Kinda like Adam ruins everything - thanks

Sorry you are wrong on several counts:

You are correct each nine is timed but if you are 10 minutes down on the front you are 10 minutes down on the back.

The "developer NEVER said don't enforce pace of play.

The pace of play for champ courses is 4 hours 16 minutes.

Silly suggestion, the courses would never have designated courses for speed. You pay your money and play. How could you tell a group that they cant play unless you play in 3 1/2 hours????

So, what would you do to design a more speedier course? There is going to be a new championship course built close to the turnpike; have you approached the Developer with your design ideas? Or how about having acquired the land and a few million laying around to scratch that check out and build your design? :boom:

Ahhh, The Villages; where golf course designers and greens superintendents go to retire...…………...

Move it along little doggy!
 

What I don’t understand is my dad said there is no play through allowed on the course. There were plenty of times that nobody was behind us and still the other people were terrible and wouldn’t let us play through. I didn’t understand until dad told me it was against the rules because each group was being timed.
Ok then how about these people who haven’t teed off yet and instead are up in the carts having themselves a social outing while we have just played an entire hole and they still haven’t teed off. Then there are the ones who take one club with them and then walk back to the cart to get another. The other writers are so right in that take a club under and over if you are not sure which club you need. I do that all of the time.
The rule is that on a par three that you get six strokes not six putts. When your ball is close enough to hole bend over and pick it up. We are not on the pro tours here. Ok I can see if there are golfers who are that good that it matters about the score but most players here aren’t that good. Nobody needs to have a discussion about their technique and a lesson while on the green.
As far as the ball marks and the pits may as just resolve that their people who think they are entitled because they live here. I agree with one guy a few weeks ago who said it is just easy to fix a ball mark or rake a sand pit if you are standing right next to it. It doesn’t hurt and there is no use of making a stand well if he didn’t do it I am certainly not going to do it for him. Again the point of not having a gathering at everyone who is playing and how they hit their ball. If you are on the other side of the course and not in front of the other player then get your club out of your bag and if it is your turn next be ready to hit the ball. If everyone tried to have consideration for others it would be much more enjoyable. This is why I prefer to play in the evening. Most people have gone to eat and there are never as many people playing in the evenings as during the day.

Slow play
 

I have often wondered what makes people think 4 hours and 10 minutes is the proper speed to play golf and one that everyone enjoys. I know that if a foursome with handicaps of 10-20 play ready golf that a normal round is about 3.5 hours. What I find sad here in TV is that all of the courses are set up for 4+ hour rounds. There are 13 championship courses here, you would think they could take just one and set it up for those who truly want to play ready golf and change the expectation to 3.45 hours. I think they might find a lot of golfers would enjoy not having to wait between every shot and if they did the math I think they would discover a couple of more tee times they could sell. I have asked many of the facility managers how many complaints they get from people saying play is too fast, you ought to see the look they give me but the system does not seem to want to try anything different....

Razor, if you read my earlier post I explained one of my ideas to speed up play and it concerned the bunkers. Too many, too deep,and too large. Going in raking, getting out takes lots of time. Think 9th hole of Caroline bunker at right of green. You could get lost in there. Also think 5th on Caroline quite possibly the worst par 5 design ever. And by the way your sarcasm is not needed.

drcar- you are wrong. If you are 10 minutes behind on the Front nine, once you make the turn your clock starts again. So if you are on pace on the back nine, then you are fine. This was how an ambassador explained it to me. Not that it matters because as others have commented, very few ambassadors will do anything about slow play. I can only assume that they have been told not to enforce slow play.

Thank your lucky stars none here were good enough for the Pro Circuit.
Five hours is classed as a fast round there.

They are TERRIBLE Golfers

not golfers but just people on a golf course

I believe you are correct. I mostly play the executive courses. I hardly ever see "slow play" in the context of how much time is allotted for each hole. I do, however, see "slow play" in the context of how fast I play. The fact that I may we waiting for a "slow" group in front of me because I play fast is my problem only. Choosing level 3 and 4 courses does address the "problem" somewhat.

I dislike slow play as much as the next golfer but Steve overstates this as a problem in Villages golf. In nine years of golfing here, in busy snowbird season, a round has never taken more than 4 hours 20 minutes and most are around 4hours or 4 hours 10 minutes. A golf round can be over 5 hours in many places around this country.
Given our age demographic and the fact that many retirees are trying to enjoy golf for the first time I believe a little patience and a little understanding is worth taking 15-20 minutes longer to accommodate our neighbors. And what would we do with the extra 20 minutes anyway?

I don’t mind if they are slow while playing. It’s the extra stuff that drives me crazy.

Just yesterday we were playing on a fairly empty course and caught up to the group in front of us. We are waiting on the group in front of us to clear the green. They pull the flag, they all line up their putts like there is money on the line. They all finish putting, pulling their balls out of the hole and put the flag back in. I’m fine with that. Then one of them drops his ball back on the green to try putting again. While we are all standing on the tee.

Seriously, just look back before playing mulligans. If you aren’t holding anyone up, go to town on extra shots. But if there are folks waiting for you that’s not the time for practice.

I am not aware of any rule against allowing a group to go around you. It wouldn't stop me if there were. I would simply tell the 'time keeper' what we did and please give us tn minutes.

I agree with those that say that slow play is over-stated. Yes, it happens from time to time. But, that is true everywhere else I lived. I think the difference is, retired folks play much more golf, therefore encountering slow play more often.

Most non par 3 holes have two groups on each hole so that equates to 16 - 18 minutes per hole. Do the math grasshopper.

Actually, the USGA encourages faster groups to play through.

USGA - Improving Pace Of Play (Click Here)

Quote:

Keep up with the group in front of you. Your correct position on the course is immediately behind the group in front of you, not immediately in front of the group behind you. Arrive at your next shot just before the group in front leaves the area in front of you. If you are consistently not able to keep up and a gap opens in front of you, invite the group behind you to play through, irrespective of the number of players in the group.

HOWEVER, my group(s) have been told numerous times by the ambassadors on the championship courses...that "playing through" is not allowed here. :ohdear:

One time my foursome was waved through (on a par 3) by a slow (but courteous & not trying to play slow, they just weren't very good golfers) group in front and even with no one behind us for a few holes...the ambassador told all 8 of us that it "wasn't allowed."

When we told the ambassador that given there was no one behind us, that we would quickly be gone and it was the only common sense thing for the group in front of us to do (they had already hit their tee shots on the par 3)...he mumbled something about how "it messes up our calculations on timing groups." :oops:

Most of us just laughed out loud and then took off...never to see the slower group again. :ho:

It's pretty evident that "calculations of timing groups" doesn't accomplish anything, if you have people in front going so slowly that a bunch of old folks are hoping to play through :) :) :)

Sorry, I would say I hate to correct you, but I am not. You are wrong and so is whatever ambassador you talked to. IF you are behind on the front, you are behind on the back nine.. At the turn the starter should talk to you about pace of play. Go in the clubhouse ask a manager, everyone complains here but no one talks to the managers or the pro.

When playing an Executive course, we were going to let the group behind us play through. The Ambassador told us you are not allowed to let a group play through on Executive courses. Just FYI.

So let's say there are 5 groups behind you for the day, all timed sequentially (the very next tee-time is assigned, as are each of the next 4 tee-times). You want to get an extra 10 minutes. No problem. Everyone will have to wait an extra 10 minutes. Easy peasy. But wait. The next group also wants 10 minutes. They gave it to you, they should give it to them.

So now, the 4 groups behind that group is now waiting 20 minutes each. But the NEXT group also wants 10 minutes. So each of the subsequent 3 groups are now waiting an extra half hour.

This is why it's a bad idea to not care about accountability and owning up to your own responsibility in keeping an appropriate pace. Because it's not just the person behind you who's waiting. It's them and everyone behind them, and the more people who have this "hey we're retired, chill out" attitude is causing the last people in line to have to wait unfairly for every single person ahead of them.

Keep the pace, or accept a later tee-time so that quicker people can start before you do.

I just love the golfer who hasn’t hit a drive over 150 yards all day but has to wait for the green to clear when they’re trying to hit a 275 yards shot from the fairway. really?

Just remember......

Golf is literally a sport to see who can play the least golf.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Worth re-posting.





:super:

What is the hurry, are you doing piece work? Golf is to be enjoyed and a form of relaxation. If you want to go fast, try running track or cross country. I for one want to try to play to the best of my ability, and I play better when I am not race horsing around the golf course. Not that i am slow, and I still get done in the allotted time frame of 4:15. Rush, Rush, Rush is what is wrong with American Society today. Take your time and do it right is my philosphy.

The math is kind of faulty for a less than 3 hour round. That assumption is based on completing every hole in 8-9 minutes, and 1 foursome per hole. With 2 foursomes on each par 4/5, and 1 on each par 3, that leaves you with 32 slots, and approximately 4:20 to complete, on pace. I'm ok with that! Most every group has an occasional bad hole, and you may be held up occasionally, but that's the nature of the game. That being said, 5-6 hours is excessive, but I haven't been subjected to one very often, if ever.

Just a heads up: playing time for par 3's is 12 minutes, par 4's 14 minutes, par 5's 17 minutes. If everyone is on time when you get to a par 3 you will have a 4 minute wait. There is 5 minuets built in for the turn. Each 9 is not timed separately on most courses but there is at least one does time that way.

Not always their fault. Sometimes you do that and they look back at you as if you were trying to hit into them. That intimidates some people. Personally, I just let 'em look. I know how far I hit, and it ain't 275 yards. :1rotfl:

Something Else
 

I remember when I first started playing golf. I had been going to tournaments, etc., or just riding along with my husband. When I told him that I wanted to play, he told me to go get some clubs and lessons. I did. When he saw that I was going to stick with it, he bought me some good clubs. He didn't teach me how to play, but he did teach me how I should play. We would go out in the afternoons, and I would keep up with him by picking up my ball and moving it to where his was and play from there. I didn't take 5 or 6 practice shots, take another club, and more practice. I would take maybe one practice swing (still do) and hit the ball. The first time I was invited to play with him and his buddies, I was not sure I wanted to. We got along great! I had told him at one point that I knew I would never be a really, really good golfer; I just wanted to play well enough that nobody would mind playing with me. He assured me that they wouldn't because I didn't piddle around; I just hit and moved on. My philosophy is that I am either going to hit it or miss it and practice swinging forever wasn't going to change that. Actually, I putted better than him, but couldn't chip. I used to hit lots of chip shots with my 'Texas wedge' from pretty far off the green. As for getting out of traps, one or two tries and then it's the ole hand wedgie (toss it out). Being a beginner is no excuse for holding everyone up. Everyone was a beginner at some point. Nobody here is playing for a Green Jacket. Unless you are in a tournament, just do whatever it takes to keep up and enjoy your game. There is no shame in picking up. I loved tournaments, but played 100% by the rules then. No hand wedgies, etc.

My pet peeves here are not playing ready golf, not picking up when you are totally out of the hole anyway, moseying back to the cart and putting on the club head cover and placing it in the bag, then moving away, not getting out of the cart without finishing whatever conversation you are having first, and not getting off the course when you're done to visit while adding up scores. I find that I play better golf when the pace is comfortable, not slow or rushed. Not that hard to do.

We were told by our club pro:
Your place on the golf course is right behind the group in front of you; not right in front of the group behind you.

Also placing holes in the most difficult Spots on the greens create Slow play Sand bunkers Some impossible to get out of due to the Sand if that’s what you call it yes slow play when golfers should be playing ready golf

C'mon now. No one is insisting that anyone rush. Slow play is rude and selfish, and can be avoided easily without rushing.