't play is a waste of time.

Even though I agree in principal and in bounce games I'll not bother having much of a search if it's in the jungle, if I'm in a medal going down the 17th with a good score, I'm going to have my full 5 mins. But even just having a quick look can soon start to add up if you had a group spraying the ball around off the tee.

several things are needed to speed up play and green keepers not being lazy and keeping the rough to an ankle deep length can definately help.

 

[El Bandito]

For me, the predominance of stroke play medal in competitions is an issue. For the reasons above, many people insist on looking for the ball, not wanting to NR etc.

For certain hours each day, you cannot book a tee at my place, it is ball in chute. Normally, you will introduce yourself to the FCs and someday will say loser buy the drinks? Or some other small wager. Then there will be chat about the format. NEVER have I heard the answer 'oh let's play stroke play medal'

rough control I think is a time/money issue for clubs and a (misplaced in my view) belief that older shorter courses need penal rough to protect them from new equipment

i imagine all clubs are mixed handicap, and we want to encourage people to play, so they should be. I think more variety in format would help. More expected times on cards and boards. More focus on measuring and resolving the issue rather than bleating about it

 

[patricks148]

Kind of agree about the rough. Rough should be penal, but it should cost you yardage and accuracy, not 5 minutes and a ball. Fair enough if you miss the fairway by a country mile, you can't argue about that.

Played at Royal Dornoch recently and if you went offline then 9 times out of ten you still had a shot, albeit a tricky one that would leave you happy with bogey (very happy in my book). That's one of the best courses on the planet and they don't need 3ft of rough to give you a test. 36 holes and I lost 2 balls, had a terrific test of my game and thoroughly enjoyed myself, that's the way golf should be.

Only thing with Dornoch is its got other things to protect the course, so doesn't need much in the way of deep stuff, though there is plenty on the course.
put it this way if im playing a guy and giving say 15 shots, he spays it around the course but can find his ball and has a good lie to boot. so what the punishment for a bad shot???

it might slow things up if you don't hit a provisional, but if i hit the ball straight i want to be rewarded for it .