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Would this speed up play?

It may entice some to spped up their pace a little but they are still at the mercy of groups in front of them. As others have said, it would likely anger a lot of people that would have been able to achieve a sub 4 hour round but were held up by slow groups.
 
Perhaps it might. Regardless, I see groups that have one to two holes open in front of them, and they couldn't care less about those behind them. I would like to see Marshall's out there enforcing POP.
 
BigMac said:
If they put some marshals out on the course who did more than drive around and wave at people, maybe it would provide some incentive. Otherwise it would just cause conflicts when some pokey group is stacking everybody up behind them and won't let people play through.
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I didn't think of this, but everyone who plays normally paced golf is going to feel entitled to free beer at the end of the round and be even madder at the turtle foursome everyone is stacked up behind.
 
Wont matter when you catch the slow group… want to speed up the game? Have people play the right tees. Dont let them play the tips when they dont hit 275+. Set up tees based on driving distance and put people in a better position to hit the gir.
 
Difficult to manage a situation dependent on others. Nice idea, not executable.
 
BigMac said:
If they put some marshals out on the course who did more than drive around and wave at people, maybe it would provide some incentive. Otherwise it would just cause conflicts when some pokey group is stacking everybody up behind them and won't let people play through.
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That is SOO true. The rangers are not helpful at all at my course. The course is so worried about getting negative reviews from players who are asked to move along that they just pretend it's not happening. It's been said a thousand times, it doesn't matter what your handicap is, as long as you keep up, no one really cares what you shoot.
 
This would work better:
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It always depends on Players in front of U. Sometimes I feel they think they get more bang for the buck if they take longer.
 
It’s not going to make me play faster as I’m already playing at a good pace. I would get aggravated if the guys in front of me played slow and deprived me of a free lunch.
 
BigMac said:
If they put some marshals out on the course who did more than drive around and wave at people, maybe it would provide some incentive. Otherwise it would just cause conflicts when some pokey group is stacking everybody up behind them and won't let people play through.
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yep, take your 'lunch money' and pay marshall and support them to actually speed up play.

The problem as I see it is some courses don't really care about pace of play if the tee sheet is full and they have your money.
 
As was pointed out it's probably not worth the effort as it would likely lead to some on course incidents. Some players would likely play in 4:10 or etc just for spite.
 
Even 4:10 is reasonable even though I'm a 3:30 guy
 
Speaking of, I'll be going out today to a wet Course. Let the SLOW play commence
 
The idea is a good one, but the practicality of implementing it is pretty much a no go. Like others have said; One group can slow down 17 groups that are behind them.

I've witnessed guys playing a 1500.00 dollar set of irons and spending 10 minutes looking for a 3 dollar golf ball. For those people, that will never change. A lot of people don't even know what "ready golf" means. Then there are the social groups that are more interested in the banter than they are in the golf. Not to mention courses that set unrealistic tee times that guarantee the play will be slow.

Probably the biggest cause of slow play however is groups over estimating their abilities and playing off the wrong tees. Guys playing Blues when they hit their drives 180 - 210 yards never helps pace.

Maybe a better idea would be having tee rates based on the tee's you play. Of course, you still need some type of enforcement at a few tee boxes.

I like the courses that have clocks on each box showing how far ahead or behind pace they are.
 
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The only thing that would speed up play is a penalty of some sort, not a reward.
 
fatboy said:
Wont matter when you catch the slow group… want to speed up the game? Have people play the right tees. Dont let them play the tips when they dont hit 275+. Set up tees based on driving distance and put people in a better position to hit the gir.
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The right tees for me is middle tees based on my driving distance but I've played back tees and it hasn't impacted my time much. Really the difference was a couple of the longer par 4s became 3 shot holes, others involved hybrids/FWs for approach as opposed to mid irons and no driver - wedge holes. Every par 5 was a 3 shotter with my 3rd being from mid to short iron distance as opposed to wedge distance. And there was one par 3 that I hit a 5W, at normal tees it would have been a 4 hybrid.

I've played with plenty of newer or infrequent golfers playing middle to even more forward tees that take more time because of their duffed shots, looking for errant balls, not using carts efficiently, etc.

In short I think playing the right tee box correlates more to enjoyment of the game by creating more opportunities to post a lower score on a hole moreso than it does saving time.
 
I played at a course here that offered 20% off lunch for the first 90 minutes of tee times if you could go out in less than 4 hrs. When I was lucky enough to get a time in the first 2 groups it was easy. I got in the 5th tee time out one time and the group in front of us was painfully slow. Like they would walk off the green and we would all hit approaches and putt out before they were off the next tee and there was nobody in front of them. On hole 8 I went up to the group after their tee shots and told them they would have to buy us lunch because they were killing our discount with their slow play. They said they were playing in 4.5 hour pace. I told them that the pace was set by the group in front of them and if they didn't like it to let us play through. We played through and didn't see them again.

Slow players are slow.
 
I think it's a fun idea, but I don't think it helps slow play
 
DufferDrew said:
The right tees for me is middle tees based on my driving distance but I've played back tees and it hasn't impacted my time much. Really the difference was a couple of the longer par 4s became 3 shot holes, others involved hybrids/FWs for approach as opposed to mid irons and no driver - wedge holes. Every par 5 was a 3 shotter with my 3rd being from mid to short iron distance as opposed to wedge distance. And there was one par 3 that I hit a 5W, at normal tees it would have been a 4 hybrid.

I've played with plenty of newer or infrequent golfers playing middle to even more forward tees that take more time because of their duffed shots, looking for errant balls, not using carts efficiently, etc.

In short I think playing the right tee box correlates more to enjoyment of the game by creating more opportunities to post a lower score on a hole moreso than it does saving time.
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Extra shots mean extra time. Im going to michigan to play american dunes with my son. He tells me what tees to play. I bounce around due to length. I am good with that. But playing a par 4 where i have no chance in hell of hitting in 2 that adds time and more importantly, strokes!
Designers had some time where they built courses based on long hitters. Stop with 480 par 4’s. Thats ridiculous.
now. We all know strokes take time. But the biggest slow down is looking for balls. Ppl are not willing to drop one before they spend 10 minutes looking. THEN THE ASSHATS have to walk back to bag. Get a ball and walk back. ALL BECAUSE THEY WERE TO STUBBORN TO DROP A BALL and too stupid to have a ball in there pocket (sat on a hole for 15 minutes waiting to hit while above example played out)
 
I just don't think most people care. They are out there and oblivious to any other groups behind them. So all that coupon is going to do is get people upset that the group in front of them held us up and I can see people hitting in to groups more often to "send a message" because I want my free sandwich. I think like Scooby said, getting a marshall to actually get on slower groups would do more than a coupon
 
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