These past couple weekends I've found myself in tough dilema's, and I'm not sure which is worse because each has it's own challenges.  I have two "home" courses that I really enjoy.  One is close to where I live and the other is close to where I work.  They are owned by the same corporation so the annual members pass I buy is good at both, which allows me to play on weekdays for 12 bucks greenfee and cart for 18 holes, and 20 bucks on weekend AM's.  On weekends I usually go to the course as a single and join up with another single, or small group.  My weekend course has this habit of sending 9 holers out on the back 9 and 18 holers out on the 1st tee.  Many times, by the time we get to the 10th hole forward progress comes to a halt and you have to wait on almost every hit.  By the time the area ahead is clear your so pumped to hit that enevitably you rush it and.......   Up to this weekend I thought this was the epitamy of golfing!

This weekend I was teamed up with a group of three; father, son and grandson - who was about 15.   They apologized in the beginning that they weren't very good.  Not a problem.  The problem is - they had no purpose in their movements.  They would drive up to a ball, sit and talk for a bit, get out and fumble through their bag, pull out a club, look around a little, put the club back and grab another, fidget over the ball a little....and then top it.  They did this for each ball, for each player, on each hole!  By the 4th hole I was pulling my hair out!!! (What little I have left).  Now, mind you I have been making hint's since the second hole about the importance of keeping up with the pace of play.  We were now 2 holes back from the group in front of us.

I had many options: Bolt forward by myself and pretend this nightmare never happened, which would be good for me but do nothing for the poor groups starting to stack up behind.  Allowing groups to play through isn't really an option because that would stretch us out to a 7 hour round and just continuously cause a bottle neck; so I chose to sacrifice my round and try to get this group to make up some ground with the group WAY UP in front of us.  (Where is the Marshal you ask?  We started about 0645 on Sunday, the Marshal doesn't show up till about 1030 or so)

I had a quick conference with the two adults, explaining to them the dilema..we payed our money to play and shouldn't have to rush but.... everybody behind us payed theirs to and it's not fair to them to drag their games into the trash either.  They agreed so we set a few rules.  If you nub your tee shot you will drop with the rest in the fairway (actually they would drop with me in the fairway).  Once you've hit 8 strokes on the hole you will pick up and drop it short of the green.  This way everybody gets to chip on and putt.

To make this long story not as long as that round, it worked!  By the time the marshal came out we were on the Tee when the group in front was on their green so it turned out to be an ok day.  I threw the scorecard away after 7 or 8 and just tried to concentrate on each shot.  Nothing like a Sunday morning 6 hour round!

SemperFi

MEMBERS COMMENTS VIEWING 1 - 2 OUT OF 2 COMMENTS From: Businessgolf 07/16/2007 14:10:11 Wow, at those rates I can see on a business level that course is going to put as many golfers on the course as they can.  William is correct...things will only change when they see or hear there is a threat in their revenue.  So discuss this issue with your golf professional...William will tell you he gets use to it... Normally public courses will set an 8 minute max gap between teetimes.  They will start squeezing it to 6 minutes if they have a HUGE walk-up list.  That is the start of the problem.   Hackeritis plays a big part in the time it takes to play. Private clubs will go with a 10 minute gap at the minimum, at least that is what it is at my club and we have 1100 golfing members to squeeze onto three courses.  Slow play at my course only occurs when the “Money Boys” break up into threesomes on the first tee and then play as a six-some for the rest of the round.  They get away with it since they pay off the Marshalls to go watch the other courses while they back up the course for 6 hours.  The club management turns its head since we have a celebrity that is amongst the crew and they choose not to lose that extra revenue....so yes, slow play does happen at private courses for different reasons but on the norm it is not set up for slow play like muni’s.  Bottomline: You have a better chance of playing a pleasant round of golf at private clubs From: WILLMSU 07/16/2007 10:09:12 Sorry to hear about your golf.  I sugguest a few things. 1.  Have you thought about joining a private club?  At Private clubs 6 hour rounds there don't happen often.  They happen at my club if you play 36 holes. 2.  Have you spoken to the PGA Pro at your Muni courses you play about the issues you have? 3.  With those types of rates you are going to get any type of people there.  Most serious golfers are willing to pay a bit more than $12 a round and that way the rifrafs will stay at those low end courses. 4.  Thoses courses that you are playing have low Green Fees so they must do more volume and thus I assuem they don't care about the quality of the product they produce.  Every city in America has them.  They are famous.  I grew new one myself.  Famous for low greens fees and famous for lots of people.  Good old Poverty Hills GC "The Working Mans Course" 5.  I admire you for playing 6 hour rounds.  I would find somthing else better to do if it took that much time to play 18 holes. 6.  Maybe those 9 holers know somthing you don't?  They want to finish in 2 hours!  7. Congrats on your good thinking on how to keep the rounds moving.  Its a sad story that many muni players have to endure on weekends.  Hang in there and be sure to speak the staff.  You never know when maricles happen. Will