What is the primary reason for slow play?

What is the primary reason for slow play?

  • Golfers who aren’t ready to play on the course

    Votes: 189 58.5%
  • Playing tees too long

    Votes: 105 32.5%
  • Golf technology - lasering the pin on every shot

    Votes: 28 8.7%
  • Personal technology - cell phones are the devil

    Votes: 38 11.8%
  • That 5th practice swing

    Votes: 143 44.3%
  • Reading putts from 360° and using a protractor

    Votes: 118 36.5%
  • Tee times only 8 minutes apart

    Votes: 148 45.8%
  • Alcohol

    Votes: 63 19.5%

  • Total voters
    323
People thinking they are better than they really are
 
What causes slow play?
Went to the golf course today but could not decide if I was going to play, so I thought I'd watch a few people tee off. The fist group of two were a couple of gentlemen hitting from the Pro tee. First guy up proceeded to hit his first shot ten yards to the next tee marker then took out another ball and hit that ball to the tee box ahead of that one. The same guy decided to hit another one that went twenty yards past the ladies tee. The next group were a twosome, a woman with a ten or eleven year old.....the women was hitting five yet only fifty yards from the tee box. I decided to go over to the driving range and hit a half bucket of balls and went home because there wasn't enough daylight to finish a round behind those two groups.

Slow play is killing the game.
 
Went to the golf course today but could not decide if I was going to play, so I thought I'd watch a few people tee off. The fist group of two were a couple of gentlemen hitting from the Pro tee. First guy up proceeded to hit his first shot ten yards to the next tee marker then took out another ball and hit that ball to the tee box ahead of that one. The same guy decided to hit another one that went twenty yards past the ladies tee. The next group were a twosome, a woman with a ten or eleven year old.....the women was hitting five yet only fifty yards from the tee box. I decided to go over to the driving range and hit a half bucket of balls and went home because there wasn't enough daylight to finish a round behind those two groups.

Slow play is killing the game.
I feel your pain
 
I’m just going with human nature. I think if you model any human activity that involves sequential activity by a group, it will end up slow.
Yep tons of people out there that play once or twice a month. They are not in the rhythm, they are excited about being out of the house with friends, they might be chatty Kathy because of a couple of beers, etc. If you play 3 or 4 times a week it's pretty easy to get a nice fast rhythm on the course, but that is not the majority of folks on a golf course when play is slow.
 
Sheesh I have two guys I play with who are both slllooooow for different reasons. The one guy thinks he’s a pro and takes so many practice swings I get sore just watching and the other one just isn’t situationally aware and doesn’t play ready golf. It’s interesting. Brutal when they play together though!
Have the same two guys. We do everything to split them up. We have 6 to 8 each time out and get them each in different group.
 
The primary reason for slow play is the fact that people that could fix the issue are focused on different things.

Think about it.:unsure:

What do a lot of people complain about?

Sure, there's that; but there's also other things. I'm not talking about your significant other, job, traffic, or gas prices.

The people that can fix this issue are already in place and a lot of people complain about them... no, not cops.:LOL:

I'm talking about the people on home owner's association boards.:) These people have absolutely nothing better to do than to measure the height of neighborhood lawns, check whether trash cans were taken in immediately after the garbage truck empties it, and whether your boat is in your garage or on the street. Never mind that you're in the boat, it's hooked up to your SUV and you're loading the cooler for a trip to the lake... nope. YOU are going to get a LETTER for not being in compliance with HOA regulations and covenants.:ROFLMAO::oops::rolleyes:

How about we redirect these people that make some people's lives miserable in an HOA to golf courses and tell them enforce the pace of play. This is YOUR hole. Keep things running quickly and smoothly. Tell them their power is NOT liens against mortgages and lawsuits... tell them their power is the BAN HAMMER. They can bar people from the course for playing too slow.

It's the answer to slow play. Sick HOA enforcers on them. It's a win for the course... more players running through. It's a win for the players. You play fast whether you want to or not.:D:ROFLMAO:
 
I HATE slow play but realize that it is good for the game of golf for people who play infrequently to come and pay greens fees at the local course.
I think the true reason for slow play is also what keeps the lights on at the local municipal course.
I wouldn’t want to make golf more pressure for the average person(and anyone on THP regardless of handicap is not the average golfer)
 
I play almost always on the weekends and while I live in a rural community, I play at the busiest local course which is located 5 minutes off the interstate and attracts a lot of out-of-area golfers. Great for the golf course but makes for some long weekend rounds.

Having said that a couple of the guys I regularly play with are as fast as any 80's-90's golfer you will find. Few if not rare practice swings, fast on tee boxes, fast on greens. As a 4some we'd easily break 3 hours just playing at our normal pace on an open course.

I also play a lot of rounds with my wife and other couples, or some older guys that don't play very often. For the most part they view golf as a recreational activity, not an athletic endeavor, with a heavy social element, based around drinks and conversation. So weekend afternoon's and 4-4.5 hours rounds are about the pace they enjoy. Golf for them isn't played with a sense of urgency, its a leisure activity. Rarely is total score even a consideration, its more about hitting the quality shot, whether it be a nice drive, a great approach or sinking a putt. A true 'live for the moment' attitude. I would say this group of golfers plays with a comfortable slowness.

I would say the biggest reason I see from others is a combination of comfortable slowness and professional imitation. I see guys all the time who are decent, experienced golfers, play their rounds with the deliberateness of the PGA pro's they see on tv. Pre-shot routines (combined with a sip of beer & a puff on a cigarette), visualizing which side out-of-bounds they are gonna hit into, not carrying an extra ball in their pocket for the inevitable provisional, not knowing where the provisional ended up but looking where "I once drove the ball past this point" starting point, only to find the ball 40 yards short in the rough. As amateurs, always, well almost always, hitting short of the green, chipping past the green and still getting a read from all sides for the inevitable double bogey putt. In their mind they are playing the game with all of the seriousness they see the pro's play because that's how you play golf.

It really is up to all of us to help everyone learn to play with a sense of deliberateness & a touch of urgency. If you do hit that ball in the woods, weeds, pond, etc. understand that you are now out of position and must do something to get that moment back. Go ahead and try to hit another shot, but maybe just drop one out in the fairway if that mulligan doesn't go so well...
 
Last edited:
Narcissism
 
There are so many individual reasons, but the vast majority of those reasons fall under one of two general headings, neither of which was specifically called out in the survey on page one: Obliviousness to proper pace-of-play procedures and consideration for others. Plain and simple.
 
I don’t think many weekend golfers put a time limit on their rounds. They get once a week and take their time and enjoy it. Public course here on a weekend is 4.5 - 5 hours and I haven’t heard complaints. It’s not my thing but I do get the mentality when some only get out maybe once a week or month
 
I don’t think many weekend golfers put a time limit on their rounds. They get once a week and take their time and enjoy it. Public course here on a weekend is 4.5 - 5 hours and I haven’t heard complaints. It’s not my thing but I do get the mentality when some only get out maybe once a week or month
Hence why I play only Monday to Friday.
 
Most of the time I think it's people who don't know proper golf etiquette or the concept of "ready golf".
- Guys leave their cart/push cart on the side of the green where their ball went to rather than nearer to the next tee box
- Stand around or sit in their cart until it's their turn to hit, rather than going to their ball and being ready to hit when it's their turn
- Reading the green like they're on the 18th at Augusta just to miss that 3 foot putt
- Waiting for the group ahead to get on the green or hole out even if the green is 100+ yards beyond their range off the tee.

I could go on.... :mad:

I agree with all of the above.
 
I think there are lots of reasons for slow play. It kind of depends I think.

The biggest reason for public slow play is golfer pride.
 
Most of the time I think it's people who don't know proper golf etiquette or the concept of "ready golf".
- Guys leave their cart/push cart on the side of the green where their ball went to rather than nearer to the next tee box
- Stand around or sit in their cart until it's their turn to hit, rather than going to their ball and being ready to hit when it's their turn
- Reading the green like they're on the 18th at Augusta just to miss that 3 foot putt
- Waiting for the group ahead to get on the green or hole out even if the green is 100+ yards beyond their range off the tee.
I mostly agree. Some of these and many more are more in the category of Advanced Rules of Proper Etiquette for Ready Golf. Unfortunately you don't learn those on a PGA Tour broadcast or if you are playing in a group of new or inexperienced golfers. So in a way it falls on experienced golfers to teach everyone... and you can't expect everyone to pick up every rule all at once while also learning how to actually play the game.

My wife started playing with me 6 or so years ago. We usually play in a 4some, usually with two of my other golf buddies. The 3 of us all play the same tees while my wife plays the forward tees. I will try to tee off first, watch my buddies tee off. When the 3rd ball is in play, I'll hop in my cart with my wife and drive to her tee box. She'll already have her club in hand and hit her shot. Often the cart path is only wide enough for one cart so when she returns I've asked to keep her club in hand and we drive to the first ball since our partners are stuck behind us. If its my shot she can return her driver to her bag then, and if its her shot, I'll call out the distance and she can select her next club. She's got this down pretty well now but it certainly wasn't instinctual. It came from cues from me and her own desire to keep up with my friends' pace of play. Some of these things are just seconds at a time, but it all adds up...
 
Interesting poll results. There is no consensus on what the #1 factor is.


On the pro tours - if we go by what causes them to play slow - I guess it would be?....guys not ready to hit their shots? Overanalyzing?


SO MANY reasons on your local muni that you might get stuck playing a 5+hr round.
 
Interesting poll results. There is no consensus on what the #1 factor is.

On the pro tours - if we go by what causes them to play slow - I guess it would be?....guys not ready to hit their shots? Overanalyzing?
And the #1 reason may not even be on the list...

Definitely over-analyzing the #1 issue on the pro tours. Is that gust 3mph or 5? Are there 4 blades of grass behind my ball or 11? Closing your eyes for an 11 second visualization of where you are hitting the ball... Greens reading books!?!
 
A lack of education of the fundamental etiquette rule in golf. Let faster player/group play through. I suspect it's just not taught to anyone anymore. But I truly believe if this one rule was followed as it was when I was a kid and teenager, pace of play would improve substantially for the majority of people, and maybe slow down just a bit for those who are allowing others to play through.

~Rock
 
Yesterday while playing solo, I had to wait in the fairway for another single to move to the next hole.

He spent about 10-15 minutes extra, fishing balls out of green side pond. I didn't want to chance hitting him.

The tee box in front of him was full of other golfers waiting for the fairway to clear in front of them. There was no one waiting on me.

I used my wait time by feeding a couple of Mallard Ducts.

I read all these reasons about what causes a slower than normal (4.5 hrs @ 96 strokes for men) 18 hole, pace of play rounds. What I never read is a cure for the problem. I don't think there is one.
 
Too many people fail to recognize this simple fact, regardless of the underlying cause(s):

If people behind you are waiting on you, and you are not waiting on people ahead of you, you're too slow. Either:

  • let the group behind play through
  • pick up your pace of play
  • pick you ball and move to the next hole
That's true whether you are playing at a 3:30 clip or a 5:30 pace.
 
Inconsiderate golfers.
 
4.5 hours for 96? That’s slow play right there. On Monday I was a single player put in with a three some. The lowest score of the three was 105. Time to golf was 3:50. They didn’t rush at any point. They were laughing it up etc. They had their practice swings and other preshot nuances done before it was their turn to hit.
 
Back
Top