Pace of Play On The Golf Course – What You Need To Know

If you’ve been playing the game for long enough, you’ve probably heard this ongoing conversation surrounding pace of play.

At your local muni, you’re told to keep pace with the group in front of you while being sure to complete your round in accordance with the course’s acceptable pace of play guidelines. Obviously, any one group’s fastest possible pace is effectively determined by the pace of the group in front of them.

Larger gaps or bottlenecks result from slower groups that fail to keep up with the respective group in front of them.

During this process in which groups fall behind, these slow groups are considered to be “out of position” as it relates to pace of play rules and procedures. Collectively, groups earning this “out of position” label make golfers’ lives positioned behind them on the course that day substantially more miserable.

Having said that, merely defining “pace of play” within the context of a group’s position relative to other groups on the course and with respect to time is an incomplete assessment.

What is Pace of Play?

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Ideally, individual golfers would always be required to adhere to certain specific metrics within the context of each’s group and with respect to what’s considered acceptable time. Unlike the average Saturday pairings at your public course, professional events and the like have enough rules officials, and scorekeepers in order to determine an individual’s ability to adhere to basic pace of play principles.

Despite this lack of oversight, golfers should always push themselves to consistently play fast and make good time around the course.

Today, pace of play in the states should be monitored more closely due to the increasing number of golfers falling victim to slow play. This unfortunate reality can largely be attributed to the modern golfer’s access to an over-abundance of data/information.

One unintended consequence of this information influx has been the presence of more analytically-inclined, meticulous golfers compared to what was evidenced among players in previous generations. The more variables we try to exercise control over, the slower our play often becomes.

Have you ever been the guy taking less time than your playing partners do to play each shot in an effort to either keep up with the group in front of you or create more space between your group and the one behind you? Maybe you have, maybe you haven’t.

If you’re an experienced player with a competitive background, there’s a very good chance you’ve engaged in this behavior. In recent years, playing at a respectable pace has essentially fallen by the wayside in favor of packing tee sheets in order to meet the demands of these sharp increases in golf participation.

Why Pace of Play is Important

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As expected, more golfers playing on the course simultaneously has contributed to longer rounds. Whether the prevalence of today’s longer rounds ought to be blamed more on the increasing number of beginner golfers or the sheer amount of golfers playing at the same time is neither here nor there.

Pace of play has presented golf’s governing bodies with issues for decades in this nation. Whatever your opinions are, just be mindful that bad, speedy golfers are far more enjoyable to play alongside versus the slow, more experienced ones.

If there is an irrefutable conclusion that indeed exists after examining pace of play and its interpretations, causes, and remedies, it must be this poorly understood relationship between the quality of a golfer and their pace of play. In other words, playing poorly doesn’t coincide with playing in an untimely fashion, and playing in a timely fashion isn’t synonymous with experienced, better players.

Beginners worrying about their pace of play on the golf course are already thinking about the way they should be. There are plenty of slow beginners who are taking their time learning how to play the game.

At some level, that’s perfectly fine. Golf is a hard game, and it takes time for all of us to get used to.

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Keep Your Head in the Game

Obviously, some pick it up faster than others and are able to keep their pace up. Sure, the fewer shots you hit on a golf course, the harder it should be to fall out of position. Let the word “should” be the operative word for our purposes here.

The amount of mid-to-low handicappers regularly failing to begin their pre-shot routine prior to it being their turn to play never ceases to amaze me. They’ll get to their ball in a normal fashion with respect to time and will sit in their cart or stand next to their golf bag, either staring into space or doing anything but what they should be doing.

If this is you, make a conscious effort to keep your head in the game by limiting side conversations and staying off your phone once you reach your golf ball. Depending on how well you know the members in your group, they may or may not speak up in the event you do fall behind.

If they do, insist on playing ready golf if your group isn’t already doing so, and do your best to gradually pick up the pace. If your playing partners suffer in silence, slow players should never mistake this collective reluctance to speak up for carelessness.

Consistently slow golfers earn equally distasteful reputations among their peers at their respective clubs/home courses. Collectively, such character assessments make it exponentially more difficult for slow players not just to make new friends but retain playing partners.

Playing too slow is a death sentence for golfers routinely using the course as a means of establishing ongoing relationships on a personal and professional basis. The fundamental lack of ability to keep good time is commonly viewed as both selfish and rude behavior.

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In many instances, these judgments are often harsh, premature, or unwarranted in nature. Regardless of the merits of such conclusions, each has the potential to cast a dark cloud over your ability to reach your desired goals from a social/networking/business standpoint.

At the end of the day, consciously playing slow or not being aware of your slow play both work against you more than you’re often willing to realize or come to terms with.

In order to golf your ball, every golfer in a group is responsible for flying their own aircraft in accordance with each’s plotted course of travel while operating within the same loosely defined fly zone or airspace as their group/fleet members. Flying your aircraft requires lots of focus and concentration in order to stay on course with respect to each’s charted course of travel.

Doing precisely that requires a steady balance of keeping your eyes straight ahead and your head on a swivel so that you’re not getting in the way or in the airspace of the other crafts in your fly zone. If you’re the pilot of the aircraft that’s falling behind the other aircrafts in your fleet, the other pilots are often forced to both slowdown and take their eyes off their charted course in order to look squarely back at you. In doing so, the slow pilot/player has compromised the efficiency of their entire fleet/group with respect to the timeliness of his fleet’s/group’s progress in the sky and on the golf course.

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In essence, each’s failure to keep pace with his fleet/group members makes it difficult for the other pilots/players to fly/play the way they had originally intended to.

Be Aware of Your Pace

Sometimes, you may not be aware that your pace of play is slow or slower compared to what the members in your group would like it to be or are used to. Whatever the case, be ready to play when it’s your turn and know when to pick up your ball on any given hole. Your group members and, just as importantly, the groups behind you will appreciate your efforts to keep your pace up. If you’re not sure when to pick up your ball, use double par as your guide.

If your pace of play is typically adequate, remain patient on the days you’re playing either with or behind slower players. Remind yourself to stay focused only on what you can control. More often than not, golfers are not in a position to directly influence how fast the other members of their group play.

Depending on your personality or how well-acquainted you are with the people you’re playing with that day, you might respond to slow play by speaking up, staying silent, or consulting an official.

The latter is often an option made available to us only when we’re playing in a competitive environment. With that being said, don’t be the guy who consults a rules official without first bringing it to the slow players’ attention yourself. Give the player the chance to reconcile his own behavior before referring him to a higher authority.

If you feel you must speak up, it’s more forthright to speak on a player-to-player basis. Opting to be more direct is often viewed as the gentlemanly course of action, for it falls more in line with the personal nature of the sport.

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Personally, I prefer to keep my thoughts to myself and embrace the tough-it-out mindset in response to slow play. Unless it’s a close buddy, telling a slow player that he/she is playing too slow is a quick way to create friction between you and your playing partners.

If the slow player in your pairing really is THAT slow, it’s only a matter of time before someone says something to him. In the meantime, I’m going to keep my head down, eyes straight ahead, and worry about golfing my ball. Once I let the distractions in, they’re that much harder to get out.

Don’t Be Afraid to Play Ready Golf

Depending on the mood/seriousness of your round that day, don’t be afraid to play ready golf. As the Rules of Golf now state, ready golf is acceptable. Ready golf simply means that you can play your next shot even if your ball is not the furthest ball from the hole in your group.

While you probably don’t want to be the guy routinely hitting green-side chips when one guy is still 120 yards away from the same green for his approach, the rules now make it permissible to play “out of turn” in most situations.

Believe me, rarely will you be getting in anyone’s way if you do decide to play when you’re ready. As long as you aren’t noticeably in someone else’s line of sight as they’re about ready to hit their ball, you should be okay. When this does happen, you may force someone in your group to back off a shot so that you can play yours.

You certainly don’t want this to become a habit, as such behavior can be pinned as poor etiquette. On the other hand, being too quick to the punch is always better than being the guy everyone is always waiting on.

Walking vs. Taking a Cart

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Often, players who like riding in carts think that their preferred mode of transportation acts as a one-way ticket to playing faster golf. This claim’s merit is contingent upon one’s knowledge of how to drive a cart both efficiently and effectively. Driving in an assertive manner and choosing your riding buddy wisely on a round-by-round basis makes quick rounds a more realistic proposition.

For instance, picture the pair of riders that would be better off riding separately from one another. In other words, imagine you’re driving the cart that day, and your miss tends to go left off the tee all day while your cart partner’s miss tends to go right. Also, imagine you both hit the ball similar distances off the tee.

Don’t be the driver who will drive into the left rough and then, after hitting, drive into the right rough alongside your cart pal in order to take him directly to his ball. Either park somewhere in between both of your balls and walk your separate ways (with clubs in hand), or climb out of the cart with your clubs in hand and let your buddy take the cart to his ball.

This way, you’re covering less ground than you otherwise would be during those rounds where your progression thru each hole resembles a sort of zig-zagging course of travel. Trust me, driving the cart in a more linear fashion is the way to go. The less ground you cover, the more time you’re going to save shot to shot and hole to hole.

When these principles are applied to every member of your weekly foursome, your group will save loads of time. If the course you’re playing that day doesn’t allow carts on the fairway(s), park your cart in a spot where both you and your cart buddy needn’t walk more than what’s prudent and/or necessary to your respective ball.

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The More, the Merrier

Bring multiple clubs with you, so you’re not the guy running back to the cart in a pure panic because you unwisely selected the wrong club or two clubs for your next shot. Instead, bring three or four clubs with you in order to allow more time for your pre-shot routine rather than being a track star.

For golfers who prefer to use their legs as their desired mode of transportation, keep in mind that we all do not walk at the same pace. On average, the vast majority of golf carts max out at 13 miles per hour.

In your weekly group, you may walk faster than Johnny and Chris, who both walk faster than the Turtle. If you find yourself being the “Turtle,” there are a few easy ways to address the pace of play issues that commonly result from your lack of speed.

If you’re able, one approach is to simply walk faster. If this means trading in your cart bag for a walking bag or substituting your walking bag out for a Sunday bag, give it a try. Here in the U.S., the market for more affordable golf bags for walkers isn’t all that great when compared to the amount of clunky, cheap cart bags I too-oft see.

Don’t let this be your reason for not buying a golf bag that’s just as friendly on your shoulder as it is on the back of a cart. If you like your cart bag and don’t want to replace it, that’s fine.

Just be sure to lighten the load prior to the next time you plan on walking 9 or 18. If you enjoy taking push carts, have yours ready to go prior to the round rather than being the guy who’s constantly fooling around with the remote during the entire front nine. Or, scratch the pushcart and replace it with a Sunday bag. The pushcart trend is not speeding up pace of play nearly as much as people insist it is.

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I’ve played with golfers who can’t break 100 who are far more enjoyable to play with than guys who routinely shoot in the high 80s. Score offers little to no indication of how fast/slow you are as a player. The aforementioned is even more apparent on the greens when we’re all in close quarters. Sometimes the best player in your group is the same player taking the most time to putt out.

It’s Okay to Pick Up

If you’re new to the game and find that you’ve taken more strokes than double par on any given hole, it’s okay to pick up. I know you would like to finish out, but opt to do so when the course is empty, or you’re playing alone. Picking up during those rounds, which place more emphasis on adhering to pace of play rules/procedures, serves to benefit your entire group and will reduce your stress level.

Other times, it’s encouraged to let the group behind you play thru. You’re not sacrificing any amount of manhood or self-respect by waving the group on the tee behind you up as you’re standing on the green of that same par 3. In fact, allowing a group to play thru makes it easier for your group to enjoy the round.

Now that you’re not worried about the group behind you being on your tail all day, you’re free to play uninhibited by those stressors that golfers place on themselves unnecessarily.

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Letting a group play thru demonstrates one’s ability to act in accordance with proper etiquette. Also, this decision displays a marked level of appreciation and respect for how the game is meant to be played. When we play in accordance with the Rules of Golf, we gain the respect of our fellow golfers.

When in doubt, be ready to play, and don’t waste time getting to your golf ball. The quicker you arrive at your golf ball, the more preparation time you afford yourself for your next shot. Building a deliberate, timely, and repeatable pre-shot routine helps players slow down mentally without having to slow down physically in order to play at a good pace and shoot lower scores.

Under pressure, it’s best to strike an equal balance between what we’re thinking and what we’re doing. In other words, adrenaline has a funny way of speeding us up mentally so that our minds begin to race at the expense of sound, timely execution. Instead of merely ignoring its presence, accept it for what it is by using it and deploying it more effectively.

Harness your adrenaline by channeling it towards being locked in on your next golf shot. Thinking in such a way gets you in the right frame of mind to hone in on your next shot and, in doing so, cuts out the wasted time/energy you used to spend distracting yourself on the course. And the less distracted you are as a golfer, the faster you’ll play.

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