i agree with idea of not taking long time to play golf but sometimes your not going to play as well and might take longer since your hitting more strokes.its no fun if your having to rush your shots plus if your in a foursome and being pushed by a threesome thats not your fault.

if golf courses took away the tips and moved the other 3 boxes up rounds would be a lot shorter. many times i see the “weekender” out there with their buddies playing from the wrong tee box. spending half the day looking for their ball is frustrating. we adopted a rule of automatic 2 putt on the first green vs taking a mulligan and hitting a second shot off the tee. think about it where do most of the strokes add up (100 yds in). this was a suggestion in golf digest last year but we as a group have adopted it 3 years ago. i used to play the middle (whites) until my driver went crazy, so i tee off with a 3 iron from the gold tees hit it down the middle and make the round more enjoyable. if everyone would do this the 5 hr rounds would slowly disappear.

I have mixed feelings about this post. I know that if there is a group out on the course that is clearly not keeping up that I would have to agree with what people are saying here. But sometimes you just have a bad hole though and when the course is crowded, bad holes will be more common. You have a bad hole and make a few extra strokes, try to make the time up on the next hole. When it’s crowded and I knock one off in the woods, I give a quick look for my ball if I don’t see it the first time through I take a drop and go on. This stuff can have an accordion effect on the course and make it seem like there is a slow group ahead of you. It can also make it look like one group is lagging a little when it wasn’t their fault. I know it would upset me if the marshal stopped to tell me to keep u! p when it’s not my fault. Stuff like that is enough for me not to come back to that course, ever. If your marshal is on top of things I guess this won’t be a problem but at the same time I don’t want to have the marshal drive down my cart path every other hole. Part of the problem is that there are not a couple of golf courses in town any more. There are plenty of golf courses to choose from. If one place makes you mad you can ban the place and not miss it one bit. I think golf courses are afraid of this. I know on the Golf Channel every so often they talk about the lack of new golfers playing the game. They talk about ways of making the game easier to attract more people into the sport. I don’t figure a marshal telling a group of newer golfers to hurry up is going to help. Many people also work and don’t have time to golf during the week so golfing during the week is not a possibility. I guess the bottom line is I’m afraid of the micro managing marshal (an! d you know there will be some) out on the course that is fee! ling like he’s not doing his job if he’s not rushing people. It’s not good for golf and especially not good for that course. If you are a person on a strict schedule I guess this problem is upsetting. I guess I have a different feeling about all of this. If I’m golfing on a weekend, I know it’s going to be slow. I go to the course expecting it. I can’t think of to many places that I would rather be than on the course. If the round takes 5 hours instead of 4 it was just longer I spent doing something that I enjoy. I am in no hurry to get it over with, I golfing, what could be better? I take the time to enjoy the scenery, talk to the people I’m golfing with, think about my shot, and take a few more practice swings. To me it’s just a part of weekend golfing. I’m not trying to start a fight or anything, just an opinion from the other side of the coin.

There are simply 2 camps: 1) Play ready golf, no excuses for spending too much time, we’re not pro’s and our livelihood doesn’t depend on our results, we love golf but we would rather spend 4-5 hours playing than 5-6 hours playing, we don’t like waiting, and waiting, and waiting to hit a shot 2) We are here to enjoy ourselves, we love the camaraderie, what’s the hurry, my ball got lost so I need to look for it

So we should have 2 types of courses, or 2 types of play even if on different days. Fast Play: 4-4 1/2 hour max, enforced, sorry if you don’t like it, but get out of the way. And Slow Play: the round may take 5 hours, don’t sweat it, quit trying to push the pace.

I hate talking about things on message boards sometimes because occasionally the message doesn’t quite get read the way you meant it. I certainly never meant to say that I’m out there to take my time and enjoy the day not caring about holding people up. What I was meaning was on a slow day when I’m waiting to hit my next shot because the group in front of me is not clear, I take the time to talk, enjoy the scenery, take a few practice swings, etc. I don’t let the slow play get to my head. We all know how much of a mental game golf is anyway. Go to the course expecting it. All groups should always try to keep up with the group ahead of them but bad holes happen. When the course is crowded, there will be plenty of groups having a bad hole. That’s how things get jammed up most of the time. T! he last thing I want is some nagging marshal messing with my mental game. I know that most people work during the week but if you want a quick game of golf, golf during the week. I think it’s a little much to expect a 4hr 10 min round on a weekend like the starting post suggested. Expect about a 5hr round as a norm.

Having been a past employee at Wild Wing Plantation in Myrtle Beach (way back when they had 4 courses), weekend rounds were 6 hrs. Biggest reason was the 10 minute intervals instead of 15. This would back up the 1st tee even before the day started. All had to do with the round count for the day. “Snowbirds” killed it for the locals which is why I play all my golf during the week. I can’t bring myself to pay more for a round of golf on the weekend for the same product I play during the week. At some courses it’s a difference of $20 or more. I say find a place that treats you right, gives a good value and enjoy your day.