Pace of play idea

[Clevelandfan]

Was at launch today and watching people hit balls, realized they hit a lot faster when charged an hourly rate ($21/hr). On the drive home, thought about what if a golf course charged an hourly rate say $15/hr vs the traditional methods and if you played fast $45 for 3 hrs or $75 for 5 hrs. I wonder if anyone would play slow on that course because in the back of your mind you'd hear the meter running.

Food for thought

[Guynick]

Nice thought with plenty of questions:

1. It would actually create economic incentives for the course to allow slow play, since course revenue might increase because of it.

2. Since slow play is something that some golfers create and others merely suffer, how do you judge? I don't want to pay for someone else's dawdling.

3. Does the pricing still apply if the course is nearly empty? Or does the rate just go down?

[Clevelandfan]

point 2 would be an issue, not sure how to address that other than incentive ie. pointing it out to the group ahead or skipping a hole. Perhaps if the course that implements this with time would be known as a fast players course that wouldn't be a problem. Maybe with peer pressure as well. Final point would be that this forum has slow and fast players as evidenced by previous threads on this issue but there is a common thread that binds this forum and I think its that we're all cheapskates and maybe that would push the slow players to speed up.:$

[ondadl]

I don't think I need any further incentives to hit into the painfully slower groups in front of me...

[Big Shooter]

Was at launch today and watching people hit balls, realized they hit a lot faster when charged an hourly rate ($21/hr). On the drive home, thought about what if a golf course charged an hourly rate

Good Luck with that. :rolleyes:
Not in our lifetime. :cool:

[Bellyhungry]

Was at launch today and watching people hit balls, realized they hit a lot faster when charged an hourly rate ($21/hr). On the drive home, thought about what if a golf course charged an hourly rate say $15/hr vs the traditional methods and if you played fast $45 for 3 hrs or $75 for 5 hrs. I wonder if anyone would play slow on that course because in the back of your mind you'd hear the meter running.

Food for thought

Charging by the hour probably will result in lots of fights breaking out on the golf course between the group in front and the group behind.

I much rather lean on an incentive program like a 10% discount for the next round if you manage to finish under x hours.

[davepratt]

I attended a course put on by a architect who claims most of the blame for slow play goes to the owners. Some of the problems are: tee times too close to each other, allowing groups to tee off before their time ( IE: instead of looking at the clock, the starter tells you to go when the group in front is out of range causing an immediate backup), jamming in groups who don't have a time just to get a couple more $$$, and the biggest problem is course design. We all know courses where you zip along and all of a sudden come to a tee with 3 groups on it. This guy said a 4 1/2 hour round where you do no waiting is far better than a 4 hour round where you wait all the time. He redesigned Pebble Beach as they had a string of fairly easy holes and then a bunch of killer holes. He solved the backup problem by toughening up the easier holes. He narrowed the fairways, added sand traps and lengthened the rough. He also increased the time between teeoffs and showed the impact on revenues and it was peanuts less. Not to mention the golfer had a much better experience. So get with it owners.