How to Actually Play Faster Golf
With so much going on in professional golf over this past weekend, one storyline seems to be garnering more attention than it should: pace-of-play. Tiger Woods returning to and making the cut on the PGA Tour, Jason Day earning his first win since the 2016 Players Championship with an ailing back, or the start of the LPGA Tour season should have garnered the devotion of the golf media and fans, but it was J.B. Holmes and his time of four minutes and ten seconds to hit his second shot on the 72nd hole of the Farmers Insurance Open. Below are some reasons why J.B. Holmes play is indicative of a larger problem on the PGA Tour and what steps you can take to make your rounds faster and more enjoyable. These steps will not be your typical “play ready golf”, although that would help.
Why Rounds on the PGA Tour Take So Long
Although the poor time that was recorded when J.B. Holmes played the 18th hole on Sunday was a focal point, it was not the only case of slow play during the final round. The final group of the Farmers Insurance Open took six hours to complete their round on Sunday. They were not significantly behind the group in front of them. Earlier in the day, there was a three group wait to tee off the third hole. Torrey Pines South Course is extremely difficult, long, and with heavy rough. I played it a month before the tournament and there were signs all over the golf course that stated “We have started the process of growing out the rough for the Farmers Insurance Open. It may be difficult to locate you ball. If you are not able to find it quickly, please drop a ball and add one stroke to your score.” With an additional month of growth, the round was penal for anyone who missed the fairways. A golf course that difficult requires a great deal more thought in planning each shot, meaning that all players will be slower than usual. Additionally, because the tournament starts players on both tees and plays in threesomes for the weekend, the pace will be slowed by the amount of competitors on the golf course at one time. This is done mainly to increase entertainment value for the fans at the event and on television. This tournament is not the only one on the PGA Tour that is subjected to slow play, but it has been a problem for years. Changes to the tournament could improve this problem, but it will not fix the tour.
There are players at all levels of golf who are known for being slow. The names on the PGA Tour are well known to those that follow the game closely, but there is little that can be done. Penalties for slow play are not enforced for many reasons, but the main reason is that it is not what sponsors want. Imagine this scenario: you have paid millions to host a top-level event. The final group consists of the three-top players in the world, your dream situation. With one hole to go in the tournament, with thousands in attendance cheering for their favorite players, and millions watching around the world, they are all called for a penalty for slow play, thereby changing the outcome of the tournament. When it comes to exposure for your company, you went from a dream to a nightmare in a matter of minutes. In extreme cases like Sunday, the slow play actually brought in millions more viewers for the tournament because The Grammy’s were being televised right after the event. The first job of the tour is to keep the sponsors happy, not the viewers, and I do not blame them for that.
Although it has been on the books for a few years, a shot clock to regulate the amount of time that a player may spend over the ball cannot be strictly enforced. In most scenarios, 45 seconds is plenty of time to play a shot once it has become your turn to play, but I will point to another lowlight of Sunday as to why the strict 45 seconds is not feasible. When putting on the 13th green for birdie, a fan yelled something in Tiger Woods backswing, clearly startling Woods and causing him to miss the putt. Noises caused by fans are commonplace on professional tours, whether it is on the hole being played or another place on the course. Players are constantly forced to back off shots because of cheering. Would it be fair to penalize a player who tried to start their backswing at 30 seconds, but was forced to back off because of noise, causing them to take another 20 seconds to hit the shot? Even making an exception for this case, natural causes such as wind change, a leaf blowing by, or a bug landing on the ball are just a few of the many reasons that this cannot be strictly enforced. Frankly, in extreme cases where slow play causes a disruption to the tournament such as Sunday, the various tours must fine players in a responsible manner. The bill for flight changes, additional hotel rooms, and overtime for staff should be split between the players who caused the delay. Jason Day, Alex Noren, their families, countless staff, and media were forced to stay an extra day because of the slow play on Sunday. If J.B. Holmes was forced to take $100,000 from his check for this week to pay for such things, don’t you think he and others would have played faster on Sunday? This can be done. Brittany Lincicome literally ran to finish her last hole on Sunday, in route to a victory. The LPGA Tour even brought out lights for the final group to finish the event that had been plagued by weather. She is an example of the urgency that should be felt across all tours.
What You Can Do to Play Faster
I have played 9 holes (3403 yards) in a cart in only 19 minutes. I have played with another player, each having our own cart, 9 holes (3367 yards) in 32 minutes. (In fairness, these first two rounds were both on courses I had played hundreds of times.) A typical 18 hole round by myself is about 2 hours in a cart, 2.5 hours walking, including hitting a few extra practice shots. In tournaments, the governing bodies for the tournaments I play have no problem placing me in the first group when I ask for an early tee time because of work. In 2015 I played in the New England PGA Assistant Professionals Championship at Framingham (MA) Country Club, teeing off with the first group of the day at 8:00am. Scores in our group were 73, 78, and 86. After playing, turning in my scorecard, and getting in my car to leave the course heading to work, the time was 11:03am. We have the ability to see when scores are posted online in our tournaments and knowing that my group was way ahead of the group behind us, I was curious when the next group would post. The scores for the next group we posted just before noon. I was 48 miles away, almost in New Hampshire. Just this past year, my group was the first to post a score three days in a row for our annual Fall Festival Pro-Am tournaments on Cape Cod. At no point during any of these rounds did I ever hit a shot where I felt rushed, always going through my normal routine of at least two practice swings. Except for the first round mentioned, none of the scores shot were under par. This is therefore not advice from someone who was shooting exceptionally low scores, thus taking fewer shots. If I can play this quick, you should be able to as well.
When I play there are things that I have learned to do over the years that shave a few seconds off my playing time for each shot, but more importantly the time between shots or holes. Try to add these to your game, teach them to your playing partners, and the time it takes you to play each round will drop.
1. Always park your cart next to the green and on the side that is closest to the next hole. On a cart path that wraps around the back of the green, this will allow you to exit the green and quickly be on your way, not delaying the group behind you.
2. Wait until you have a moment on the next hole to write down the scores from the previous hole. This will most often occur on your way down the next fairway. If you are driving, the person riding in the cart with you may write down scores.
3. If you bring clubs to the putting green besides your putter, such as a wedge for a chip shot, make sure to leave it where you will be exiting the green. In a scenario like this, I will bring the headcover of my putter to the green with me as well. This will protect my putter at all times, give me something to lean an extra club on when the ground is wet, and will ensure that I will not forget the clubs when leaving the green. What better reminder is there that you left something behind than not having your cover to place back on your putter?
4. Start thinking about your next shot as soon as you hit your last one. This gives you a subtle train of thought to begin your next shot even as you are driving down the fairway. Don’t think of this as my way of saying “maintain laser focus” and don’t talk to your playing partners, but you should be able to do both things at the same time.
5. Follow your shot until it lands and make a mental note of where your ball might be. This is especially helpful if you have hit an errant shot. Knowing near what tree your ball entered the woods will help to shorten your search.
6. If you hit a poor shot, play a provisional ball before you leave your current location. Nothing takes more time than having to drive back to your last shot because of a lost ball.
7. Unless you are in a tournament, you do not need to utilize the full 5 minutes to look for a lost ball. (This time is due to be reduced to 3 minutes with rules changes coming in 2019.) Frankly, if you can’t find it within 2 minutes, you probably are better off hitting your provisional ball anyway.
8. In a scenario where you are not able to drive the golf cart to your ball (i.e. cart path only), bring plenty of clubs with you make sure you have the correct one to play your next shot. There is nothing wrong with taking your entire bag off the cart to mitigate this problem.
9. If there is a chance that your ball might be in a hazard, bring another ball with you when looking for your shot.
10. Even if you are a quick player yourself, it is imperative that you acknowledge when playing with guests, you will be slower than usual. Remember the round I played 9 holes with another person in 32 minutes? He is perhaps the fastest player I have even seen. Two weeks after that round, his group took more than five hours to play 18 holes because his guests were slow. He was beside himself and extremely upset at me when I told him his group needed to hurry up. Although he was often the person who complained the most about slow play, he was guilty on this occasion, and later did apologize when he realized the glacial pace at which they played.
11. Golf Course architecture is a significant reason for slow play. Having any combination of a short par-4, a reachable par-5, or a par-3 in sequential holes will always slow down play. It is permissible to let the group behind you hit up while you are getting ready to putt. This will keep things moving and keep players happy by not having to wait more than five minutes in between shots.
12. There is nothing wrong with letting a faster group play through. Although it may slow you down for a couple of minutes, it will relieve stress on both your group and the players behind you. Stress=bad shots.
Lastly, it is possible to encourage players in your group to move it along. My personal favorite move is to step up to the tee markers before another player’s shot has landed. It is a subtle gesture, but it works. Golfers must also get over the notion of “I paid to play here; I’ll take as long as I want.” You know who else paid to play and enjoy their round? Every other person on the course that day. There may be little we can do to fix slow play on the PGA Tour, but we can all pick up the pace in our rounds. If there is nothing else that sticks out to you, I will leave you with this. In Scotland, the average round of golf is three hours, in the United States it is four. Scottish golf is also played as mainly a walking sport, in the US we use golf carts. See anything wrong with that fact?