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What pace of play begins to materially affect your scoring?

Golf is certainly a sport of anecdotal experiences.

Yesterday was kind of a different one. Light rain that was supposed to move out around the time our foursome(wife & I, long time golf buddy & his step-son) was to tee off at 12:50pm. Our group rolls to #1 and I've already got a ball on a tee at 12:45 looking at an open hole. Here comes a single driving up fast and I give him the "nod" and waive him up. He says I've got a partner, he's buying beer or kool-aid, something... no problem, you guys go ahead, I'm thinking surely a twosome will play ahead of us and it seems to be an open course. Well the partner catches up and you can see he's already got that rushed look about himself saying "damn man, I had to get some beer!" The first kid has already taken 7-8 practice swings and seems like he's ready to rocknroll. He knocks one down the middle and the 2nd guy is getting on the box.

Here's when I realized we screwed up. Another twosome pulls up with the "what the hell is going on here?" look, at least one of the guys. Tall, middle-aged, looking like he was already late for dinner. So I walk back to them and say, "why don't you play thru with these two guys and move on from there. Either split back into twosomes or whatever. They agreed and all 4 were off - though the tee shots weren't great, they all looked like they could get around.

Well, its a short par 4 and all 4 guys are in the tall grass left of the fairway looking for balls. This took longer than it should be, whatever. The rain has stopped and we are catching with our playing mates up waiting our turn. The younger guys are now up on the green but the 2nd twosome is standing over their balls, apparently they've decided to split up now. So they wait for the young guys to move on, we wait for the 2nd twosome to clear the fairway, and now its been 20 minutes since we arrived on the tee box before we hit our 1st ball. We all get balls in play, 3 in the fairway, one just off. Finish the hole with a birdie(;)) & 3 bogeys. Move on to the next tee, the 2nd twosome hasn't tee'd off yet... :cautious:

It's a long par 5, lots of trouble, so understandable that its a little slow. Still another 10 minute wait before we get to hit balls. We scrambled around a bit but still had to wait on approaches and pull up to the 3rd hole as the twosome finishes teeing off. I would say it seems like we are getting a pace of play going. Holes 3 & 4 were ok. We were still waiting but only a minute or so. As we finish on #4, here comes a single, looking like he's setting a land speed record... standing over his ball, doing the come on, wave me up... #5 is a par 3, single is out of his cart as my wife hits her tee shot from forward tees. My buddy says, "he should have brought some friends, there's no where for him to go"... I chuckle but am thinking its better for him to play thru the par 3 with us. Too late.... he's back in his cart and drives past us on his way to #6...

...where, of course, we have to wait on him and the twosome that are still on the tee when we get there... Ended up being a 4:15 round on a cool, windy day... wasn't really bad considering the leaves down on the course. If we had just tee'd off right away, I think we would have played in 3:30-3:45... our scores were 86 (again ;)) 93, 97, 98... just one of those days.
 
Tenputt said:
I don’t think that somebody has to be skilled to sustain a decent pace of play. Yesterday, the front 9 took more than two and a half hours.
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It took my friend and I 4-1/2 hours to play 18 last week. But that included taking a break at the clubhouse, following 9, to let the group behind us play through.

Tenputt said:
Once somebody has taken 15 shots on a particular hole, ...
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Fifteen shots?!?! o_O I would've given it up long before taking fifteen shots on a hole.

I limit my ball searches. I didn't even realize there was a three minute rule. I'm not sure I've ever taken even that long. If there's somebody behind us and I don't see my ball pretty quickly I drop somewhere nearby and carry on. (That's one reason I'm playing balls at 75¢ ea. ;)) I rarely more than two-putt, and never more than three.

But... Being a new golfer my pre-swing setup is slow, because, if I'm not real considered in how I set up and swing, a good ball hit is as much luck as skill. And it's rare I less than double-bogey a hole. More stop, get out, grab a club, set up, swing, put club back, get in, drive, get out... results in more time.

I'll try to do better :)
 


Look, show those youngsters be out there like that? No. But they have just as much of a right to learn and play the game as you do sir. That is indeed something that should be taught and emphasized early on.

I played at a private course Saturday that does not have a pace of play rule. However, they do have a starter and a finishing monitoring system. This place is pretty exclusive from many standpoints....just for some insight as to how the club runs.

Their UNWRITTEN RULE is this: We dont care how long it takes you to play as long as your finishing the round right behind the group in front of you. If you have a gap in front of you of more than 15 minutes and they teed ofr right in front of you to start the round, the member will be warned two times and then penalized and lose the ability to play before a certain time in the day.

Might be extreme but I dont disagree with it. If youre playing too slow, you let others play through. Bottom line.
 
I think a lot of this is the Rangers job to speed up play from slow groups.

In terms of affecting score, I've been on both sides of the fence. Once with just a twosome it took us 2 hours to complete 9 holes and I shot 35. We couldn't go anywhere, groups ahead of us. Finally at the turn the ranger asked if we would be open to skipping to the 12th hole since it was wide open and we can go back to play 10 and 11. We happily did. I subsequently shot 45 with the "faster round."

That's not to say I prefer to play a slow ass round, quite the contrary, but I don't think it affects scoring unless you let it affect your scoring or come up with excuses as to why you aren't playing as well as you should. More like a negative attitude and when you have a negative attitude you're going to play bad regardless.

You can do all you can to speed up play in your group. But if you're waiting on people or groups ahead of you, you gotta make a call to the pro shop. IMO.
 
If a courteous nudge does not get things going, I then decide between my own 2 options.

1. Get honest and firm and explain the pace gets picked up or I move on without them.

2. I call the clubhouse and complain about the group speed and let the marshal take the heat.
 
If I'm waiting on the teebox every hole...I'm screwed. What course were you walking?
 
On the sharing a bag element...

Here I think the mode of transportation matters. Two guys in a cart together, it's probably not going to matter much whether there is one bag or two strapped to the back of the cart. Walking it could affect pace of play a lot.
 
I like 4 hours or less for a round of golf.
What I wish people could understand is that you can stay at the 19th hole and gab all ya want if you don't get enough out on the course.
You don't HAVE to go home if it's sub-4. Have a beer and hit the putting green or something. Golf courses are great to BE at, period. (y)
 
Buckeyegolfnut said:
We pay for our rounds and are then informed that we have to tee off on #10, because there will be an outing on the front. Notice, nothing was said about this when the tee times were booked! I look around the parking lot and clubhouse, and it's obvious that nobody from this outing has shown up yet.
He said, "But I have this outing coming!" I look at the parking lot again, and ask him where they are. What time do they tee off? It was an hour and a half from then! I said, "Hell! They'll never see us. We'll be on #7 by the time they begin to tee off!" So, he let us go. We had no issues with the outing...
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I thought it might be an outing similar to one we see every year at our home course...

Our home course hosts a private outing, not sure what the organization is, but they show up in a party bus and play 9 holes on a mid-summer Saturday afternoon. They basically shut half the course down for a couple hours. The benefactor of the event pays very well including hundreds of $$$ for beer. They also bring "caddies" who typically have night jobs at a different kind of club. It has been a very interesting "outing to follow... they are very generous as well. Sending their "caddies" back to share beers with us and apologize for being slow... :love:
 
Today was a study in opposites. When I got to the course and was loading my cart, there were seven guys (threesome and foursome) who had the tee time right ahead of my friend and I. They considerately asked if we wanted to go out ahead of them since we were just a twosome, and we gladly accepted. Our course is playing the back nine twice right now due to overseeding, so we hurried up, geared up and headed to hole #10. It was wide open in front of us and we finished 9 holes in just over an hour and a half, even with both of us shooting +12 for the 9 holes and losing a couple balls (yeah, it was a rough start!).

As we drove from hole 17 to 18, I looked over and saw a foursome teeing off on 10. As we hit our approach shots to the 18th green, a threesome drove past on their way up to the 10th tee. By the time we finished #18 and got back up to the 10th tee, the first foursome was just walking off the green and the threesome had just hit their tee shots. We waited on almost every shot on the second nine holes - the threesome ahead of us was playing from the blue tees, and maybe one of the three had any business being back there. The second nine took us almost two hours, and after getting around the first nine so quick, it felt even slower than that. The threesome in front of us fell two holes behind the foursome ahead of them and never once asked us if we wanted to play through, even a couple times when they were no more than 50 yards ahead of the tee boxes looking for lost balls in the bushes. But it was early, it was an absolutely beautiful morning, we had nowhere else to be and were enjoying the plush, freshly overseeded back nine, good music and a couple good cigars, so we just let it go and enjoyed ourselves. And I shot +6 on the back nine to boot, much better than the first time around.
 
Pace affects me. I play my best when I play fast.

We were paired with a father/son this weekend. After 7 holes, we lost sight of group in front if us. I told them we would be going forward without them.
 
I think slingshot golf bothers me more than consistent slow play. Speeding up and slowing down all day can really throw off any chance at getting into a rhythm for me, if only because my back might start getting tight between shots later in the round. Otherwise, I'm not sure it really bothers me all that much. Sure, I would much prefer cruising through without waiting but that's not super realistic when the course is busy.
 
I played yesterday at a course that is notorious for slower play and it lived up to its rep. After the first hole, we waited on every tee shot and approach.on every hole. It didn't affect me too much until the last 6-7 holes. My back started to get stiff and I didn't make a single par to finish the round. Never saw a single ranger all day.
 
Very slow play affects me mostly because of my back. It feels great when I play golf unless I am waiting long periods of time and then it tends to want to tighten up and I can’t move freely. It is the same after a round of golf. I tend to get really tight very quickly after a round. I do have to start slow with a warmup on the range with some partial wedges to loosen it up and work my way to full swing.

On the other hand, playing too fast is also an issue I have that affects my play. I tend to jump out the cart, grab a club and swing away. This results in some bad decisions and rushed swings that can haunt me. Some of my worst holes come when playing alone and having a group wave me through. I rush those shots because I have this subconscious feeling I now need to get out their way.

My best rounds are playing alone on an empty course where I can play at a good pace but not rush. I still feel like in those cases I play faster then a lot of other folks but I can still think about what I am doing and visualize each shot before I swing the club.
 
if i am playing with a group, it doesn't really bother me...playing in a group, period, used to drive me crazy at how slow i perceive others to be...if i am by myself, it takes me out of my rhythm...and if i can't play two-ball, i have already pulled chocks and scoring is an afterthought.
 
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