What is the primary reason for slow play?

[HITitHIGH]

Maybe, but then those are the ones who probably aren’t competing much. It takes a pretty steady fuel source to maintain 6-7 miles of walking every day on some pretty difficult terrain, even when you’re young.

Maybe, but you said Every pro golfer.

 

[That post]

Not bringing a club or two with you when you go looking for balls in the rough. I see tons of people leaving their cart without a club to search for their ball. If/when they find it they will have to walk all the way back to the cart to get a club then back to the ball to make 4-5 practice swings. It's maddening.

 

[stryper]

Maybe, but you said Every pro golfer.

Maybe I was using hyperbole to demonstrate the overwhelming evidence that some sort of mid-round snack/food source is important to optimal performance, for those to whom it matters.

Definitely, you picked a weird point to troll.

 

[HITitHIGH]

Maybe I was using hyperbole to demonstrate the overwhelming evidence that some sort of mid-round snack/food source is important to optimal performance, for those to whom it matters.

Definitely, you picked a weird point to troll.

Overwhelming evidence for optimal performance. You often hear players that finish 2nd or 3rd in a tournament say. I wish I would have had a snack because I think I could have won if I did

 

[RecGolfer]

1. People who do things slowly in their everyday life. That's just who they are.
2. People who live in their own cocoon and don't realize that what they do affects other people, usually adversely, and they don't care. And that's just who they are.

Sounds kind of harsh, and I don't mean they aren't nice people, that's just who they are.

 

[tommyhaka]

Our group, a foursome, plays at a good pace, usually always ready to hit and waiting on the group in front of us. We were playing this past Sunday and we caught up to a group of 5. They could see that we would be dogging them all the way around the back nine, so they let us play through. We did not ask to play through, they offered. This is a good example of what should happen on a golf course, when a group realizes someone is pushing them they should let them play through. Being aware of what's going on on the golf course is always good for pace of play.
Just the opposite are the golfers who are so self-absorbed and what they are doing, and spending too much time with their shots causes slow play.

 

[RatFink]

I would add to the list general socialization at times. Sometimes I see people have ENTIRE conversations between swings that could probably happen in the cart or while walking rather than over the ball.

 

[The Milk Man]

Wrong, lot's of Pro's don't take snacks with them in competition. Drinks yes, snacks no.

Max Homa has said on his podcast that he doesn't know of any pro that doesn't eat during the round. That PB&J's are one of the favorite options of players on tour. Max has said that he thinks that one of the things amateur players get wrong is they don't eat enough during the round.

 

[The Milk Man]

Slow players don't think they are slow is the primary reason people are slow - period.

 

[ntanygd760]

Slow players don't think they are slow is the primary reason people are slow - period.

Some even say they play fast with a straight face.

 

[BigMac]

Slow players don't think they are slow is the primary reason people are slow - period.

Some don't think they are - and some just plain don't care.

 

[The Milk Man]

Some don't think they are - and some just plain don't care.

Maybe but I have never heard anyone admit to being slow. Take this thread for example not one person has admitted to being slow, nor in any other of the number of threads on THP about slow play. Based on that you would think that pace of play would never be an issue at a THP event. But that isn't the case, there have been THP events were groups have had to skip holes or text sent out to pick up the pace. People just don't realize or want to admit they are the slow player.

The other issue is no one can agree on what is slow play. I have played with a THP'er at his home club several times. Each time it is the slowest round I have played that year. Every round has been around 3:45. Just so happens that a my course we play in 3:00. Is 3:45 slow I don't think so but judged against 3:00 it would be .If you were used to playing in 4:15, then 3:45 would be fast.

 

[Follow The Sun]

Too many golfers with high handicaps ( all ages) are playing from the white tees when they would be better off playing forward on other tees. Limit the amount of strokes a golfer can take on a hole. 8 max for a par four for example. No shame in any of it ... just saying ...

Good golfing ...

 

[BigMac]

Maybe but I have never heard anyone admit to being slow. Take this thread for example not one person has admitted to being slow, nor in any other of the number of threads on THP about slow play. Based on that you would think that pace of play would never be an issue at a THP event. But that isn't the case, there have been THP events were groups have had to skip holes or text sent out to pick up the pace. People just don't realize or want to admit they are the slow player.

The other issue is no one can agree on what is slow play. I have played with a THP'er at his home club several times. Each time it is the slowest round I have played that year. Every round has been around 3:45. Just so happens that a my course we play in 3:00. Is 3:45 slow I don't think so but judged against 3:00 it would be .If you were used to playing in 4:15, then 3:45 would be fast.

You are right that I've never heard anybody admit to being slow. I've never been part of a THP event, but from what I've seen from following them here, I'm willing to bet that at least part of the slow play is from people being on their phones live streaming, updating the threads, taking photos, etc. That's a little different environment from a usual day-to-day round, so I can see how the pace would be affected.

As far as agreeing on what constitutes "slow play", I'd say it's a relative thing and I couldn't put an exact time on it for every course under every condition. If you're a fast player, you'll know it's slow - you'll feel it. I can say that on my home course with my usual group, we can play 18 in right around 3:00 (give or take a few minutes) if there's nobody in our way ahead of us. 3:30 is a slowish round, anything 4:00 or more is agonizing, especially in the summer.

The ones who don't care are the ones who, whether they think they're a slow player or not, can easily look behind them and see that there are people waiting to hit, or groups stacking up behind them, and don't do anything about it. Either pick up the pace or let people play through, but those are the people who say "I paid my money, I'll take as long as I want". If the course is backed up ahead of them there's nothing they can do about it, but if there are open holes ahead of them they're screwing up everybody else's day with their selfish and/or oblivious attitudes. It's not rocket science to take a look ahead of you and behind you once in a while and see if you're holding your proper place on the course.

 

[TheDoctor]

What defines slow play? For someone who wants to run round the course in 2hrs, a 3hr round would be slow, but for someone else who usually plays in 4hrs, that 3hr round is fast - I don't think you can truly define slow play in terms of time

I think there a multitude of things that contribute to perceived slow play, from the individual golfers themselves all the way to the course organisation - common sense and courtesy by everyone will help negate many problems in my opinion, but a lot of that seems to have disappeared these days and it has become an 'all about me' culture (in all walks of life, not just golf)

 

[McLovin]

it’s hard to rant about playing on the nose at 4 hours, but it’s frustrating when it could have been closer to 3:15-3:30. played with two other super nice strangers today. but we got stuck behind a foursome that had two holes open in front of them starting late on the front 9.

from their perspective they’re on pace. i get it. but my group got frustrated and lost some focus because we waited SO MUCH.

 

[RealPretendPsychic]

Played as six for a few holes today and had no problem keeping up with the foursome in front of us.

 

[cjroman]

Lack of self awareness and heaping helping of entitlement ( I paid my money, I'll take as long as I want) mindset.

 

[uitar99]

As long as you are keeping up with the group ahead of you take all the time you want. When there are one or two holes open ahead of your group then your group is the problem. Everyone out there has paid for an enjoyable round. Don't be THAT guy.

Agree. My wife constantly looks behind...are they catching up, we must be slow.

I have one job, keep up to the group in front of me. I rarely look behind me.

Unless my group is hit into, or the group behind joins us on our tee box...

...somehow thinking we are gonna speed up..

...these activities will cause a problem if I am on the receiving end of that BS

The course we play most has a first nine suggested pace of play and an 18 hole suggested pace of play. Regardless of how slow it sometimes feels, we rarely exceed those suggested times.

When I play 18 at that course, it is usually 6 hours, door to door. An hour for total commute, 30 minutes check in warm up and around 4 hours to play. Whats to slow? 10 minutes, 20 , 40?

Yup, two, two people power cart foursomes, by their nature, on a course are gonna take longer, Two people are constantly going to the same ball. Plus they have more room for beer wine and liquor. 4 walkers play faster.

 

[USAF Retired]

Lack of self awareness and heaping helping of entitlement ( I paid my money, I'll take as long as I want) mindset.

Exactly!!!

 

[USAF Retired]

it’s hard to rant about playing on the nose at 4 hours, but it’s frustrating when it could have been closer to 3:15-3:30. played with two other super nice strangers today. but we got stuck behind a foursome that had two holes open in front of them starting late on the front 9.

from their perspective they’re on pace. i get it. but my group got frustrated and lost some focus because we waited SO MUCH.

we had that same thing yesterday, waited every shot. We got in right at 4 hrs but the group in front of us was exactly 2 holes behind after 13 holes

 

[BigMac]

…Yup, two, two people power cart foursomes, by their nature, on a course are gonna take longer, Two people are constantly going to the same ball. Plus they have more room for beer wine and liquor. 4 walkers play faster.

That depends on the course and the people in the carts.

My home course has some long transits between holes - given two players who play at the approximate same pace, a walker would never keep up with a cart.

While there are people who go to one ball at a time as you describe, smart (and non-lazy) people in carts can play a lot faster than that. Whenever possible, we drop one off at their ball and the other guy drives to his ball. The first player gets his yardage and pulls a club, and by the time he’s set up and hit, the next guy is already over his ball and ready to go. First guy walks up to where the cart is, throws his clubs in and we’re moving.

As far as booze in the carts, if somebody is out there and cares about pace of play more than doing their best frat boy imitation, you can easily drink a few beers without holding anything up. If they’re just out there to crush as many beers as possible, chances are they weren’t real concerned about their game or pace of play in the first place.

 

[JayB]

So we're playing a local public course (Wyncote golf club Pa.) yesterday, nice course, great shape. Starts off kind of slow for the first 3 holes then the pace evens out. Course is more or less full but little to no waiting rest of the front nine. We get to the 10th tee and the group in front is still there. No big deal, surely it will pick up like it did on the front. Same deal on the 11th tee, but now we can see all the holes up to the 14th tee. Where did that twosome come from? Hey there's another twosome! WTH? So I call the proshop (there is no starter or ranger), Did they know twosome(s) are cutting in on the 10th tee? The proshop said they weren't cutting in, they had stopped for lunch and he was sending them back out to finish. We waited every shot on the back nine. It's bad enough that the proshop would allow that, but its even worse that people would want to cut in and think its OK.

Wyncote always starts slow because of par 3 2nd and short 4 3rd hole.

That said, people stopping for lunch at the turn and heading back out sucks. Not sure how the starter doesn’t park them until much later in the day….


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[rollin]

I cannot believe that 33% still believe in the misguided and outright wrong notion that the wrong tees are a "primary" reason.
Slow players are slow regardless which tees and fast players are fast regardless as well.
One can spray balls and play poorly from any tee just the same.

Tees choice (within reason) are about the least detrimental thing towards slow play when vs things like tee time intervals, antics on the greens, and just slow moving and unready people in general.

the problem with tee choice is only that it is something that is seen by you. Seen because you may be in a group with one playing poorly and still on longer tees or the group in front might have folks doing it. Too many relate poor play to wrong tees and because its something you physically see you find it easy to blame the slow play on it. So many times i here folks say...."they dont belong on those tees"....and its all based on poorer play. Which we all can do.

The notion that tees are a slow play primary reason is ridiculous. Its just not true. Its about time folks get that misguided thought out of their heads.

 

[5150]

You are right that I've never heard anybody admit to being slow. I've never been part of a THP event, but from what I've seen from following them here, I'm willing to bet that at least part of the slow play is from people being on their phones live streaming, updating the threads, taking photos, etc. That's a little different environment from a usual day-to-day round, so I can see how the pace would be affected.

Yeah... I've found that to be pretty ironic myself... for all the ranting about slow play around here, there sure seems to be quite a lot of focus on stopping the round to break out the phone and type an update.

To each their own: if peeps want to do that, great, more power to you. My phone is off 99% of the time I'm on the course. The 1% is if I'm on call for some reason OR there's a particularly noteworthy thing I want to capture a pic of, like a nice sunset or whatever.

As far as agreeing on what constitutes "slow play", I'd say it's a relative thing and I couldn't put an exact time on it for every course under every condition. If you're a fast player, you'll know it's slow - you'll feel it. I can say that on my home course with my usual group, we can play 18 in right around 3:00 (give or take a few minutes) if there's nobody in our way ahead of us. 3:30 is a slowish round, anything 4:00 or more is agonizing, especially in the summer.

The ones who don't care are the ones who, whether they think they're a slow player or not, can easily look behind them and see that there are people waiting to hit, or groups stacking up behind them, and don't do anything about it. Either pick up the pace or let people play through, but those are the people who say "I paid my money, I'll take as long as I want". If the course is backed up ahead of them there's nothing they can do about it, but if there are open holes ahead of them they're screwing up everybody else's day with their selfish and/or oblivious attitudes. It's not rocket science to take a look ahead of you and behind you once in a while and see if you're holding your proper place on the course.

I hear this a lot on the course... we had a whole other thread going re: private clubs, exclusivity, etc, that I think is relevant here to some degree. People tend to have the idea that paying for the course means they can do as they please while out there, and eff everyone else, which I don't find to be congruent with the principles I love about our great game.