Who's to blame?

[Imurg]

I know they have shared fairways and greens, but I read that Westwoods practice round earlier in the week took 5 and a half hours!

A practice round is always going to take longer because they'll hit 2 or 3 shots at certain times. also they'll putt several times on each green to areas where the pins are normally placed.

 

[stevek1969]

I'm just home after playing in this years North of Ireland championship, over the two courses at Portrush. I was paired off with 2 other guy's. On the 1st day on Dunluce it took us 5 an a half hours, 2nd day (Valley) 4 an a half hours. I know that might not sound slow, but beleive me when playing at that speed it seems like forever. After 6 holes on the 1st day we had lost a hole, only because the guys in fornt came to a standstill we'd of lost more.
The highest handicapper in the field was 3 so we're not talking high handicappers holding up play here. I was watching in amazement at some of the antics of the guys I was playing with, one of them walked 30 yards, other side of green to line up a putt. Not only that he walked into a bunker to get a better reading, then had to rake the bunker before taking his putt. It seemed to me that everything in the book's that they had ever read or ever been told all had to go through their brains before they even thought about hitting the ball. Maybe thats were I'm going wrong. I find the more I think about it the more I'll make a mess of things.
So where does all this slowness come from? Is it the Pro's we watch on TV? Is it the coaches who teach us swings and drills? Or is it the players themselves making sure they give it all they have?
Your thoughts please

I know how you feel i recenty played The Valley at Portrush and was 5 1/2 hours to go round at the par 3 7th which is 236 yards if i mind right there was 3 groups standing there when we got there, the guy on the green thought he was Spiderman the way he was lining his putt it was shocking.
The womens game has a lot to blame for this they get there caddies to line everything up for them its ridiclous, in the Solhiem Cup, Wie got her caddie to line her up to hit 10 yards from th erough to the fairway.
I playedon Monday night with IM01,Dodger and his dad and where round comfortably in 3 1/2 hours the group behind us came in 3/4 hour later how can they be so far behind ?

 

[Kellfire]

I try to keep my usual playing partner ticking along but he's generally a slower player than me; he'll look for lost causes for too long, he gets himself a bit wound up on occasion which leads to three hacked shots where one calm shot would've got him just as far but I'm a very impatient player. There are times when I have honours where I'll step up, tee and then look round to see him standing there smoking. He'll finish his fag, stub it out, find somewhere to drop it away from the tee, then decide on his club... ARGGGGGGGH.

 

[clubchamp07]

I have watched many a guy play shots and at times I wonder what the hell is going through their heads before they hit the ball. If I took as lok, I'd forget why I was there.
I dont mind 4 hour rounds, but whenever the course is empty, why do people still want to take 4+ hours. Are they not allowed to go home early?

 

[GasMan]

The main contributor to slow play is the simple pig headed ignorance of people who won't let others play through! I refuse to tee off any later than 9am on a weekend on either of our courses for this simple fact.

There unfortunately still seems to be an elitist view from a lot of older golfers that it's beneath them to let anybody play through as they believe they are above the common folk chasing them round as they lose more and more ground on the group in front. People like this tend to get handed a little photocopied blurb about etiquette and keeping pace with the group in front if we catch them up at a tee and they have passed up opportunities to invite us through. It REALLY pisses them off and I have had a fair few mouthfuls from stuck up their own arse OAPs but the under 30s at our club have had enough. We work too many hours during the week to have 5+ hours of our Saturday/Sunday wasted by them. Fortunately I know the one's who've made complaints have been referred to the etiquette section regarding slow play.

The other thing at our place is nobody over the age of 40 seems to understand the concept of ringing bells on the blind holes or adhering to the signs at the "call up" par 3s where the local rule is you MUST let the following group tee off after you have marked your balls on the green.

Unfortunately unless you take an obnoxious approach to people who hold the entire course up and stick a few noses out of joint things will not change.

 

[Leftie]

The main contributor to slow play is the simple pig headed ignorance of people who won't let others play through!

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

It's not keeping up with the group in front that could be the problem and if all groups in front are having a slow round because of any number of factors then, quite bluntly, tough. Letting a group through can actually add 5/10 minutes on every following group's time on the course.

I refuse to tee off any later than 9am on a weekend on either of our courses for this simple fact.

So those teeing off before 9am will call you through but those after won't

There unfortunately still seems to be an elitist view from a lot of older golfers that it's beneath them to let anybody play through as they believe they are above the common folk chasing them round

The other thing at our place is nobody over the age of 40 seems to understand the concept of ringing bells on the blind holes or adhering to the signs at the "call up" par 3s where the local rule is you MUST let the following group tee off after you have marked your balls on the green.

Ah! Another "It's never my age group that's the problem. Let's blame the OAP's and older players" post. You and another well known Forumer should get together

The number of times I, as a (ahem) more mature player, have been held up at weekends by (a certain few) juniors and people not old enough to be their parents are far too numerous to mention. They seem to think that stalking the putts from all angles and taking 5/10/20 practice swings (and still hitting a cr*p shot) is the right thing to do. You won't see the old f*rts doing that! Seniors may not hit the ball as far as you might but they rarely have to look for it and are quite deadly from 100 yds in. The only thing that they might do slowly is walking between shots and the frequent comfort stops.

[/QUOTE]

Unfortunately unless you take an obnoxious approach to people who hold the entire course up and stick a few noses out of joint things will not change.

Get a life, or take up another game.