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Slow Play in your group or a group in front of you?

Funny this thread came up when it did. Last Friday there is no other way to put it other than my group was holding up the course. I was playing with 2 guys who took forever on every shot (one guy marked and lined up a 6 inch putt). And what was worse was that they were terrible. It would take them forever to hit only to chunk one or shank one into the woods. Now I don't care what level you are at, if you are nice then I'll gladly tee it up with you. However, sometimes people don't get when it's time to pick it up on a hole or stop looking for their ball and these 2 didn't get it. It was driving me crazy inside that we were holding people up. I felt so bad and kept looking behind us at the group standing in the fairway waiting on us. It affected my game and I was getting extremely anxious. Finally on the 6th hole when we could see the group in front of us walking up to the 8th green I told them "I think we all need to pick up the pace a little, the group in front of us is 2 holes ahead." It didn't help much and we were still playing painfully slow. I didn't know what to do, then...

We get to the 9th and the 2 guys tell me and the other guy (who was a very good golfer and haven't mentioned yet) they had to go. Instant relief that I wasn't going to have to apologize to the group behind us came over me. I looked at the other guy in my group and he had the same look of relief I had. Me and other guy went to the 10th, a solid 2 holes behind the next group. Caught up to them rather quickly and I have to say I didn't mind at all waiting on every shot from the 14th hole. This round helps me answer this question very easily. I will wait behind a slow group ANY DAY rather than be the slow group.

Honestly, waiting on a slow group in front of me never really bothers me. I just get a little anxious that groups behind me think we're the group holding people up. I'm pretty patient so I don't mind waiting, I just don't want to be the group holding up play.
 
Definitely in my group, I find that I will speed up to try and compensate.
 
Today was probably the best scenario for a slow group ahead of me (well except for hole 18). There was no one behind me and I got a chance to do a whole lot of practicing. At one point I hit 16 chip shots onto a green just practicing from about 5 to 10 yards off the green. I also found so many balls that my bag is now overfilling. Heck I found 8 Pro V1s alone.
 
ncsuhunter said:
Based on recent events where it took 3+ hours to walk 9 holes (that's right 9 holes) and then a 5 hour round last weekend in NMB I'd have to say whoever infront of me causing the backup is the one that bothers me the most. It's not always the group in front of you, it is sometimes the group(s) infront of them. I don't play nearly as well when it's taking forever. I get impatient and just want to hit my next shot and everything just gets all out of whack. Last night I walked mine with a good friend up here in just over an hour and 15 minutes. Huge difference. I like to play in a rhythm. I sometimes get too fast and don't take the time to line up my shot properly. That's something I'm working on.
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Good post. I use to live in a place where if it took 5 hrs on the weekend you actually felt happy that it wasn't so bad. That's how bad it was there. 5n1/2 was common and even pushed 6 often enough.

What I like here is that you allude to not always the group in front of you doing it. A very big misconception that often causes too much trouble. I've seen too may people yell ahead when they couldn't be more wrong. Also get mad at one ahead who is not rushing but only because its all backed up in front anyways. people need to look at the whole picture before pointing fingers but anger creates tunnel vision.

Just last week we were on hole #8. We had to wait (just a couple minutes) on the 6th, 7th, and 8th. As we are making our approach shots on 8 a cart comes up from a group who is on 6 tee. He made his way over to 8 just to try to yell (nastily) at one guy in our group that we were backing up the entire golf course. The guy in my group was an older fellow around 70ish but also big and strong well fit. He just said "do yourself a favor" , "turn your cart around and mind your business". We (myself and other two players) had no idea this took place because we were on the other side the fairway. But he told us what happened when we got on 8 green. But in the end we were done golfing in 4:15 and here again is yet another example of over exaggeration. This guy was so angry that things were "so bad" that he felt the need to drive 2 holes to yell at the wrong group with his tunnel vision yet in the end he played 4:15ish on a course on the weekend which usually runs 4:20ish.
 
rollin said:
Just last week we were on hole #8. We had to wait (just a couple minutes) on the 6th, 7th, and 8th. As we are making our approach shots on 8 a cart comes up from a group who is on 6 tee. He made his way over to 8 just to try to yell (nastily) at one guy in our group that we were backing up the entire golf course. The guy in my group was an older fellow around 70ish but also big and strong well fit. He just said "do yourself a favor" , "turn your cart around and mind your business". We (myself and other two players) had no idea this took place because we were on the other side the fairway. But he told us what happened when we got on 8 green. But in the end we were done golfing in 4:15 and here again is yet another example of over exaggeration. This guy was so angry that things were "so bad" that he felt the need to drive 2 holes to yell at the wrong group with his tunnel vision yet in the end he played 4:15ish on a course on the weekend which usually runs 4:20ish.
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I had a woman come up to me on holes 2 - 5 recently like we were the ones playing slow. She was riding in a separate cart watching her son and husband play. She didn't say anything but was clearly agitated as if we were the reason for the slow play because we were taking our time chipping and putting out. I finally subtly said to her when we were chipping "Must be really backed up today since the group in front of us hasn't even teed off." She got the hint and left us alone after that. It was 2 groups in front of us that was slowing everything up. They were obviously conducting business while playing. What it was I have no idea since I don't speak Japanese but I recognized some of the business etiquette in the foursome.
 
Slow play in front of me drives me bat crap crazy but slow play in my group causes me to play bad cause I tend to rush myself to make up for whoever is playing slow.
 
slow play in front on me....a little story, last fall six4three5 and i teed off at 5:30 pm on a Thursday night, the pro at our home course said the back 9 would be better because there were only 20 ladies in that league and 24 in the league on the front. We knew we would be in for a slow round but we played anyway. We took the opportunity to use it for a playing/practice round, we hit multiple shots and even play 2 hole twice. We walked off the 18th hole ( the 9th hole we played) at 8:45 pm 3 hours and 15 minutes to play 9 holes! Ever since that night, Thursday night has been range/practice green night.....lol
 
Wakit300 said:
For me it's definitely more frustrating when the group in front is slow. If there's a slow guy in my group I can at least encourage him to pick up the pace and help if needed but there's nothing I can do about the boneheads ahead of us except hope the marshal comes by (which most time results in absolutely nothing anyhow).
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The Marshall issue is the key that's where the "Speed Police" campaign should have been pointed towards. As far as the question, the group ahead. If it is within your own group you can police the situation and speed things up.
 
Playing this morning with the regular Sunday group which can be 2 - 4 person or 2- 3 person groups or sometimes we only have 4 or 5 so we play skins. today was 2 -3 person groups and I realized we are (perceptively) slow. We were the second group off and even though we finished in 3 hr 50 minutes watching everyone putt out and just do what they do there seemed to be a lot of wasted time.

We did wait on the the group ahead some, But where is the break from playing good fast golf to rushing yourself or others.?

I like to play fast, but I also want to enjoy the morning and at least think a bit about the shot or putt. There seems to be a trend here to play as fast as humanly possible, you paid your hard earned money to play golf so why not enjoy it.

My question is, on the weekend what is good paced round for most of you if you are not waiting for the group ahead. I know from reading JB's post he plays really fast and enjoys that, but is that the exception or the rule for most.
 
I think an interesting thread would be, what causes slow play? For the life of me, I can't understand the dilemma of driving to a ball, taking a practice swing or two, and hitting the ball. I get losing the ball and looking around for it for a reasonable amount of time, but if you can't find it; drop and hit if someone's waiting. The more i'm starting to get into the sport, the more i'm starting to mentally blame the courses and the rangers for not spitting the timing of the players out right and monitoring the course effectively.
 
Ballsohard said:
I think an interesting thread would be, what causes slow play? For the life of me, I can't understand the dilemma of driving to a ball, taking a practice swing or two, and hitting the ball. I get losing the ball and looking around for it for a reasonable amount of time, but if you can't find it; drop and hit if someone's waiting. The more i'm starting to get into the sport, the more i'm starting to mentally blame the courses and the rangers for not spitting the timing of the players out right and monitoring the course effectively.
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You'd be shocked the amount of people that don't comprehend or understand ready golf.
 
jim54 said:
Playing this morning with the regular Sunday group which can be 2 - 4 person or 2- 3 person groups or sometimes we only have 4 or 5 so we play skins. today was 2 -3 person groups and I realized we are (perceptively) slow. We were the second group off and even though we finished in 3 hr 50 minutes watching everyone putt out and just do what they do there seemed to be a lot of wasted time.

We did wait on the the group ahead some, But where is the break from playing good fast golf to rushing yourself or others.?

I like to play fast, but I also want to enjoy the morning and at least think a bit about the shot or putt. There seems to be a trend here to play as fast as humanly possible, you paid your hard earned money to play golf so why not enjoy it.

My question is, on the weekend what is good paced round for most of you if you are not waiting for the group ahead. I know from reading JB's post he plays really fast and enjoys that, but is that the exception or the rule for most.
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Personally, i don't know if it's the play as fast as possible trend, I think it's playing with purpose. I for one struggle when the temp of the game slows down a lot. Like I'm talking about par par bogey par... then pace dies and i'm waiting 10 mins in-between shots and triple bogey, double bogey etc. I think when you're approaching to 5 hours to play 18 holes it gets hard to justify to your wife/family going out often to play. Also add in time it takes to go to the range/ warm up/putt/drinks/travel and you could be talking about 6 hours being spent. I think 4hours is pretty reasonable and to be expected.
 
Slow play in front is worse as if someone in my group is holding us up I can tell them to hurry up or we will go on as a 3 !
 
Definitely someone who plays slow in our group. If it's really bad, then it's up to the other person or other three to speed things up so as to not be rude to other golfers behind ya (if you care). Just something else to deal with is all. But there's nothing wrong with new folks trying to learn the game and taking their time a bit.

Played in a scramble yesterday with someone was very slow. You could see them going through the mental checklist, adjusting, shifting their hands and weight, lining things up. There's nothing at all wrong with someone who doesn't play your speed, or is learning the game. This was very, very slow though--as in a good 30-60 seconds each shot once addressing the ball. Would go through the checklist, adjusting the hands, then weight, etc, and make a slow practice swing. Then go through the whole process again. Then go through the process again, this time hitting the ball.

We didn't want to say anything, just us three played a little faster. This person was a new learner and we ended up being able to keep up with the pace of play and didn't slow anyone up.

In the end, if it's not a huge deal, being nice trumps freaking out over something maybe affecting your game one percent.
 
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In my group. What drives me nuts is people that take forever addressing the ball. Tons of practice swings, etc.

Funny story: friend if mine and I at a local course and get paired up with this guy who, no joke, would stand motionless over the ball for like 10-15" each time he hit. It was weird. The first time he hit, my friend and I start looking at each other and mouthing, 'WTF'? After a few holes of that , we said we wanted to split up to speed up play and we left him and his buddy behind.

Fast forward about 18 months later and to a course 90 miles away. Same buddy and I get paired up and on the first tee this guy stands over his ball forever. We look at each other in astonishment. Same dude.

We made an excuse to split up after the first hole.
 
If someone is struggling and that is causing slow play, I'm generally more forgiving - we've all been there when it just falls apart - as long as they pick up when they should.

Now deliberate golfers who are slow regardless of those around and the situation, that can get frustrating. Dude, unless you are in your way to a PR, have loads of money in the line or challenging a Sicillian with death in the line, no need to check your putting lines from every angle twice.
 
d_in_la said:
If someone is struggling and that is causing slow play, I'm generally more forgiving - we've all been there when it just falls apart - as long as they pick up when they should.

Now deliberate golfers who are slow regardless of those around and the situation, that can get frustrating. Dude, unless you are in your way to a PR, have loads of money in the line or challenging a Sicillian with death in the line, no need to check your putting lines from every angle twice.
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OR 3 or 4 times. Each. Ran into that yesterday when we caught up with a twosome who did that. It was exruciating. I doubt there's a correlation, but when we caught up to them I also had my absolute worst three holes because we were just constantly waiting on them. Thankfully they hit the clubhouse at the turn and we kept on going.
 
Slow play in my group is the worst. I just had a round on a weekday with carts that took over 5 1/2 hours cause 2 guys in my group(too long of a story to explain). I play pretty fast so guys that are a little slower don't bother me, hell I sometimes play with a friend that has a hard time not topping every shot but still does his best to keep up with the pace. But when it's due to not picking up when necessary, goofing off, or lining everything up like a tour pro, it's just annoying. Like others said, when the pace is slow in my group I tend to play even faster and it doesn't go so well.
 
Slow Play in your group or a group in front of you?

In front but I'm working on not letting it bother me since it's part of amateur golf unfortunately. It does affect my rhythm though.
 
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Slow play in my own group is what bothers me the most. Today I had to repeatedly tell my partners go ahead and hit when you are ready. Also it is super embarrassing when you have someone who takes 5 practices swings before every shot. By the back nine he had taken more overall swings than everyone else in the group combined.
 
The first two rounds of the golf trip I just returned from, we were jammed behind a tournament of NHL'rs, ex-NHL'rs and NHL management. They were all playing from the tips (7200) even though it seemed like a lot of them weren't big golfers. They apparently I found out later had $50k on the line.... so you can imagine how slow those rounds were. 6:15 the first day 5:30 the second. On top of that no one in the pro shop gave an wet fart and afterwards even though resort management was very apologetic, which I appreciate, they still didn't do anything for us that would make me go back.

For the first round the sprinklers actually came on for the last 2 holes and we had to play through one on 18 to get finished.
 
ddelloch said:
The first two rounds of the golf trip I just returned from, we were jammed behind a tournament of NHL'rs, ex-NHL'rs and NHL management. They were all playing from the tips (7200) even though it seemed like a lot of them weren't big golfers. They apparently I found out later had $50k on the line.... so you can imagine how slow those rounds were. 6:15 the first day 5:30 the second. On top of that no one in the pro shop gave an wet fart and afterwards even though resort management was very apologetic, which I appreciate, they still didn't do anything for us that would make me go back.

For the first round the sprinklers actually came on for the last 2 holes and we had to play through one on 18 to get finished.
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I'd have a hard time blaming someone for taking their time for 50 k. :D
 
If someone is playing slowly, but playing well I have no problem (whatever works to a degree), BUT if someone is playing slowly and is playing poorly then try something different (play faster)
 
Had an interesting altercation last week with the group in front of us that consisted of two very elderly gentleman and one very ornery older woman. First off, they were SLOW, but it was a beautiful day out and we were in no hurry. We were playing a par 5 that had water directly in front of the green so it pretty much required a layup. They were on the green putting so my group hit our layup shots to in front of the water. I'm waiting to play my third shot and this lady starts scolding me for hitting into them and that we should wait till they are off the green. I told her we were just laying up but she just continued telling me off and that I should show some respect, just wait til I'm older...I was at a loss. The two guys didn't say a word :) Gave them some space for the last few holes after that.
 
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