We need to be teaching fast play at an early age. I have walked up on our local high school teams playing my home course in the evenings. These kids are crazy slow. 3 hours to play 9 holes. Habits are formed way before these kids turn pro and the ones that don't turn pro will be slowing the rest of us down at our local courses.

I don't like slow play any more than anyone else, but i don't think "slow play" on tour is as easily fixed as some people think. Does it become frustrating to be waiting on every shot when we play golf? Yes. Im sure guys on tour have problems with that. Theres many factors that contribute though.
- Long, hard, difficult golf courses, with fast greens
- Typically there are between 120 and 155 players in a tournament.
- The cash and prestige they play for

Add all that up, there isn't really any significant gaps in time to shave off a typical tour event round. They may be able to save a minute here and there. I just don't think theres a solution.

That doesn't mean to me that when i tee it up on a saturday morning, You and I can take the same 4-5-6 hour round time to complete. thats just not the case, as amateur players, we need to speed it up. But out on tour, i just don't see it being solved.

Eric: I don't agree. Even with tough courses, large fields, etc., there are ways to keep the pace better than it often is. Too many times watching golf on TV I see players waiting until after their playing partner played to even start discussing and seriously looking at his own shot to be played. That's not ready golf.

No doubt Rick! I understand your point, but i just dont see ready golf as an option on the PGA tour. Even if they did play it, i personal dont think it would save any significant time. To them, its their job, their livelihood is on the line. If its gonna take any extra time to hit a shot, they are gonna take the extra time.

I think the tour is a different animal since this is how they make their living. However, local golf needs a cure as it's becoming more and more acceptable. We had a standing weekend rule at my old club stating that if you tee'd off before 11am on the weekend and you couldn't finish a round in under 4hours and 15minutes you we not allowed to play before 11am the folllowing weekend. This worked out extremely well for a number of reasons:

1) It was provate course so everyone knew the course very well and the "danger" areas that we more susceptible to lost of OB balls

2) course knowledge alos leads to reading greens faster

3) People were able to identified as the violators of slow play. Tey eventually sped up or would not be invited into groups for the weekend morning tee times.

Pace of Play on Tour doesn't bother me. If you're a star, you're not slow, you're deliberate!!! It won't change. Too much money involved!!

I DO care about the pace of play at my local club. Got in trouble last week for mentioning to the slower than slow group ahead of me that the 4-hours referred to an 18 hole round, not the 9 they were playing!!! Everyone spouts 4 hours. That's nonsense. 3:15 with 3:30 MAX. First out yesterday. Played in 2:50. Rangers need the authority to push slow players. Too often, a ranger says something, and the next thing you know, he's gone because some "irate" member complained about him.

Clubs and public courses need to help too. Start by minimizing unrealistic forced carries. Multiple tees and encourage players to use the appropriate one(s). Post "recommendations" on the scorecard or somewhere in the cart.

I have always said that the root cause of todays problem with slow play stems from watching too much golf on T.V. In the past there was not as much T.V coverage and I can not remember this being as big a problem as it is now. I have seen guys in our Winter League competitions here in Scotland lining up a putt from all angles, to a hole cut on a temporary green in the fairway, as if the are putting to win The Open.

Madhatter

A couple pros I know who specialize in teaching young people are pretty insistent on teaching the etiquette of the game as they begin to teach how to play it. Unlike Dale's example, (at least where I play), the kids play much faster than the adults.

There is a story that goes around here that I know to be true. Some guys were finished playing a hole, but they stayed around on the green practicing their putting while a group waited in the fairway. Yelling ensued, but the group on the tee insisted they had nowhere to go because the group ahead of them were still on the next tee. A gun was drawn and it could have gotten very ugly. The whole thing became a complaint that was called into the clubhouse and in a week or so, all they did was put a sign on the wall that said, "Your place on the course is immediately behind the group in front of you, not ahead of the group behind you."

Personally, I wasn't impressed with that minimal level of effort.

Slow play is the worst.... I can only imagine it’s just as frustrating as a pro. You’re a pro, take your shot

I think slow play on tour would go away quickly if you started assessing 2 stroke penalties instead of $3000-$5000 fines. 2 strokes will cost them a lot more if they're at the top of the leader board. As amateurs we play foursomes in local events and we're expected to play in 4:15 or less, it is acceptable for tour players to play twosome in 5 hours. Young players all look up to tour players and follow their lead.

Tim H

I agree with you Dale. Something more serious does need to happen on Tour too, money, strokes, I'm really not in any position to comment on what the penalty should be, bottom line is Tour pros are role models whether they like it or not.
Young golfers are doing everything they can to emulate what they see on Tour, including taking forever to hit shots. Like you said, teach them early, they develop a good routine that doesn't take forever, and especially if they're on a school team, that quicker routine becomes one they are comfortable with during competition. I'm glad pros are starting to speak up more now, maybe the youngsters will start listening to that more.

All that said, I expect a round on the PGA Tour to take longer than our typical weekend games with how much is at stake, but I think 4.5-5 would be a more than reasonable expectation, 5.5+ is ridiculous, especially playing in threesomes or pairs.

Call me old fashioned but in the amateur game a lot of the issue is down to rangefinders/gps. Whatever happened to having the skill to do these things by eye? I'm only 26 but have been playing for 22 years and I don't use any of these aids, they just slow the game down in my opinion, and the majority of users are not skilled enough to play the correct shot anyway.

Then we get on to putting, there's no need to spend hours lining putts up.

Whilst I appreciate pro's have a lot riding on their score, certain players definitely seem to take an age to do anything.

I couldn't disagree more about your belief about GPS and range finders. You think it's faster to watch someone walk all over and look for a sprinkler head and walk yardages?

Tim H

I personally feel you shouldn't need a yardage at all. Everyone should be able to do it by eye. Before we had gps etc it is what we had to do. Our sprinklers didn't have yardages on them. There were 150 yard stakes at the side of the rough and that was all. Didn't stop us playing well.

At best we had yardage books, but you could use them on the way to the shot, knowing where your ball is, rather than waiting until you get to the ball, use range finder etc

Dennis, Not sure if this was a private or public course. If it was private the group on the green should have known better. A good strong general manager would have reprimanded them. Whoever had the gun should have been banned from the course. Just because you pay a monthly due does not give you the right to use the course as you see fit. Look at other private clubs in how they would have handled this.

I personally know of an esteemed private clubs that kicked the member out because one of his guests said something disparaging to the staff.

If it was a public course, law enforcement should have been called in.

These are just my opinions

Slow play is definitely frustrating. When you politely bring it up most of the time you are told I paid my money. Can't really bring it up at the clubhouse. Nobody wants to lose revenue. My biggest observation of slow play is use of carts. One golfer gets out, grabs club, hits shot. Then puts club in bag, gets back in cart, and drives a short distance and other golfer gets out.. Most will not park so both can get out and approach their ball. I get it, carts are pure revenue. Go to Europe and ask for cart (buggy). Must have a doctors letter. I'm sure we could go on and on about slow play. Fact is I golf to reduce stress. I try not to let it bother me.

The pro's could play a little more ready golf. No reason the longer drive can't just be ready to hit after the last one hits. I can make a case the caddy should be able to use a GPS. How much time is spent trying to get the distances on a blocked shot to the next fairway? The course book doesn't have that. The senior championship I marshal seems to move ok. At the 2012 US Women's Open in hundred degree heat, it was understandable that the players weren't sprinting up the fairways, but every putt was played before the next player started lining up that putt. Watching a golfer circle the green, line up the putt, go through the routine, then putt, and then the next player would circle the green.... was numbing in every sense of the word. The last few groups broke 6 hours.

Last year there was a pro stopclock tournament in Europe where the first player in each 3 ball had 50 seconds to hit his shot, the other 2 40 seconds, each group had a referee on a cart with a big clock on it, with a shot penalty if outside this time, if I remember there were only 2 penalised a shot, they all got round in just over 4 hours, would be nice to see more of this

Have found over the years that those who complain the most are the slowest. Most courses post 4 hrs and 15 minutes as normal pace of play. Are the marshals/rangers going to enforce it? Up to the Directors/Head Pros. If the course is packed and no where to go, what do you do. With the trouble that these courses are facing today, they do not want to offend anyone.

As to the pros, two players playing in five hours. Come on. Know the rules, follow them, take the appropriate drops, without calling in a rules official, let them use range finders.

I play in amateur tournaments and have seen them go past 5 and a half hours. I am asleep after 4.5 hours and so does my game. Agree with Dale, it all starts when you are young. When I first started playing, an old timer told me about putting and the game. A ball only breaks one way in most cases. Once you read it putt, stop thinking and putt the damn thing, Chuck. Same thing about my other shots, line it up, practice swing, hit it. The PGA needs to police it better. The best way to get a pro's attention is thru their pocket book. With respect.