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Cross your fingers please...

Smallville said:
Where did you play that took that long? Only time I've ever had a round like that was Sunflower Hills. I've had 3 hour nines and 6 hour 18's, but my only 7 hour round (3.5 hour nines) was at Sunflower.
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Tomahawk Hiils, We complained on the turn and they gave us a free 9 though. Dubs Dread is just as bad though. Took us 5.45 mins on tuesday also...
 
Interesting stuff.. I can see everyone's side of the argument.

I tend to golf around 100 currently, just started last year, and can say I have never been in a group of people and felt I or my group was slowing others down. Furthermore, I have seen great golfers out on the course taking forever to size up shots which is fine.

Trying to improve golfer's etiquette would be a better solution however there is NO solution that would resolve both sides of the issue..
 
Yeah, we need to keep those terrible golfers off our nicer courses. And the ones that aren't serious enough. And the ones that we don't like the look of. And the ones that are not on the same rung of the social and economic ladder as us. And the ones that don't dress the way we want them to. And the ones that cheat. And the ones that don't have forged irons. And the ones with silly animal headcovers.

Oh wait, there are places that do some of these things. They are called member only.
 
SW said:
Dude I could not disagree more with that. What is the point of having a game that excludes? Golf isn't really in the place to be turning people away or relegating them to the range. Who is going to go buy fancy new equipment to just beat ball after ball on the range? Not anyone I know.

If a course has issues with perpetual slow play then they either to have a reassessment on the amount of play or how times are spaced. If its because a course is to hard then maybe a redesign is in order, or adding in a set of tees that are a little more forgiving, make a few days a week semi-private or maybe just go private all together.

A local course here just started a "new to golf league" and so far it has been met with very good response from the public. I inquired about the average scores and thru 9 the average is well on its way to nearing if not over 120 for 18. Should those people be relagated to lessons and ranges? No. Golf is not all about the score to some people.

Taking away the chance for people to play the game makes zero sense no matter how you present it.

-
Tapatalk2
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I completely agree with everything you said. Well done.
 
paintitblack85 said:
I started playing Golf about 6 months ago and think i made quite some progress. But here in switzerland you can't just go out and play on the 18 or 9-hole courses. you have to pass a rule and a practical test before. i already passed the rule and etiquette test. now the practical test is tomorrow. You have to shoot a score of 30 or lower on a 6-hole PAR 18 course. When i am having a good day it should work alright. But if i am having a bad day......
so please cross your fingers for me so i can finally start playing on the real courses ;)
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Wow that's insane! Good luck
 
Best of luck PIB, I hope you rock it! Get out early, get warm and have fun with it. You've got this!

In regards to the discussion of these requirements, I'm conflicted. On one hand a private course can do whatever it wants, Augusta reminds us of that every year. On the flip-side, golf in the US has been in decline for roughly 10 years and to further restrict people from playing is only going to hurt the long-term viability of all the courses we have at our disposal. Widespread implementation of rules like this might even force some courses to shut down. Slow play may be annoying but restricting people from learning the game goes too far.
 
The requirement the OP has to meet is basically 50 over par for a single 18 holes on your average US course. 50. Five. Oh. I can't see how that would eliminate many golfers.


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But nonetheless, it does eliminate some, and, in my opinion, for a public golf course, that is unacceptable.
TwoGlovesGarcia said:
The requirement the OP has to meet is basically 50 over par for a single 18 holes on your average US course. 50. Five. Oh. I can't see how that would eliminate many golfers.


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It's been interesting to read the various comments and I can see both sides of the argument. I haven't hit to my handicap yet (I'm on the maximum of 28), which means I've never hit below 100 up to this point. However there are 2 ways to do that: one is to take 5, 6, 7 or more shots to hit the green, amybe spraying it around the fairway, therefore taking a while to get there and slowing things down; there's also my way, which is to take 2 or 3 shots to get to the green then mess up on the very short game. I walk the course and my average time to get around is 3.5 hours for 18 holes in a threesome, so we're not slow. Therefore handicap isn't necessarily a full indication of how well you can hit the ball and how long it takes to get around. On the other hand I can see why some courses may have a minimum handicap, and in fact there are a couple in my area.

As for implementing this system outside of Sweden, I suppose it all depends on the local setup. The etiquette/rules course is a great idea and is a much less contentious issue: there's a lot of people who I've seen on courses round here that could do with one of those. Quite often etiquette issues aren't due to people being a prat, it's just they're not aware of what they're supposed to to (or not) in certain circumstances.

The main issue though is the part where people aren't allowed to play the full-size courses until they meet the, admittedly generous, handicap requirements. If they have a good number of shorter, maybe par 3, courses around for those people to play, then fair enough. People who are learning the game have somewhere to play and develop their game without putting them at a disadvantage or holding up other players on the full courses. The problem is when you try to translate that to an area where you don't have those shorter courses available - it might seem like a good idea, but without the correct infrastructure in place to help the new golfers develop their game you'll just end up alienating people.
 
TheHeez said:
Best of luck PIB, I hope you rock it! Get out early, get warm and have fun with it. You've got this!

In regards to the discussion of these requirements, I'm conflicted. On one hand a private course can do whatever it wants, Augusta reminds us of that every year. On the flip-side, golf in the US has been in decline for roughly 10 years and to further restrict people from playing is only going to hurt the long-term viability of all the courses we have at our disposal. Widespread implementation of rules like this might even force some courses to shut down. Slow play may be annoying but restricting people from learning the game goes too far.
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Thank you very much guys. I passed the test. i shot 5 Bogeys and a triple bogey. Im looking forward finally beeing able to play on the longer courses.
 
paintitblack85 said:
Thank you very much guys. I passed the test. i shot 5 Bogeys and a triple bogey. Im looking forward finally beeing able to play on the longer courses.
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Congrats man, that is definitely playing under pressure!!
 
Glad you passed sir!
 
paintitblack85 said:
Thank you very much guys. I passed the test. i shot 5 Bogeys and a triple bogey. Im looking forward finally beeing able to play on the longer courses.
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Excellent news -- Enjoy playing!
 
Congrats! Hope you take a few pictures from a full round, I'd like to see one of the courses there.
 
Paint it Black
well done on passing.

As for the other discourse in this thread I think it can be down to several things .....people should know the etiquette.....people should play off the appropriate tees...or length of course......the handicap is there for a reason....not to act as an exclusion....if people used common sense.....just my two pennies worth....
 
Good luck.. we definitely should do something like that in the states

Tappin!
 
paintitblack85 said:
Thank you very much guys. I passed the test. i shot 5 Bogeys and a triple bogey. Im looking forward finally beeing able to play on the longer courses.
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Congrats! Now that you can play the courses you will really see your game improve. There is nothing like real world practice!
 
paintitblack85 said:
Thank you very much guys. I passed the test. i shot 5 Bogeys and a triple bogey. Im looking forward finally beeing able to play on the longer courses.
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Congrats man...have fun out there. :D
 
Congrats paintitblack
 
I wish you luck on the test man!

As for the system, it's great and horrible at the same time in my opinion. It's great because it could get a bunch of idiots off the course, prevent slow play, and overall educate golfers more about the game. It's horrible because it could prevent people from starting the game and give the game a reputation that it is "selective" and not something that is equal for all.
 
Congrats PIB.
 
Congrats on passing the test buddy and have fun out there on the full courses in your area. Here's a question for you though, what if I came to your city on vacation and wanted to golf while I was there? Would I have to pass some kind of test before I could go out and play?
 
JohnEB said:
That's a great question, coolbreeze. Are the different national handicap systems recognized by one another? So instead of a green card, you'd have to show your "greens card" to prove you were eligible to "work" (play golf) at that country or course.
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lol @ greens card. I think that must be what happens, you have to prove your HC somehow and then you can play.
 
coolbreeze said:
Congrats on passing the test buddy and have fun out there on the full courses in your area. Here's a question for you though, what if I came to your city on vacation and wanted to golf while I was there? Would I have to pass some kind of test before I could go out and play?
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Great question, coolbreeze. When you're visiting a different country they often accept your driver's license for purposes of renting a car (I haven't traveled and rented enough to know if tests are required sometimes). I wonder if providing a handicap card would work?
 
Big congrats buddy, and I am also wondering how people from other countries would be able to play. What if they don't have an official handicap?
 
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