• We'd like to take this opportunity to wish you a Happy Holidays and a very Merry Christmas from all at Golf Monthly. Thank you for sharing your 2025 with us!

Slow play moaners

I think there's a huge difference between being held up because a group is deliberately slowing things down and the course just simply being busy.

If there was clear holes in front I'd let the faster group through. However, if there was not gaps then I'd tell them that's the situation.
..and then - if they were a smaller/faster group - offer to let them through :)
 
I like to play at a reasonable pace without being rushed and I am aware of pace of play - especially if there's a group behind. I'l take my share of the burden to speed up play in terms of giving a gentle encouragement to folk and playing out of turn if necessary.

I would let a group through unless there were fewer players in that group or if we were looking for a ball - I'd call up the group behind.

I wouldn't really expect to get let through unless in similar circumstances. I wouldn't shout anything and in reality I'd probably just settle into a slower pace rather than playing all that quickly and waiting on every tee / fairway.

At this time of year, assuming there are no competitions on, I'd reckon 3.5 hours is as long as it would take. We played last month - 5 ball - in 3 hours. Obviously not holing out everything, which saves a decent amount of time.
 
In what circumstances would a smaller/faster group not have priority over your larger/slower group (excepting the circumstance where you are playing in a competition and they are not, and your club gives priority to groups playing in competition - though still not sure why you'd not choose to let them through)

Where a club decides that smaller (& likely faster) groups have less priority

Where does it say that?

Saw it on a scorecard for a club, priority was 4-ball, 3-ball, 2-ball, in that order
 
Yes that’s exactly what I mean...it’ll speed the group in front up no end, thus speeding up the whole field ?‍♂️
Not if they get hit by a 'great drive'l when 'just out of range'!

FWIW. Slow play can also be attributed to insufficient gaps between tee times. Group flow, around a golf course, is quite analogous to the way traffic flows (on one lane each way road) and that certainly flows slower with greater density - as do multi-lane each way roads, but throughput generally increases!
 
Last edited:
Not if they get hit by a 'great drive'l when 'just out of range'!

FWIW. Slow play can also be attributed to insufficient gaps between tee times. Group flow, around a golf course, is quite analogous to the way traffic blows - and that certainly flows slower with greater density!
Read my original point ?
 
Where a club decides that smaller (& likely faster) groups have less priority



Saw it on a scorecard for a club, priority was 4-ball, 3-ball, 2-ball, in that order
Wow, that is quite a throwback. Most clubs in the UK have ditched the whole priority and and no standing issue. The only exemption tends to be people in competitions have priority, something I personally disagree with but there you go.

I would be surprised if many have a priority list like the one you have described.
 
Wow, that is quite a throwback. Most clubs in the UK have ditched the whole priority and and no standing issue. The only exemption tends to be people in competitions have priority, something I personally disagree with but there you go.

I would be surprised if many have a priority list like the one you have described.
Seaton Carew up to 2 years ago and possibly still in place. (y)
 
Read my original point ?
1. Both 'conditions' in your original post are not always 'true'!
2. Allowance (for safety) needs to be made for the 'Great Drive' possibility I stated.

The possibility of hitting golfers in front should never be disregarded - for any reason!
Perhaps a 'provided they are definitely out of range' would have been a 'better' wording?
 
Wow, that is quite a throwback. Most clubs in the UK have ditched the whole priority and and no standing issue. The only exemption tends to be people in competitions have priority, something I personally disagree with but there you go.

I would be surprised if many have a priority list like the one you have described.

Just found a scorecard in my desk (I admit its been there at least 18 months so might've changed) and a 4.00-4:30 pace, with carts
20200203_145813_resized.jpg

I dunno but the priority is probably driven by a desire to get as many players out as possible, i.e if a 2-ball know they cant just blast through a field of 4-balls they might as well get a another pair to join (& the field doesnt need to worry about a pair racing through)
 
1. Both 'conditions' in your original post are not always 'true'!
2. Allowance (for safety) needs to be made for the 'Great Drive' possibility I stated.

The possibility of hitting golfers in front should never be disregarded - for any reason!
Perhaps a 'provided they are definitely out of range' would have been a 'better' wording?
It means wait til your time, don’t just play when they are out of reach. Otherwise you just get log jams out on the course, particularly on par 3’s.

Are you always a contrarian or just on a golf forum?
I bet you are bloody hard work to live or work with!

After all several other posters understood exactly what was meant!
 
But this is the social aspect of golf. That's exactly what I like. Plus at our age, we need eight eyes to see where the ball went.
Not playing ready golf is nothing to do with being social, it's more to do with stuffiness and being old-fashioned. I would have thought the socially responsible thing to do would be to let people play as they are ready to do so, so they're not standing around waiting for someone else to arrive at their ball and play.
 
Do they give priority to 4 balls over 3 and 2 or is it just a matter of single golfers having no standing?
Single player has no standing ever, priority of others depends on comp, no priority between 2/3/4 Balls during social play.
 
The decision by some not to let a faster group through because they have nowhere to go is a little odd in my opinion. First of all it seems a bit odd that someone would actually make that decision. Do they actually know that the group in front won't let them through at an appropriate time, and so on up the field? Secondly, does it hurt to let a group through? You wait less than 10 mins before you can resume play, and you have the added benefit of not having a quick group immediately behind you.

I know its quite prevalent in golf these days, the we're not letting them through because they have nowhere to go, but I think its short sighted and selfish.
 
Not playing ready golf is nothing to do with being social, it's more to do with stuffiness and being old-fashioned. I would have thought the socially responsible thing to do would be to let people play as they are ready to do so, so they're not standing around waiting for someone else to arrive at their ball and play.

Totally disagree.
Fortunately, you don't have to play our way and we don't have to play your way.
 
Totally disagree.
Fortunately, you don't have to play our way and we don't have to play your way.
I honestly can't see how playing 'ready golf' is less sociable. It's simply a change in the order we play when order doesn't matter. And in social golf order doesn't really matter - if we are honest. Sure if I charged up the fairway ahead of my mates and played as soon as I got to my ball and headed off to the green by myself then that would be rather unsociable of me - but that's not how it works...and I am sure my buddies would ask me some serious questions about what the heck I was up to...
 
It means wait til your time, don’t just play when they are out of reach. Otherwise you just get log jams out on the course, particularly on par 3’s.
..
That's clearer! Though please explain how 'it will speed the group in front up no end'!

FWIW, I don't believe playing ahead of tee time does create 'logjams' - provided the group in front is sufficiently out of reach - and one old club actually specified what that was. While I do agree that starting 'ahead of your time' can cause a bottle-neck, my experience is that this generally only happens with ('uneducated') groups like swindles/roll-ups. Once those groups realise that there's no real benefit starting early (simply creating a compression of their group and a gap behind it) they, generally, obey the tee times. The first Par 3 (in my club's case Hole #1!) normally sorts out such compression!. If subsequent 'logjams' are common, it suggests, to me, that tee-time intervals are too small!
 
Last edited:
I honestly can't see how playing 'ready golf' is less sociable. It's simply a change in the order we play when order doesn't matter. And in social golf order doesn't really matter - if we are honest. Sure if I charged up the fairway ahead of my mates and played as soon as I got to my ball and eaded off to the green then that would be rather unsociable - but that's not how it works...and I am sure my buddies would ask me some questions about what the heck I was up to...
This was my point, him saying it's for social reasons is laughable when really the opposite is true. Letting people play when they are ready is the more social thing to do. Playing in the 'correct' order is really only applicable in match play. And playing ready golf doesn't mean that you don't watch each other's shots either, so I don't know where he's got that from.
 
Top