If you’re a novice golfer, the section here labeled ‘Suggestions for Players‘ is information that you really must know in order to keep pace on the course. Be sure to read the ‘Special Tip‘. It can help you the most. If you’re an experienced player you will probably also find some things here that you may not have known.
Based on my experience and research, I will describe here the pace of play problem and some of the many methods being used by golf courses.
I’ll also describe a method that you probably haven’t seen before. It will absolutely help novices and other very slow groups to catch up to the group ahead when they have fallen behind by an entire hole or more.
The problem
All golfers play at a different pace due to differing abilities, experience, knowledge and habits. So when they are playing the golf course in what could be considered single file, you can begin to see the root of the problem.
There will always be complaints from some of the faster foursomes having to wait for even the average foursomes. Of course, fast threesomes or twosomes can expect to have some waiting on a busy course. But if we can eliminate the 5+ hour rounds, it would certainly reduce the number of dissatisfied golfers and requests for refunds.
When some players wait on several tees or fairways for much more than about a minute each time, they will often say they had to wait ten minutes on every hole for the group ahead. An obvious exaggeration, but that’s what it feels like to them.
Suggestions for players
- Be on time for the first tee, so you don’t cause others to also miss their tee time.
- Be ready to hit your shot when it’s your turn. No more practice swings. When putting, always try to line up your putt before your turn, if possible.
- Know as precisely as possible where your ball lands in the rough, near water, in bushes or trees, making a mental image of a marking near where it lands so you can go right to it; so you don’t waste a lot of time looking for it. Also, when possible, watch where others in your group hit their shots.
- When reaching the green, park your cart on the cart path, even with the back of the green, never in front of the green. After putting, you can quickly proceed to the next tee, so the group behind you can hit to the green.
- Play ready golf. On each tee, whoever is ready first, hits. This is useful if you are behind pace and not keeping up with the group in front of you.
- If you and your cart partner are a similar distance from a green, drop them off at their ball and then go to yours, so you both can prepare to hit when it is safe.
- Play the correct tees according to your normal driving distance. There are several sets of tees for each hole. The back tees (championship tees) are for pros, very low handicap players and very long hitters. The very forward tees are for younger juniors and very short hitters. There are usually a few sets of tees in between, one for the better players, one for average players, one for seniors. Play the appropriate tees, you’ll score better, have more fun and use less time.
- Don’t take a lot of practice swings. Just one or none if you are behind pace.
- Mark the scorecard after driving away from the green. So the next group can hit up. Never stand on the green recounting your strokes, after all have putted. Just get into the cart and go. Count later if you need to.
- If you stop to buy food or beverage during the round, and you’re already behind the pace, let one of your group do the order while the rest of you hit your shot, if your ball is nearby.
- If you’re a novice player, and you’ve already hit 8 shots on a hole, you definitely should consider picking up your ball so you don’t hold up the group. That should be enough strokes on a hole. Your playing partners will appreciate it as well as players behind you.
- If you’re keeping up with the group in front of you, then congratulations! If that group is behind pace and holding you up, let the ranger know, if there is one. If the group in front is on pace, don’t complain, maybe your faster than average. If you’re averaging less than 15 minutes per hole, then you should finish in under four and a half hours. That’s acceptable on most courses, although closer to four hours is much better for most players who play regularly.
Special Tip – for slow players, novices
When you’re in a very slow group, try it!!
Some groups of players may know the basics for keeping pace but still are not able to. One example is if two or more novice players are in the group. At some point, they will have one or more entirely empty holes in front of them, and players waiting behind them.
My suggestion here can cut about a half hour from their round and help them to keep up with an acceptable pace. It would require only one simple change. If they follow the other suggestions above they should have no trouble getting on pace.
I’ve tried this technique when playing with a couple of very slow players. We had more than one empty hole in front of us and a group right behind us. So, on the next few holes we did the following:
On each green, two of us would putt out and then proceed to the next tee to hit our drives while the other two putted out. They would then join us on the tee and hit their drives. This saved at least one and a half to two minutes on each tee. After a few holes, the foursome that had been on our backs for several holes, could no longer keep up with us. We did not rush or change anything else about our play. It worked like magic.
When I was a ranger, I made this suggestion to a few willing foursomes with similar results. Rangers may have to get approval by course management in order to diplomatically suggest this to groups who are behind the acceptable pace and have empty holes in front of them.
This method is guaranteed to speed up their pace so they don’t get further behind and and they could possibly catch up with the next group in front. The ranger needs to identify such slow groups early in their round so it doesn’t become a bigger and bigger problem causing anger and requests for refunds. This is one method. There are others that are more disruptive to their round.
Years before trying this, I had seen this technique used in a PGA tournament by a twosome of pros that teed off first, early in the morning. They played 18 holes, walking, in one hour and 50 minutes. On each green, one would putt out first and immediately proceed to the next tee and tee off. After putting, the other one came to the tee. That’s the only change they made as far as I could tell. They weren’t rushing their shots. They shot about par.
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Course Management and Set-up
- Having less rough and not having it too long will certainly allow golfers to find their ball quicker and play faster.
- Greens that are extremely fast will cause a lot of 3-putts for average and high handicap players, thus slowing down the entire course.
- Tee time intervals should not be too short. Seven minute intervals will usually put too many players on the course too fast and quickly cause a back-up and players waiting to hit. Nine or ten minute intervals are less likely to cause a back-up early in the round if the starter enforces the times.
- Have rangers that are properly trained to encourage pace in a friendly manner when necessary. Just being visible on the course helps to remind players to keep pace. They should make frequent rounds of the course to at least be seen.
- Courses should be properly marked to point to the next tee especially if it’s not obvious. You don’t want lost golfers driving around.
- The starter could sometimes send late arrivals directly to the second tee, if it’s open and if the next group has already arrived to the first tee, so that they are not also made to be late.
- When the first fairway clears very quickly, have the next group wait a couple minutes until their scheduled tee time, so as not to jam too many players onto the first few holes too soon and possibly cause a backup out on the course. Better to wait a little on the first tee than later, out on the course.
Course design – a few factors that can affect pace
- Having a par three on the first 3-4 holes is known to often cause a back-up that upsets players so early in the round.
- Having too many narrow fairways that are between trees, near water or out of bounds will slow down the pace especially for average and high handicap players.
- Too many water holes or too many bunkers will obviously slow down the overall pace, especially for average player, etc.
- If the course has a long distance from the green to the next tee on several holes, it will slow down the pace.
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