Slow play is killing golf

Russman

GreeBo wrote: »

You are missing my point though.
Time spent hitting the ball is a fraction of the overall round time, even if you are taking 1 minute per shot.
It's far better to speed up the slow bit (the non hitting bit) than to shave 10 seconds off the hitting time.

If Byron goes from 60s/shot to 30s/shot you save a whopping 35 minutes per round.
It's still taking them over 4 hours to play...so why not tackle that?

/btw I'm being Devils Advocate here, but I do think he has a point.
No point in taking 10s /shot and then sauntering down the fairway.

I can see your logic up to a point, but I'd guess that broadly speaking, most of the guys walk at a fairly similar pace to each other. So, (and I know it might be a bit of a stretch) if its their shot routines that differentiate the fast from the slow, surely that's the part to tackle ?
Bryson is more or less saying that 40s isn't enough FOR HIM to hit his shot - well, I'm sorry Bryson, tough sh1t, learn to hit it quicker or to hit it without all your mathematical equations.

GreeBo

Russman wrote: »

I can see your logic up to a point, but I'd guess that broadly speaking, most of the guys walk at a fairly similar pace to each other. So, (and I know it might be a bit of a stretch) if its their shot routines that differentiate the fast from the slow, surely that's the part to tackle ?
Bryson is more or less saying that 40s isn't enough FOR HIM to hit his shot - well, I'm sorry Bryson, tough sh1t, learn to hit it quicker or to hit it without all your mathematical equations.

In the interview i saw he was adamant that the pace is anything but similar between players

Russman

GreeBo wrote: »

In the interview i saw he was adamant that the pace is anything but similar between players

He was also saying he's at a disadvantage because he's often last to hit, so he can't get be getting his numbers while the others are hitting. TBH, I think he's full of it. From the numbers quoted above by someone its his putting is the biggest issue.

I know its all hypothetical as the tour have absolutely no intention of doing anything about it, but its far easier for them to regulate the time taken over a shot than the speed a player walks at. I also think a certain amount of common sense is allowed with the timings, AFAIK the players time doesn't start till he's at his ball, ie it might be his turn but his ball is 60 yards ahead of the player who has just played, I don't think he's timed until he's at his ball. Open to correction though.

Its far from just Bryson though, its fairly widespread - there's a famous video on Youtube of Andrew Loupe taking a massive amount of time over a 100yd shot. Maybe with Koepka and Rory and a few others making waves something might happen, but reading the Commissioner's statement I wouldn't bank on it.

GreeBo

Russman wrote: »

He was also saying he's at a disadvantage because he's often last to hit, so he can't get be getting his numbers while the others are hitting. TBH, I think he's full of it. From the numbers quoted above by someone its his putting is the biggest issue.

I know its all hypothetical as the tour have absolutely no intention of doing anything about it, but its far easier for them to regulate the time taken over a shot than the speed a player walks at. I also think a certain amount of common sense is allowed with the timings, AFAIK the players time doesn't start till he's at his ball, ie it might be his turn but his ball is 60 yards ahead of the player who has just played, I don't think he's timed until he's at his ball. Open to correction though.

Its far from just Bryson though, its fairly widespread - there's a famous video on Youtube of Andrew Loupe taking a massive amount of time over a 100yd shot. Maybe with Koepka and Rory and a few others making waves something might happen, but reading the Commissioner's statement I wouldn't bank on it.

But if speeding up time over the ball doesnt significantly speed up the time it takes to play....whats the point?

Russman

GreeBo wrote: »

But if speeding up time over the ball doesnt significantly speed up the time it takes to play....whats the point?

Honestly I think a lot of it is optics and perception, to a certain degree. Absolutely a Rory or a Koepka or Justin Thomas will be pi$$ed off waiting while their playing partner takes forever over a shot. They may not be out of place on the course but, you know yourself, as someone mentioned earlier, a 4hr round can seem totally fine with no waiting, and another 4hr round can be interminable for whatever reason, players with elaborate routines, looking for yardages etc etc. I don't think the absolute bottom line number of X hrs is necessarily the goal.
On this side of the pond we don't like to see a JB Holmes take 2 mins over a shot but, from reading some of the US sites, they don't seem to care so much over there.

joebloggs32

One thing that could speed them up is to give them the GPS. They work out the yardage in the end anyway so that might shave a few seconds of their deliberations. I doubt it would make caddies redundant as they still will be clubbing them and considering wind speed/!direction and temperature.
I watched Tyrrell Hatton's caddy pacing out a second shot on the 13 at lahinch as he was offline. It was probably about 80 yards to the pin. He walked there and back. He got it spot on as hatton stitched it. But couldn't that trek back and forth been done by a GPS instead.

Kingswood Rover

joebloggs32 wrote: »

One thing that could speed them up is to give them the GPS. They work out the yardage in the end anyway so that might shave a few seconds of their deliberations. I doubt it would make caddies redundant as they still will be clubbing them and considering wind speed/!direction and temperature.
I watched Tyrrell Hatton's caddy pacing out a second shot on the 13 at lahinch as he was offline. It was probably about 80 yards to the pin. He walked there and back. He got it spot on as hatton stitched it. But couldn't that trek back and forth been done by a GPS instead.

Yep a bit mad in this day and age that they are not allowed measuring equipment

The_Kew_Tour

Played a round yesterday that started at 15.05 and finished at 20.18. We were only a 2 ball. Ridiculous that people in front ruin it for so many others

rickis tache

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

Played a round yesterday that started at 15.05 and finished at 20.18. We were only a 2 ball. Ridiculous that people in front ruin it for so many others

Why didn't you let them play through.?
I'll get my coat.

slave1

So walking up to the first tee in Waterford Castle yesterday afternoon in blistering sunshine and heat, 4ball, we'd never played there before.
Sign said a 4ball time is 4hrs 15minutes, we had a bit of waiting before tee shots from the groups in front through the front 9 then most groups came in.
We picked up the pace and finished in 3hrs 45min, a full half hour ahead of the 4hrs 15minutes, why even have that on the first tee, it's like telling people it's perfectly fine to play that slow.
Just don't get it, oh and we played Faithlegg that morning in 3hrs 50min, walked both courses.
On Friday we played Mount Juliet in 4hrs 45mins and were held up by the group in front from the 4th, they refused to let us through and created a huge tailback on the course

DuckSlice

slave1 wrote: »

So walking up to the first tee in Waterford Castle yesterday afternoon in blistering sunshine and heat, 4ball, we'd never played there before.
Sign said a 4ball time is 4hrs 15minutes, we had a bit of waiting before tee shots from the groups in front through the front 9 then most groups came in.
We picked up the pace and finished in 3hrs 45min, a full half hour ahead of the 4hrs 15minutes, why even have that on the first tee, it's like telling people it's perfectly fine to play that slow.
Just don't get it, oh and we played Faithlegg that morning in 3hrs 50min, walked both courses.
On Friday we played Mount Juliet in 4hrs 45mins and were held up by the group in front from the 4th, they refused to let us through and created a huge tailback on the course

I wouldn't say 4 hours 15 is long for a fourball. I'm not familiar with the course so don't know the difficulty or length of the course.

What was the handicaps of your 4 ball? if you have a group of low handicap golfers you would fly around. or even high handicap golfers that are accurate so you aren't looking for balls all the time. there is so many variable to how fast a round can be.

Scott Tenorman

I played in a scratch cup in Corballis on Saturday.
4 balls around there in a strokeplay comp is the perfect recipe for a long day, waiting to hit every shot & not being able to get any rhythm. Not enjoyable!

slave1

etxp wrote: »

I wouldn't say 4 hours 15 is long for a fourball. I'm not familiar with the course so don't know the difficulty or length of the course.

What was the handicaps of your 4 ball? if you have a group of low handicap golfers you would fly around. or even high handicap golfers that are accurate so you aren't looking for balls all the time. there is so many variable to how fast a round can be.

6,14,23,24, we did look for balls the odd time (playing the course blind) but that's cut back to 3minutes now so if we don't find then it's a quick get on with it.
Agreed there are variables but folk are just slow, there was a 2 ball behind us from the first tee and we said we'd let them through on 11 but they were slow, when we came in on 18 they had fallen hole and a half behind us (a 4ball) and were creating a tail back

Dbu

Another thing I see, is that the 3 minute rule to find a lost ball is being totally ignored.
Watched a crowd in front of us yesterday spend at least 10 minutes looking. Ridiculous stuff

prawnsambo

Dbu wrote: »

Another thing I see, is that the 3 minute rule to find a lost ball is being totally ignored.
Watched a crowd in front of us yesterday spend at least 10 minutes looking. Ridiculous stuff

I know you shouldn't do it if there's a group behind you, but you can actually continue to look for a ball after the three minutes are up. You just can't play it as it's considered lost. I'm thinking of that brand new Pro V1 that you just don't want to give up on.

DuckSlice

prawnsambo wrote: »

I know you shouldn't do it if there's a group behind you, but you can actually continue to look for a ball after the three minutes are up. You just can't play it as it's considered lost. I'm thinking of that brand new Pro V1 that you just don't want to give up on.

Maybe you should play with a cheaper ball if you get attached to your pro V1's :P:P

prawnsambo

etxp wrote: »

Maybe you should play with a cheaper ball if you get attached to your pro V1's :P:P

If you see me searching for a ball in the rough, it's probably because I'm looking for your lost Pro V1s.

slave1

prawnsambo wrote: »

I know you shouldn't do it if there's a group behind you, but you can actually continue to look for a ball after the three minutes are up. You just can't play it as it's considered lost. I'm thinking of that brand new Pro V1 that you just don't want to give up on.

Of course you can, but call the group behind through

DuckSlice

prawnsambo wrote: »

If you see me searching for a ball in the rough, it's probably because I'm looking for your lost Pro V1s.

You will be looking in the wrong place, I only ever lose my balls in water!

GreeBo

Dbu wrote: »

Another thing I see, is that the 3 minute rule to find a lost ball is being totally ignored.
Watched a crowd in front of us yesterday spend at least 10 minutes looking. Ridiculous stuff

Junior cup in bray was like that this year...lad hit a ball...spent 5 mins looking...went back to the and then tried to play the first one that he happened to find on his way back!

etxp wrote: »

You will be looking in the wrong place, I only ever lose my balls in water!

Ohhh Matron!