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telling your group to pick it up

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Art M

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I don't usually put too much thought into pace of play except that i hate, on occasion, when my group is slow. 3-4 practice swings, not playing ready golf, looking for a ball for 5 minutes...It does adversely impact my game. That's my problem. But yesterday i played alone in just over 2.5 hours, 7300 yards. one person, me in the cart, no practice swings, no mulligans, i did have to look for balls often because it was very tricky to see the ball against the overcast sky, but i kept it to less than a minute. i suppose we all play with our partners for the camaraderie. Do you tell your partners to pick it up when they are slow? If so, how do you word it as to not offend them? Do they oblige or tell you to piss off? or do you just accept it as "your" problem
 
If it is necessary, I say something to the entire group like "Hey guys, WE need to pick up the pace."
 
I am always telling my group to hurry up.
 
Yep, ArmyGolf is never shy about saying "we need to pick up the pace" if things bog down. :D I've been known to make similar comments from time to time as well. Gotta try and be nice about it though.
 
I usually use something like, "We're about a half-hole behind guys, let's see if we can catch up."
 
NO one like to be told they are slow or to pick up the pace. If I feel we are falling behind, I push ready golf and tell the group 'we have to pickup the pace picante'. It's a fun play on words and get my point with calling anyone out (Seth)
 
SkiBumGolfer said:
Yep, ArmyGolf is never shy about saying "we need to pick up the pace" if things bog down. :D I've been known to make similar comments from time to time as well. Gotta try and be nice about it though.
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Haha yep. I've been told I'm borderline rude about it so I'll try work on that. 9/10 guys double their pace upon being told they are playing slow.
 
Oh hell yes, we have 1 guy in our group that is constantly side tracked in some conversation. I am the 1st to say 'HEY' we gotta go
 
I will use a comment such as "Empty tee box ahead", "There is a hole open in front of us", or ask a question "Anyone seen the group in front of us for a while". Anything to suggest we need to pick up the pace of play.
 
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I try to simply say "I think we need to pick it up fellas." but more often than not, I just try to play ready golf and hope people take the hint.

If one of my buddies is in the woods, still searching for his ball ... I'll hit mine before going over to assist. Also, if it looks like I pushed my ball deep into the woods, I just chalk it up as "I didn't deserve to finish the round with that ball anyways." and take my two stroke penalty and drop (if I forgot to hit a provisional) to keep things moving along. If I'm a couple of strokes past my ESC and I'm not even on the green ... I'll just pick up.

If I'm the cause of slow play, I'd like to know about it. I try to be mindful of it, but if I am playing slow my golfing partners all have permission to tell me to get my ass in gear and move it along.
 
ArmyGolf said:
Haha yep. I've been told I'm borderline rude about it so I'll try work on that. 9/10 guys double their pace upon being told they are playing slow.
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I don't think you're rude about it at all, sometimes it just needs to be said!

Although my favorite ever was when you hollered ahead to the green on the par 3 on the Canal hahaha
 
If my group is holding up the group behind us, I have no problem with suggesting we "pick up the pace a little".
I am polite about it.
 
Dude. You are effin slow.

Unless we aren't friends.
 
We always keep an eye on the group in front of us. We have one guy that plays quite slow, but nothing extraordinary, he just takes his game (too) serious; 3-4 practice swings, lines up his putts as if he's in the Ryder Cup... But lickily the rest of the group is pretty fast, so we makeup for him. If it's really getting out of hand, we just tell him to pick up or pick up the pace. He understands he can be too slow, so no bad feelings.

I we see we're falling behind and there are only 1 or two groups behind us, we might let them pass not to slow them down.
 
Nope not at all, i usually have a good gauge on it, but ready gold usually is the best remedy.


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I don't have any issues telling my group to pick it up if it's needed.

The problem with letting people through is that it takes time to do that, and if there are groups behind them, it's never-ending. Better to just pick up the pace. If it is that bad, don't pick up the pace, pick up the ball, go to the next hole and THEN pick up the pace.
 
Absolutely.
 
I was playing Torrey Pines this last Saturday. I play there often, but I was playing with 3 tourists. I know that the pace can play like an accordion, you get behind, you catch up, you get behind you catch up. You have to watch your clock to know if your pace is good there. We did get a hole behind on #7 but had 3 people in trouble. I said "We need to pick it up just a little." We did, caught the group ahead by the 11th hole, par 3. The guys behind us were impatient and hit into us maybe 2 or 3 times from tee or fairways on longer par 4's & 5's. There is really no reason to do that, you're not going anywhere. The marshal came to us on the 9th tee box and said "Your right on pace, no worries." So we didn't.

I don't think people should be calling for marshals on their cell phones until you're at least 1.5 holes behind and it's been a few holes that you're behind. If they have a bad hole and slip behind, see if they pick it back up and keep pace after that. Don't just go yelling, calling, or hitting into people right away.
 
After being annoyed by my slow partners I said to my group (all strangers), "Com'on fellas, we need to pick up our pace or we won't get 18 in before dark."

It worked and we finished the 18th as twilight fell.
 
No, I've never say anything in those circumstances and doubt I ever would. It's too fun complaining and making fun of the slow players to do anything about it.
 
My group just has a rule that double par or two penalties on one hole is an auto pick up.
 
most of the guys i play with are cognizant of pace of play. every so often one or two will slow down the group...those of us who say something will usually just say something long the lines of "need to pick it up some" or "we are getting behind". We have one guy that is just slow and nothing you say makes him go any faster, fortunately he doesn''t play often in my group.
 
I point to the group in front of us and then to the one behind us and say "let's go - we've fallen too far behind".
 
My buddies call me "Rush Limbaugh" because I'm a quick player. I am fast and prefer to be but a normal pace doesn't bother me at all. Nor does a slower pace dictated by volume. I mean, it shouldn't happen but I don't waste energy worrying about it. But when my buddies get slow, I have no problem giving them grief about it.

With strangers, I'll say similar to the positive things others have said here with favorable response. On one painfully slow occasion, the threesome that I was put with was unbelievably slow and although polite, completely disinterested in picking up the pace. Once I realized that there was a full three holes open in front of us I just said, "guys, enjoy your round. I'm gonna play ahead, take care."

And off I went. Certainly didn't say it as to seem rude but if someone believes it to be, that wouldn't really faze me either. ?
 
I'll often comment when I see we are falling behind. Things like "hey guys we gotta pick it up, we're falling behind" or "we need to move along batter" etc...

The problem with this is that while most times the others agree and in fact many will say "yea your right we have to get going here" or whatever.
but then thye do things the same way anyway. It just doesn't sink in. They know we're slow, know we have to maove, agree we have to move, yet when its their turn they have changed nothing about what they do that will help.

That's the whole key imo. Changing what you do even if for the moment till you catch up. be willing to lose a ball. Walk much quicker, be ready sooner than normal, get off the green quicker and let some of your normalcies take a back seat for a hole and a half till your now waiting for the next group and then tame it back to more normal things. Doing such things at first when you notice your a tad behind and you'll never fall far behind at all to begin with and still be able to your normal things for 95% of the round.
 
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