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Got Rangered today...

Castpro

Castpro

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Playing 18 on my home course (member) today and got scolded by the ranger for the first time ever.

We were playing our normal foursome, teed off at 7:48. There was another foursome in front of us that we were keeping pace with. Two threesomes came up behind us on 5 and appeared impatient.


At the turn, the foursome ahead was done (played 9) and one of our group dropped out, leaving us with three. We pulled away from the group behind us but someone reported us for slow play and the ranger got us on 11. Nice enough but let us know we needed to pick it up.


Played the front in 1:58 and finished 18 in 3:35. I guess the threesomes expected the pace to suit them and not a foursome...


Tommy
 
Too bad it happened to your group. But, at least you have rangers that actually try and do something about slow play. :confused2:
 
I never understood people crying to rangers. It takes a lot on the course to make me want to do that. Some folks are just pricks though.
 
Castpro said:
Playing 18 on my home course (member) today and got scolded by the ranger for the first time ever.

We were playing our normal foursome, teed off at 7:48. There was another foursome in front of us that we were keeping pace with. Two threesomes came up behind us on 5 and appeared impatient.


At the turn, the foursome ahead was done (played 9) and one of our group dropped out, leaving us with three. We pulled away from the group behind us but someone reported us for slow play and the ranger got us on 11. Nice enough but let us know we needed to pick it up.


Played the front in 1:58 and finished 18 in 3:35. I guess the threesomes expected the pace to suit them and not a foursome...


Tommy
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I think it's quite simple. If you're on pace or faster than the course regulated pace of play expectations, you have every right to tell the ranger to (politely) shove it.
 
We had a ranger come up to us once to tell us to pick up the pace and I blew up on him. Mainly because we booked as a 3 ball, and the pro shop stuck another 2 with us to make a 5. On a Saturday morning! Of course we were slow. I let him have it with both barrels!
 
Seems like a perfectly acceptable pace. Sounds like a quicker threesome was anxious
 
I hate people that whine to the ranger.....let him do his job, if he sees a group out of position and holding up other groups he will let them know to either pick up the pace or let the other group play through..............there is no need to flag him down to complain about slow play
 
TripleBogieTim said:
I hate people that whine to the ranger.....let him do his job, if he sees a group out of position and holding up other groups he will let them know to either pick up the pace or let the other group play through..............there is no need to flag him down to complain about slow play
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Wow...where do you play? I have to respectfully disagree with you there. Two very nice courses in our area, and the course rangers literally do nothing but drive around oblivious at both. We were stacked up on the 3rd hole two weeks ago - literally 3 groups waiting on the group ahead and the ranger drove by and did nothing. He didn't even stop. If we relied on our rangers here, we'd get no where.
 
3 hrs. 35 min. is not dragging it around out there, what is the expected 18 hole time?
 
one of the issues with pace (always being a top topic) is exactly what happened here. Regardless of whether or not pace is slow, there are always those who will b*tch and moan because its not as fast as "they" want it. And of course there is also always that chance when it is actually slow where things work in such a way where the wrong group gets blamed because it looks like its their fault when in reality there were circumstances prior that held them up.

There are just all kinds of confusing scenarios where the wrong group can get blamed. I was with a 4some a few rounds ago and they called us to the first tee with the 1st hole empty. I don't know why but that was the scenario we tee'd off with. Well we get to the 4th hole tee box and a ranger is waiting for us to tell us to pick it up. We actually at this point had gained ground and through the first 3. Started with a complete empty hole yet were now only 1 stroke behind. We basically picked up 2 strokes worth of space and it wasn't even our fault we had an entire empty hole to begin with. But someone seen our gap and complained. I told him how we started when we got called to the tee and how we actually have close that gap but he wasn't really accepting of this because he still said "well, pick it up a little" anyway. I mean technically imo we didnt have to close any gap so long as we were not slow from when we started. Just another hole or two later and we now waited ourselves. All in all in the end the round was about 4 even and this was a Saturday mid morning. I wish some people would go and truly experience real pace issues. There are many who think what they face is a pace issue and don't really know what a real pace issue is.
 
nice to have a ranger keep pace moving but some just don't understand what is going on. Played with some THPers a couple months ago and had something similar happen. We were a 3ball following a foursome, we get to the tee box on a par3 and are waiting for the group to leave the green, ranger tells us we are 8 mins behind pace. I told him we were a threesome waiting on a foursome who were just getting to the next tee. He said we needed to pick it up and they wouldn't be out of the way by time we got to the next hole.

We finish the hole get to the next tee box and had to wait for the group to hit their next shots on a par5. we drove past the range twice shortly after and he acted like we were buds, then seen him a couple other times and he got to watch us wait for the group in front and didn't say a word again.
 
There's always " faster than you" type of people. If you're driving 70 mph in a 65mph zone, someone will pull up from behind going 80, and honk and scream about you going too slow.

It's not just road rage. In America someone is always in a rage over something not fast enough.

Jack
 
A big part of the problem is that rangers often drive up and have no context. Wonder when some technology gets developed that can track groups or check them in at each hole so the clubhouse can localize what is causing slow play and then resolve it. Often rangers are clueless and the biggest impact is making groups feel under the gun. . Unfortunately, some groups are oblivious.
 
courses with gps can track pace of play and that is what the ranger used to "speed" us up.

We have a course here that tracks the cart # and tee time and use that to check as they drive around and another course sticks a tee time card in the front of the cart with the times that the group should be completing a hole. the come around and compare and let you know how you are doing.
 
Canadan said:
I think it's quite simple. If you're on pace or faster than the course regulated pace of play expectations, you have every right to tell the ranger to (politely) shove it.
Click to expand...

Agreed 100%. I don't mind being called on being off the pace, but when I fall behind half a hole on a tough par 3 but have been waiting all day long, back off me.

theballguy said:
Wow...where do you play? I have to respectfully disagree with you there. Two very nice courses in our area, and the course rangers literally do nothing but drive around oblivious at both. We were stacked up on the 3rd hole two weeks ago - literally 3 groups waiting on the group ahead and the ranger drove by and did nothing. He didn't even stop. If we relied on our rangers here, we'd get no where.
Click to expand...

See thats a ranger NOT doing his/her job. If they were doing their job no one would have to tattle to ranger about a "slow" group, they'd nip it in the bud right quick.

JMN57 said:
A big part of the problem is that rangers often drive up and have no context. Wonder when some technology gets developed that can track groups or check them in at each hole so the clubhouse can localize what is causing slow play and then resolve it. Often rangers are clueless and the biggest impact is making groups feel under the gun. . Unfortunately, some groups are oblivious.
Click to expand...

I've played a few courses with the on board GPS and they always updated you with a +/- on your pace. So if you had a tough hole and fell behind it would say +4 minutes off pace.
 
Jackal said:
There's always " faster than you" type of people. If you're driving 70 mph in a 65mph zone, someone will pull up from behind going 80, and honk and scream about you going too slow.

It's not just road rage. In America someone is always in a rage over something not fast enough.

Jack
Click to expand...

well, I understand your point. However, using driving as a similarity is not the way to go. That is all about keeping right, and I don't mean just staying out of the left lane like being in the 4th of 5 lanes but actually keeping far right except to pass. I can have a 47 page post just on that :)
We can easily have 80 mph speed limits and very little traffic jams and do it all safely if everyone kept far right except to pass accordingly. And even if people wanted to go faster than that it would still work efficiently. Done with my rant, sorry to jack the thread but bad example here as it is a different scenario imo :)
But I do get your point for people only ever being ok with anything so long as it meets their expectations regardless of how quickly the pace may be moving.
 
At work we have a pace of play clock on each cart. The starter runs his little "Starters wand" over the steering wheel and a little clock starts and it tells each cart where they should be on the course in relation to the expected pace of play. If there is a complaint about pace of play then the Ranger just has to look at their carts steering wheel to confirm if they are out or place on the course.
 
theballguy said:
Wow...where do you play? I have to respectfully disagree with you there. Two very nice courses in our area, and the course rangers literally do nothing but drive around oblivious at both. We were stacked up on the 3rd hole two weeks ago - literally 3 groups waiting on the group ahead and the ranger drove by and did nothing. He didn't even stop. If we relied on our rangers here, we'd get no where.
Click to expand...

Then those rangers shouldn't have their job...its that simple.
 
Castpro said:
Playing 18 on my home course (member) today and got scolded by the ranger for the first time ever.

We were playing our normal foursome, teed off at 7:48. There was another foursome in front of us that we were keeping pace with. Two threesomes came up behind us on 5 and appeared impatient.


At the turn, the foursome ahead was done (played 9) and one of our group dropped out, leaving us with three. We pulled away from the group behind us but someone reported us for slow play and the ranger got us on 11. Nice enough but let us know we needed to pick it up.


Played the front in 1:58 and finished 18 in 3:35. I guess the threesomes expected the pace to suit them and not a foursome...


Tommy
Click to expand...

Pretty sad.
 
Thanks for the replies all. I was just a bit irritated after the round and vented here.

The course pace of play is just over 4 hours, I think like 4:12 or something like that. We were well ahead of pace for the entire round, even before the foursome in front of us finished up their 9 holes. It was clear that the threesomes felt we should pick-up our foursome pace to match theirs. I guess they had somewhere else to be....

Tommy
 
TripleBogieTim said:
Then those rangers shouldn't have their job...its that simple.
Click to expand...

While I can't say I disagree, I do think that the presence of rangers is, quite literally, virtually non-existent at most courses I play. Wondering if there's a bigger issue involved.
 
theballguy said:
While I can't say I disagree, I do think that the presence of rangers is, quite literally, virtually non-existent at most courses I play. Wondering if there's a bigger issue involved.
Click to expand...

Maybe the courses are tired of giving free golf to people who spend their shifts ball hawking. I can relate, and we are considering cutting our "Player Assistant" staff by half next season.
 
Smallville said:
Maybe the courses are tired of giving free golf to people who spend their shifts ball hawking. I can relate, and we are considering cutting our "Player Assistant" staff by half next season.
Click to expand...

Because they're not doing their jobs? Or is it because of money? Or (probably) both?
 
theballguy said:
Because they're not doing their jobs? Or is it because of money? Or (probably) both?
Click to expand...

Marshals are almost always unpaid staff, who do it for the golf. Some of ours are awesome at what they do, some do their job ok, and quite a few could go away and the only reason we would miss them is because they aren't golfing five or six days a week. It really seems like the ones who play the most golf are the ones who don't do their jobs well.
 
rollin said:
well, I understand your point. However, using driving as a similarity is not the way to go. That is all about keeping right, and I don't mean just staying out of the left lane like being in the 4th of 5 lanes but actually keeping far right except to pass. I can have a 47 page post just on that :)
We can easily have 80 mph speed limits and very little traffic jams and do it all safely if everyone kept far right except to pass accordingly. And even if people wanted to go faster than that it would still work efficiently. Done with my rant, sorry to jack the thread but bad example here as it is a different scenario imo :)
But I do get your point for people only ever being ok with anything so long as it meets their expectations regardless of how quickly the pace may be moving.
Click to expand...


Yeah, but you understand my point. Checkout lines at the store, fast food lines, etc. People in the waiting room at the doctors office, etc.

BTW, we don't have anything bigger than 4 lanes here. The 80mph tailgater usually weaves from both lanes trying to pass like a NASCAR driver.

I saw an accident a few weeks ago where tailgater tried to pass a truck on the on ramp, pulling a trailer. Lol


Jack
 
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