Playing Through in North America

[beachman101]

Your thoughts on letting people play through.

Mine: In Europe foursomes get around in under 3 hours. Why can we not do that here in North America? Are people more selfish with their time here? IE. I paid, therefore, I get to take as long as I want, forget everyone else. I disagree with this of course. We should enjoy the game, play the game, however, we are not on the tour. Play with courtesy.

What about when a twosome is behind a foursome? I believe let the twosome play through, max time effected on the round is maybe 5 minutes. You can even make fun of it. Have a bet with your foursome whether the twosome is going to lose their ball off the tee or not. Make sure the twosome knows about the bet. Also, tell the twosome if the ball gets lost off the tee, than they must proceed to the next tee without finishing the hole.

Sum up: Golfers in North America are somewhat clueless. From not fixing ball marks and divots, to holding up people and taking 6 hours to play a round of golf.

Lets all work this year to speed up play and the beer aftewards will be more enjoyable, yet a beer is anjoyable anytime.

I'm out.
Beachman.

[BowmanvilleJim]

Re: Playing Through in North America

Can we play faster ? Yes
Should we let 2 somes play thru ? that really depends. If the course is crowded already then it serves no purpose allowing them to play thru.

[A Man Called Papa]

Re: Playing Through in North America

Can we play faster ? Yes
Should we let 2 somes play thru ? that really depends. If the course is crowded already then it serves no purpose allowing them to play thru.

I agree with you. I don't understand why a twosome on a cart which goes out on a busy day, thinks that they are somehow "entitled" to bump through three or four groups in the course of their round. If there is a hole open or your foursome is having difficulty on a hole, by all means. Otherwise, I don't want them disrupting my game as long as we are staying in touch with the group in front of us.

[Ignatius Reilly]

Re: Playing Through in North America

Your thoughts on letting people play through.

Mine: In Europe foursomes get around in under 3 hours. Why can we not do that here in North America? Are people more selfish with their time here? IE. I paid, therefore, I get to take as long as I want, forget everyone else. I disagree with this of course. We should enjoy the game, play the game, however, we are not on the tour. Play with courtesy.

What about when a twosome is behind a foursome? I believe let the twosome play through, max time effected on the round is maybe 5 minutes. You can even make fun of it. Have a bet with your foursome whether the twosome is going to lose their ball off the tee or not. Make sure the twosome knows about the bet. Also, tell the twosome if the ball gets lost off the tee, than they must proceed to the next tee without finishing the hole.

Sum up: Golfers in North America are somewhat clueless. From not fixing ball marks and divots, to holding up people and taking 6 hours to play a round of golf.

Lets all work this year to speed up play and the beer aftewards will be more enjoyable, yet a beer is anjoyable anytime.

I'm out.
Beachman.

So - If my group lets a twosome through we get to set the rules for their round? Interesting. If I was in the twosome, I'd be unimpressed.

Can we play faster ? Yes
Should we let 2 somes play thru ? that really depends. If the course is crowded already then it serves no purpose allowing them to play thru.

I've had a number of times when the course was backed up and a group behind kept pressing to play through. I hate that. Sometimes I feel like letting them through and immediately hitting into them. It seems like they're asking for something like that....

[SeanFTW]

Re: Playing Through in North America

I can't stand pushy people. I've played before and had to wait on every shot for the people in front of me, and then the people come up behind us and ask if they can play through since we are playing slow. I just look at them and say "dude, do you think we are just standing here admiring the trees?" We're held up too. if we let you through, you're gonna be in the same damn position"

It seems everyones time is more important than the next guy. Sure, I don't like to wait either, but I don't plan a day of golf on a saturday/sunday morning expecting to get done in 4 hours.

[P25]

Re: Playing Through in North America

I don't think 3hrs is realistic over here. I'm not sure how they do it over there unless the conditions of the course (hazards, shorter walks, etc.) allow for it more than they do here. 4hrs though - should be do-able by everyone. Anything over 4-1/2 is too long.

I agree re: letting 2somes play through. I've been in a 2some having to wait around a lot, and while it sucks, I know that if the course is busy, I'm going to have to wait a lot. If there's an open hole not that far ahead (2-3 groups ahead), then I think the right thing to do is to let them through.

[Pingeye2_fan]

Re: Playing Through in North America

I can't stand pushy people. I've played before and had to wait on every shot for the people in front of me, and then the people come up behind us and ask if they can play through since we are playing slow. I just look at them and say "dude, do you think we are just standing here admiring the trees?" We're held up too. if we let you through, you're gonna be in the same damn position"

It seems everyones time is more important than the next guy. Sure, I don't like to wait either, but I don't plan a day of golf on a saturday/sunday morning expecting to get done in 4 hours.

The same people you describe are the ones that companies need to put directions on shampoo bottles for.

CLUELESS!!

[pendlebg]

Re: Playing Through in North America

Personally I think that there is not much that can be done on a broader scale about slow play, it happens and there are lots of contributing factors, all of which have lengthy threads in the archives here.

All I see you can do is pick your times and courses based on when you have a better chance of not getting stuck. I am pretty sure if one could access all the stats you could apply queueing theory to golf courses and tee times and get a reasonably accurate model of the range you can expect your round to be in. Since I am not about to do that, I go by gut feel and pick courses and times when I hope to have a good pace for my round, and more often than not I get a good pace. Not always, but usually.

[longirons]

Re: Playing Through in North America

If we could get universally competent marshalls I'd be happy to let them make the decisions most of the time.. once I was playing when 2 groups hadn't shown up before our tee time... we teed off and a few holes later a twosome caught up to us... there was really no point in letting them through as we knew we'd catch up with the 'herd' eventually... however they did catch us on a par 3 (through much rushing on their part) and the marshalls asked us to let them play though.... which we did

sure enough within 3 holes we caught up to our herd and spent the rest of the round watching the twosome play...

[Big Shooter]

Re: Playing Through in North America

I don't think 3hrs is realistic over here.

unless you've GOTTA play 108 holes in a day, like a couple of TGN'rs!

[P25]

Re: Playing Through in North America

unless you've GOTTA play 108 holes in a day, like a couple of TGN'rs!

I'm referring to average round times - walking. I play fast, yet doubt I could do 3hrs in a 4some walking on an empty full length course.

[Bern]

Re: Playing Through in North America

unless you've GOTTA play 108 holes in a day, like a couple of TGN'rs!

I don't count in a cart!

[SingleWalking]

Re: Playing Through in North America

Me and couple of TGNers have done it around 3.5 hours at Parkview Valley last fall. We were the first group to tee off that morning in light rain. All of us were walking, either carry or hand carts. To do 3 hrs you will have to be a single on an empty course.

I have done that (3 hrs) once at good old Don Valley last spring. It was a rain/cloudy/flurries day and the course was so empty that I was let out as a single! I blew through the front 9 in about 1 hr. I did not run into anybody until #14 which I decided to join up with them. I was surprised about the speed as well.

[Jeffc]

Re: Playing Through in North America

I have no idea how people do it in 3 hours. I can do 3.5 maybe with a twosome and an open course. I do find a lot of courses I play have good walks between holes, some of the older courses are better in this respect.

[Ignatius Reilly]

Re: Playing Through in North America

I'm referring to average round times - walking. I play fast, yet doubt I could do 3hrs in a 4some walking on an empty full length course.

Agreed. I can do 18 on my own if I'm in a hurry in 2.5 hrs comfortably. Any faster and I'm pushing the pace at the expense of enjoying the round.

Sub 3 with a foursome doesn't sound like fun to me. Sounds like a lot of focus on speed and getting home, at the expense of companionship and enjoying the day. It also assumes pretty low caps for all, as that ends up playing a key part in the overall time. Fewer shots in total, and few to no lost balls helps.

I agree with your earlier times - 4 hours would be nice for an AVERAGE pace, 4.5 is okay, any more than that is unpleasant (aka "common" )