Slow play…….

[Oddsocks]

Since slow play has become the hot topic in recent years, I’ve really struggled to see what the exact cause is and the timeline in which it changed.

As a kid (94-97) we would play a 4 ball in around 3 hours, all carrying with varying handicaps between 10 and low 20’s. Any comp rounds seem to take about 30-45 mins longer (card in hand)

Around the same time I caddied weekends as a kid at the Addington. The regular group was made up of an early 50’s guy off 10 who was pretty fit, a late 60’s ex footballer with blown knees off 12 and the other two in their 70’s both off late teens. They would always play white tees, three having trolleys with me as the only caddy and a round would never take longer than 3.45 which around there and for their age I thought was pretty good going. Since playing and being at my lowest (7) I have never played a round on the same course and got around in less that 4.5hrs… why?

The common factor of faster play was that the rounds were generally pairs match play with sensible gimmies (putter grip was auto given with up to two grips questioned). With the new fashion of golf being everyone entering scores, working out points etc just seems to slow stuff up and is it possible that WHS with general play cards further impacting this?

As a kid I can never remember the groups I caddied for ever discussing how many points or how many over gross they were, it’s was simply bragging rights of £2.50/£2.50 for each 9 and £5.00 overall. As a player it was bragging rights playing for the cheesy chips and a coke after, we only ever noted points in comps.

So the question is, had the need to count points or strokes on every round actually the true factor in slow play?

 

[Neilds]

There is no one answer but I will await some of the wackier suggestions.....

 

[Slab]

You don't mention what distance you were covering for these rounds/courses? For all we know 3.45 might be on the painful side of slow

 

[Crazyface]

From what I've noticed, slow play is down to people fannying about on the tee. Lord in heaven it's like they are scared to play the damn game. I've smashed the ball in the general direction of the flag before they've wrote the score down, discussed the last hole, and a million other things.....

 

[Deleted member 23270]

Slow play in golf is just an extension of modern life. Lack of awareness and consideration for others.

 

[Mandofred]

At my last club they made a couple of efforts to correct behaviors. One was slow speed. They started putting out a bunch of emails, posted signs with recommendations to speed play up etc etc. More people started nagging other players when they were being pretty slow.....it helped. I know at times if I was in a group I would make comments about falling behind the group in front and we needed to pick things up a bit. Some people resisted...but with some quiet comments about keeping up...things got better. We would also start doing things like sending whoever was first to hole out over to the next tee to save time just standing around watching the others putting....that would offend some people who think you HAVE to stand respectfully until everybody is done....but poo on that.

 

[theoneandonly]

I think slow golfers don't realise they're slow or really care . A good friend of mine is so slow it's painful, but you can't tell him. He just says he's not out to rush.

 

[Imurg]

When I started (1994) the weekend rollup went out in 4 balls from 8. Gimmees as applicable.
We were always back in by 11.30 - to be fair it was a fairly short course with short walks between greens and tees
Competition rounds always took over 4 hours, sometimes more and I remember a long par 3 over water where 3 groups could be waiting on the tee
Ball in the hole, walk of shame, being a bit more careful...it all adds up
Throw in some slow play and there's your 5 hour round.
At the current club, me, CVG and Fragger can get round in under 3 1/2 hours if the way is clear....comp or general play.
We find a general lack of awareness on the course, a lack of etiquette especially letting faster groups through, a lack skill in some - not their fault but more shots equals more time - and some very, very long pre-shot routines ( from all abilities)
This can only have come from watching the Pros.
Back in the day they got on with it. I don't know when longer PSRs became the thing in Pro golf but by the start of the 2000s it was into amateur golf.
3, 4 or more practice swings that look nothing like the actual one, lining up lines on balls and then changing it and changing it again, "golfing experiences" such as 20-30 second waits between setting up and hitting....
All these add time
Most of them didn't happen in the early 90s

 

[Neilds]

Slow play in golf is just an extension of modern life. Lack of awareness and consideration for others.

Are we talking slow golfers or just people that may play a bit slower than you? Consideration in society goes both ways and some people may have longer to be out in the fresh air and not need to be back in the house within 3 hours. They may see their golf as social time and don't want people driving the green just as they are putting the flag in, etc

This is just a view on the issue and does not in anyway condone those who dawdle around for 5 hours!

 

[Deleted member 29109]

I’ve noticed at my place there are a large number of people who feel the need to move around the course as a group of 3 or 4. They watch every shot, stand and watch someone rake a bunker before walking to their balls. It’s maddening.
And they seem to have no awareness or care that they are holding people up.

 

[sunshine]

The good old slow play debate.

I think slow play has little to do with pre-shot routines, or time spent reading and lining up putts.

My view is that it's largely down to ball watching. Players who stand around watching their playing partners' shots, and then only start thinking about their shot when it's their turn. And pausing for a chat on the tee... golf is a sociable game, but usually you can have that conversation after you've hit your tee shots and are walking down the fairway.

 

[Neilds]

The good old slow play debate.

I think slow play has little to do with pre-shot routines, or time spent reading and lining up putts.

My view is that it's largely down to ball watching. Players who stand around watching their playing partners' shots, and then only start thinking about their shot when it's their turn. And pausing for a chat on the tee... golf is a sociable game, but usually you can have that conversation after you've hit your tee shots and are walking down the fairway.

Not in my group - half the time we are only together on the tee and green

 

[Deleted member 23344]

What is considered a slow round varies from person to person. I am retired and I commit the day to golf, so I am in no rush. I am happy with a 4 hour round. To me, a slow round is 4.5 hours plus. To others, my 4 hours is a slow round. Whether you think any particular length of round is slow depends upon a range of criteria personal to you.

 

[Slab]

So many reasons that contribute towards a ‘general’ increase in round times from the OP’s card in hand 3;45 as a kid with boundless energy, to what many folks experience today

Its caused by slow players and courses that play slow, and worst of all is when a slow player plays a course that plays slow

 

[Alan Clifford]

It would be best if the person with the shortest drive (probably me) tees off first and gets ready to march down the fairway whilst the big boys are doing their thing.

 

[Deleted member 25172]

The 3 most common things I find that slow things down:

1. Looking for lost balls for way too long.
2. People walking together all the way, stopping to watch the other players taking their shot, before walking up to their own ball.
3. Story tellers who on the tee cannot stop until the story is finished before you're "allowed" to take your shot.

 

[WGCRider]

I think the clubs have some responsibility here. A club near me has 8min between tee times - on the weekend that means over 5 hours a round. Early morning mid-week you can play the same course in 3.5 hours.
Years ago I remember 15 min between tee times being common now it's almost always 10 or less.

 

[jim8flog]

As a club we have tried very hard to get players to play Ready Golf but it only takes one person in a group to not do it and it all falls down. Any groups is only as fast the the slowest player in it

I know 3 very seriously slow players and we have tried to get them to speed up.

One says there is nothing wrong with slow play so we tried hard to get him to call the group behind through.

One always says it is someone else's fault when we fall behind the group in front. We have been successful in some ways to get him to speed up but it only lasts a short time before he falls back in to his old ways. Things like wanting to watch everybody else play their shots before he starts to consider what he is going to do and he has a very slow routine any such a lasers every single shot even when just 30 yards off the green , we all joke about when is he going to bring out the laser on the putting green. We as a group (when he is in it ) are always being moaned at for slow play by nearly all the groups behind us.

The third is just plain slow with everything he does and nothing seems to work.

 

[Slab]

I couldn’t tell you even roughly how long it took me to walk to school each day
I couldn’t tell you how long it took me when my mum told me to go to the local shop to get a bag of flour and “hurry up about it” because she needed it right now!

And perhaps not surprisingly… when I played the odd round of golf in my youth I have absolutely no recollection of how long it took, seriously I couldn’t tell you even approximately what the duration was. It would never even have occurred to me that nugget of info might one day be useful to remember

What was it about rounds from yesteryear that makes the duration so memorable for some people that it can be recalled 30 years later ?

 

[Orikoru]

I don't know. You always get the old boys who say in their day a four-ball would get round in 2.5 hours or something daft, and I just don't see how it's possible unless they were on rollerskates. To me a four-ball at a decent length course takes 4 hours. That's just how long it takes. My course is short so with my normal three-ball we can get round in 3 hours, provided there's no one in front of us, which is often the case if we play in the afternoon. But for the majority I would think 4-ball 4 hours, 3-ball 3.5 hours, 2-ball 3 hours.