SPEED UP PLAY

[jim mcdaniel]

Just a few things to remember about how to speed up without rushing.
1)After playing the ball, do not go to your bag and put away your club. Just sit down and drive to the next shot. Then go to the bag, put away your weapon and pull out the next one. saves a trip to the bag all 72 times you hit it.
2) Leave the green and go to the next tee before taking the time to record the scores. It gets you out of the way quicker.
3)When on the green, discretely read your put while the others are putting. If everyone does this look how much time you will save.
4) Also with #1, you can clean and put yours away while your cart mate hits.
These are only a few small things that will speed up play. I know there are others who have more ideas, so lets hear them.
Jim McDaniel

[william shaw]

Whatever happened to the “Threesomes” ? I thought that moved it along very well…

[Josh Wurzberger]

YES! I loved having my own cart when we played threesomes! Please WAM staff bring that back!

[Jon Craig]

Not sure if it is allowed, but we always play ready golf. If you are ahead of a guy by 5 yards, but his cart partner is hitting on the other side of the fairway 20 yards back, I am going to be hitting my shot before they get to me. Also whomever gets to the tee hits, unless we are waiting for the group ahead, OR there was a birdie, NEVER step in front of a birdie 🙂

[jim mcdaniel]

96 players on the course. Will 32 groups of 3 play faster the 24 groups of 4? 2 groups on 14 holes or 2 on 6 holes? It is debatable.

[Harry (The Hack) Radley]

Jim, if they made it double par max then pick up the ball it would be quicker. The only downfall with that is that you would only get to complete 12 holes

[Wayne Rhodes]

“Ready golf” is perfectly legal in medal play (Playing out of order is only a violation if it is done to intentionally provide a fellow competitor with favorable information.)

A small but effective suggestion: take the HEADCOVER off your driver on the first hole and leave it OFF until the end of the round. Unless you’re very clumsy or have a strange way of arranging your clubs in your bag, you should never have your driver hit against your other woods (since the other clubs still have their covers on). Likewise, after hitting a fairway wood or hybrid from fairway, get in the cart and go before replacing head cover. Can’t stand to see people (either driver or passenger) prevent a cart from taking off after hitting by replacing a head cover.

[Bill Hambrick]

Jim I agree with most of the ways to speed up play except putting your club away while your cart mate hits. I believe it will speed up play more if you help him or her watch their shot, especially if it’s a tee shot. Also most golfers don’t want someone moving around while they hit.

[Rick Kimbrell]

Exactly Bill Hambrick. Thank you!!! I try to watch the shots as best as possible of the other players in case we have to hunt them. And, I hate people rattling clubs around when I am hitting. Stand still, be quiet…PLEASE!

[Kirk Roberts]

I am also for speeding up slow play but I have rabbit ears and having someone drive up on me as I hit makes me slow down. If you can just get into your cart and be quiet it helps speed up play. Making noise or talking is disrupting to everyone waiting to hit.
Whoever putts out first should grab the flag and be ready to go when the last man finishes putting. And watch your ball till it stops.

[Alex Grebel]

In many (not all) cases, the next player to hit can be at his ball scoping distance, etc as someone else gets set to hit. Obviously that isn’t possible in the line of flight of the other person. And whenever possible, drop the cart mate at his/her ball with a few clubs and go to your own ball – especially if on opposite sides of the fairway. Last thing – ball searches – 3 hunt while 1 hits. No reason to not play 2-3 other shots during a 5-minute search.

[Kirk Roberts]

I forgot one very important thing…..Now there is always one day with CARTPATH ONLY. I see this quite often and it really gets me to either laugh or want to scream. When you get to your ball….or as close to it as you can. Go ahead and get a distance for reference and take a few clubs to your ball. None of us have to walk to our ball get a yardage and then walk back to the cart to get a club and then walk back to hit the shot. TAKE AT LEAST THREE CLUBS FOR EACH SHOT. you can take your range finder with you and decide which of the three will work. If the distance from the path is 150 take your 150 club your 140 and your 160 club. That way your covered. and if your near some trees take a punch out club. And one last thing….the pros do this but we don’t have to…..five practice swings for a 20 handicapper is too many PLEASE HIT THE BALL IN THIS LIFETIME. Last year I had a guy in a skins game that took 45 seconds to hit after he addressed the ball. WE COUNTED several times and it was 45 to 50 seconds to hit after he finally addressed his ball. YAWN…zzzzzzzz

[william shaw]

Scott, Wasn’t it faster a couple of years ago, when we played threesomes ?

[Bob Newman]

You will never see the WA go back to 3’somes–too many complained about having to ride alone and no one to socialize with BUT they were faster. all the events I work for the CGA use 3’s as they have proven to be faster by the USGA. The easiest and simplest way to speed up play is to get the pros on the course monitoring play, finding where the gaps are, giving the group a time to catch up(ie: 3 holes) and issuing penalties for slow play. This use to happen when I first started playing in the WA but the last several years has not.

[Rick Kimbrell]

Speaking of speed of play…want to debunk this before someone brings it up. The crap I hear every year…you can’t play any faster because the whole course is full with around 100 players and more than one group teeing off on each hole…everyone is playing at the same pace. NO THEY ARE NOT. That is a bunch of crap. If that were the case, then why is it that sometimes you finish and you are sitting in the clubhouse for an hour or more before the last groups come in. Or, you finally get to the clubhouse and groups have been in for over an hour.

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