Pace - Preffered and effect on your sanity, enjoyment, and score. +Poll

What is your preferred pace for 18 holes?

  • <2 hours aka I just want to say I golfed today!

    Votes: 1 1.0%
  • 2:00 - 2:30 Who reads putts? Total waste of time.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 2:30 - 3:00 Beep BEEP! It's not brain surgery, move it along people!

    Votes: 6 5.8%
  • 3:00 - 3:30 Plenty of time left in the day. What are we doing next?!

    Votes: 39 37.9%
  • 3:30 - 4:00 We really only had to wait once or twice. That was fun.

    Votes: 46 44.7%
  • 4:00 - 4:30 What? We were on the course pace.

    Votes: 9 8.7%
  • 4:30 - 5:00 I don't really have anywhere else to be today. I like it here.

    Votes: 2 1.9%
  • 5:00 - 5:30 Let's dine in at the turn and group chat at every tee. aka I'm not here for golf.

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • >5:30 I just don't want to go home.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    103
Slow play rarely bothers me, it’s the aholes behind hitting into us when there’s no place to go that pisses me off.
 
Under 4 is perfect. No need to rush but also not waiting
 
The course we play is about 2:50 to 3 hours for 2 guys who walk fast to play at a not running pace. about the same as the tour time but we are taking 20 more shots per person on average. For our 4-some to finish in under 4 is just awesome but we have to rush a bit. I'm sure we could play faster with a cart but we are walkers.
 
Interesting responses , on my view it not a rush it to be enjoyed savoured and it’s leisure time , not a race etc as I stated earlier many reasons why rounds become longer , than mean time .
 
I voted 4-4:30. That is usually the course pace around here. I don't worry too much about time because as long as I am not waiting and not holding people up, I am enjoying myself. When I have to wait too long then it gets on my nerves and throws me off my game.

If I am walking solo its a sub 3 hr round every time.
 
I voted 3.30 - 4 anything longer than that feels too long and has too much waiting between shots, my preference is probably just about 3 hours if I am play in a 2 or 3ball, my most enjoyable golf is usually when you can walk up to each shot, hit it and move on to the next one. Playing myself on a empty course that becomes a 2:30 round.
 
If I'm walking with my usual group then we generally get finished in a little over 2 and a half hours, and that doesn't feel like rushing particularly. Anything over 3 and a half hours is far too long to play 18 in my opinion, but I am generally a pretty quick player. Rounds on holiday are a completely different atmosphere, so I don't mind lounging in a cart now and again waiting for a green to clear, but over 4 hours feels like a real crawl to me.
 
I regularly played in a foursome for 2 years where we push carted or walked around a course as the first ones out in 3:15. We later slowed up when playing "Wolf" but no one usually pushed us. If they got close, we sped up.

So 3:15-3:30 walking in a group is preferred. In a cart, time would probably be less but not that much.

Preferred doesn't happen often - if it gets over 4 hr, or if I am waiting at every tee box, or most shots, or I see guys having lunch on a green (playing for money) or a fivesome, then they are holding me up and I need to adjust. Five minutes between shots ruins your rhythm.

I don't know my individual pace given no backup on the course.

Now I usually play weekends with my teen son. He is slow and it bothers me, having to herd him around the course when he should be faster than me. But he doesn't hold things up. Weekend rounds are usually mid-morning or afternoon and if we finish in 4-4:30 due to waiting for other groups, I feel fortunate. At the same time, it's bothering because that means that by the 8th hole, we are waiting on almost every shot. We have a good time together but I am teaching him about getting around faster and watching for the guys behind us.

But I wonder how I'd score now given a clean course and partners where I don't need to herd them. But my son is getting faster, and I have 2 more years to play with him frequently. So I treasure that.
 
3:00 - 3:30 is our usual pace at my club for casual rounds depending on who is playing in the group, but I have also walked 9 holes in an hour when it is quiet

It can get to nearer 4hrs during a competition just due to people being a bit more deliberate and I don't mind that pace as we are often still moving, but we just walk slightly slower between shots so that we aren't standing around waiting when we get to our ball

For me, I don't mind the longer rounds to a point, but I hate it when the pace ebbs and flows from having to stand and wait for a couple holes, then picks up for a couple before grinding to a halt again. I have played rounds that have been very slow (relatively speaking) but haven't actually felt slow because we never had to wait, and also played rounds in 3 hours that felt slow because the course was busier and had to wait between shots
 
Understanding that we are walking with cards, our foursome on weekend mornings is typically around 3 to 3:15 which is a nice pace and it’s not running. I look forward to my weekend rounds because it’s the one time the week or I see my guys and get caught up for the week so I don’t like to run and at least have some conversation.

On Friday afternoons when we play it’s typically busier so four hours is probably the norm but sometimes it can stretch 30 minutes either way depending on who’s in front of us.

Overall, I picked 3-3.5 hours as that is a good pace walking and at least conversation plus sometimes agonizing over a few putts as we typically play 2 vs. 2 matches.
 
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2:30 - 3:00 Beep BEEP! It's not brain surgery, move it along people!

I'd prefer playing ready golf every time. Even if no one is behind us. Just walk up to the ball. Take a couple practice swings and hit it. Don't waste time. Swing your club as long as it isn't distracting someone else in your group. Of course I have ADHD so I can't sit still very long. :sneaky:
 
Played a round today, came in @ 3:14. That was about prefect pace for me.
 
So what's your preferred pace out there, and how does being faster or slower than that affect your mood, play, and how you view the day/round as a whole after it's over?

There wasn’t a poll option for “I just try to relax and accept whatever happens,” so I didn’t vote.
 
My son and I walk/push and we prefer to play when the course is quiet (mostly weekend afternoons). Usually can do 18 in 3 - 3 1/2, sometimes quicker which is moving because the course is somewhat hilly. Weeknights are slower.
 
Anything less than 4 hours is ideal, but 3.5vwould be great. Closer to 3 hours is rushing it for me.. I go golf to enjoy time outside, decompress, etc.. if it's going that quickly I'm missing the point of being out there

Plus I'm not sure if my game allows for that quick of a round 😆
 
The pace of play has gotten so bad that I have started just walking in the late afternoon after the last tee time has went off at 3:45pm.
If I walk 10-12 holes I play more golf(playing multiple balls) that I play in 18 holes on a cart.
In a cart, anything less than 4 hours seems to be a lucky break
 
I don’t really care about the time, I just don’t like to be held up. I’ve played without gold ups and it’s taken 4 and a quarter hours or so and it hasn’t felt slow. Last round was done in 3 hours 20 and it didn’t feel like we were rushing. I’ve come to expect delays generally now. I can handle waiting on the tee. It’s waiting on every shot that completely ruins the round for me.
 
Played a round today, came in @ 3:14. That was about prefect pace for me.
Our round yesterday was 3:37 (as a threesome), and we had to stand around and wait on a bunch of shots. Got some good chipping practice in on the tee boxes while we waited, though! :LOL:
 
Gotta base your expected pace on the course. Some places expect 3:30 some 4:00 and some lucky if under 5. Can't go to a course where average round is 5 and expect to play in 3:30.
 
The pace of play has gotten so bad that I have started just walking in the late afternoon after the last tee time has went off at 3:45pm.
If I walk 10-12 holes I play more golf(playing multiple balls) that I play in 18 holes on a cart.
In a cart, anything less than 4 hours seems to be a lucky break

Totally agreed and been trying to do the same thing recently. I don't think there's a public course around here (SoCal) where you can get a round completed in <5 hours after 9am. It was so bad this past summer that I clocked in 3hr 45min for 9 holes! There were 1-2 groups waiting on every tee box, and would have been a 7+ hour round. First time in my life I've ever called it quits due to pace of play.
 
I'm assuming that this is geared towards a 4some, so I voted 3:30-4:00. I have some friends and relatives I play with and a 4some typically completes a round in just under 4 hours, assuming the course isn't packed. Sometimes it's a bit quicker, but most of rounds have been in that range of 3.5-4 hours. I'm okay with that. As long as we aren't having to stand around and wait forever between shots, I'm good.

Now if I'm by myself, 2-2.5 hours has been my average and that's taking my time. I've actually been trying to get better at taking my time, so that it takes longer for me to catch up with others on the course.
 
Fluid golf without waiting on the group in front of us or more importantly speedy players in the group!
 
4.5 or less and I am happy. preferably under 4 hours, think the quickest I have played was just about 3 when playing with others, probably 2:25 when playing solo but that was at a short course and being the only person on it.

I don't need to be sprinting when I play but when you have to wait on every single shot it really gets old, I am not super patient.
 
I feel comfortable in the 3-4 hour range. Any quicker I lose my game and any slower its more annoying than anything.

This pretty much sums me up. I absolutely love if we can play in the bottom half of that range, but I'm happy in the top half too.

There are also some courses where a round faster than 4 hours just isn't feasible, due to long drives between holes, crossovers, etc. There are other courses that are short and laid out very efficiently which should easily be doable in the 3 hour range. I guess what I'm saying is have to adjust based on the track.
 
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