pick it up and move on.....slow play abuse
i know slow play can sometimes be un-avoidable....but come on....playing in a recent stableford comp my playing partners and myself had the pleasure of being stuck behind 3 of the most frustrating individuals possible...
hole after hole...water... trees.... bunker....bunker....water again....he aint started putting yet.....i worked out 7shots upto now can he score on this par 4... no! ...just pick it up and move on....you are holding up play...i suggest this to him and asked to be let through in a firm but polite manner.. the answer was a not too polite...something along the lines of "i can do what i fking want n anyway its a comp you dont have to let through in a fking comp"..
unfortunatley for him it may be his last comp...the letter in
like i said there is always going to be slow play, but people should concider other players on the course and as for the verbal abuse....im not a violent man but.. im pretty good with a wedge in my hand..lol..
Reply : Mon 1st Aug 2011 18:14
Had a similar issue whilst playing on my own last week- an older gentleman bless his soul was infront of me and was zig zagging all over the fairways and it was totally putting me off my game and making me wait horrendously.
The chap actually spoke to me on one tee and said the windy conditions were affecting his play!!! LOL
He then proceeded to take 7 practice swings before addressing the ball which is downright taking the buiscuit in my opinion especially when he knew he was holding up play.
I ended up getting slightly pi**ed off an a par 5 and launched my drive doen the fairway at which point he waved me through - 4 holes later on!!!
He then had the cheek to say he didn't think he would be seeing me anytime soon!
I am all for patience but some people have not got a clue about course etiquette - It actually says on most score cards "Please avoid slow play at all times"
Thanks Matt
Reply : Mon 1st Aug 2011 22:03
You are so knowledgeable Jedi Master Sanders. You speak with such great wisdom. Did you learn all this knowledge on a Golf Course in the far reaches of Japan, or on a Distant Planet, Far Far Away.
Reply : Tue 2nd Aug 2011 14:05
There are only two reasons, imo, for slow play. 1) ignorance, and 2) arrogance. Education will go some way to solving the first one but you'll only resolve the second one by enforcement. The vast majority of clubs don't have the finance, course rangers, and/or the balls, penalising slow play in comps, to enforce the etiquette.
The is a correlation between what you pay for your golf and the amount of slow play you'll experience. If you only play at the local muni you'll experience loads of it but if you fork out lots of dosh you'll see very little by comparison. So in that respect you pays your money and you takes your choice.
As to educating people; once upon a time a quiet word would suffice. They'd apologise for holding you up, and in some cases thank you for letting them know. Sadly nowadays your more like to get a load of abuse. Again, where you play makes a difference. If someone gives you abuse in a members club they'd get a letter from the Secretary.
However, its not really slow play that is the issue. Its what slow players don't do. They rarely let you through. We all should recognise that some older players aren't as quick as they used to be, and some new starters aren't too quick to realise the problems they are causing. Again, its down to education. A polite, quiet word with both somewhere where you won't embarrass them will more often than not achieve a 'ell of a lot more than shouting down the fairway at them.
But if you're stuck out on the course behind a snail(s), just remember that unless you have somewhere you need to be straight after a round you are where you want to be, doing what you want to do, with people you chose to be with - you'd happily sit in a bar chatting with your playing partners with only a rough idea of when you're leaving. Why not just see your time out on the course as an opportunity to start the banter early?
Team hug.... can't you just feel the love
Reply : Tue 2nd Aug 2011 14:59
Slow play is the bain of all golfers, even the slow ones moan about somebody holding them up!
At my golf club there are no course marshalls. So anything goes once you get out of sight of the clubhouse, which means half way down the first hole!
You could phone the pro shop if somebody is holding you up but they might send somebody down to sort it out if they have somebody spare!
A complaint after the game normally results in no action being taken. It's a 'Crown Golf' club so they won't be banning anybody just in case they decide to move to another club.
It has happened to every golfer at some time or other, the group in front who are clearly a full hole behind the group in front of them. They spend ten minutes looking for each of their golf balls and wonder why you are waving your arms at them!
I always try to keep up with the group in front. Now if I'm in a four ball, and one or two of my group are having a stinker then we may fall behind that group in front. But we will always try to walk a bit faster to catch up.
Maybe it's time to change the rules and state that you only have one minute to search for a ball then you must call the group through, but if they aren't waving you through after ten minutes looking I don't think this will work.
What I think would work would be a combined course marshall/refreshment cart. Driving around the course he could ask the slower groups to speed up or let the group behind play through. Whilst selling refreshements to those waiting to play their tee shots. This would be good at my club because we have a very poor/non existant halfway hut!
What doesn't help also is allowing a golf society to play on the same day are you are holding your medal competition, and the Norman Plum competition (Essex Golf Union competition).
This happened to my partner and I about three weeks ago.
We turned up to tee off at 12:30pm on a Sunday (parnter works nights so cannot start early). We find the first tee is packed. Turns out the Norman Plum away team turned up late at our course. This is only three four balls, but it meant a half hour delay. Then it turns out that the golf club had allowed a golf society to book a midday tee time. Ever since I've been a member (nearly three years) it was alway 1pm for a golf society on a weekend during the summer months. It was midday during the winter months.
Our medal is an all day affair, you turn up and pay your money. Then you drop you completed scorecard in the box at the end of the day.
The biggest factor with slow play must be looking for a golf ball. How many times do you see a fourball tee off and one of the group will be in the long grass/tress? Nearly every time with the people I play with (and it's me on quite a few occasions!). I've got a good eye for finding golf balls and I walk quickly if I know I'm in the rough stuff.
So what can we do about it?
Russ
Reply : Tue 2nd Aug 2011 15:24
I think the marshall/refreshments seller is a nice idea. It will lessen the cost to the course and may even turn a small profit at some clubs. A "checkpoint" at the halfway hut (where available) could work too.
Slightly more elaborate, but with cheap modern technology entirely do-able.....
at the 1st, 10th & 18th tees (or 18th green). have an RFD card reader. each member / guest has (or is issued if a guest) a card...like most members do already for the bar, but make it an RFID card. You pass it by the scanner at each station and the club know exactly how long each group is taking...and also where the gaps are. quick players could be rewarded with bigger discount at the bar/cafe, slower players can be monitored and spoken to when needed. The pro shop can see at a glance how quickly/slowly the course is playing in real time. Could be a dragons den moment.
Reply : Tue 2nd Aug 2011 15:45
The card thing could be taken one step further.
You could have a small chip inserted into your bag tag which you are given with your membership.
Then at each tee they would have a reader and as you pass the reader it automatically registers your chip.
One thing about this is that they would have to have somebody monitoring this system because as soon as a gap appears between some groups they would have to send somebody out to find out what is the problem.
Russ
Reply : Tue 2nd Aug 2011 16:57
The biggest problem is the way that clubs utilise their tee times.
A good club will operate without tee times and by utilising both the first and the tenth tees split 2 balls from 3&4 balls.
This then stops the arguments about a 4 ball holding up a 2 ball when they have lost a complete hole to the 2 ball in front of them.
We all have to recognise that the days of three hour 4 balls have completely disappeared and learn to accept that the norm is now 4 hours.
There are many things which have contributed to the extra time taken these days but I have no wish to start an argument by listing them all.
Last edit : Tue 2nd Aug 2011 17:46
Reply : Tue 2nd Aug 2011 17:51
Richard, as soon as this argument rears its head the camp immediately splits into two very vocal sides, with none giving way to the other irrepective of their argument being sound. So, as you can see it is a waste of time.
I have been fortunate to have played the majority of my golf under conditions which were established long before I even started playing. What I partake in now is a completely different way of playing this wonderful game. I just have to accept that this so called progress is what everybody really wants.
Last edit : Tue 2nd Aug 2011 19:16
Reply : Tue 2nd Aug 2011 19:14
John ,John, John, I'll have an argument with you if you want...
I started playing in the 60's, no not the 1860's, and since then I've seen good and bad in every decade. As a junior in the 60's the only place I was allowed to change my shoes was in the corner of the greenkeeper's shed - don't tell 'elf & safety. In the 70's, in my mid teens, I wasn't allowed to play in the Club Championship coz I was a yoof - low single figures meant nothing if you're a yoof, even if you could give anyone a run for their money. So during the 60's and 70's I managed to play in spite of the Colonel Blimps, not because of, so I don't have fond memories of some of the senior members of the club at that time. Thank god times have changed!
My only gripe in golf these days is slow players, and those that can't find their ball, rarely wave you through. Other than that, golf today is probably more fun than it was back when you could only buy blades for irons, small balls and woods with heads marginally bigger than a goose's egg.
Reply : Tue 2nd Aug 2011 19:33
Brian, I started playing serious golf Jan 1959 on leaving the army at 21 years of age, I played at a public course where red garment was the order of the day, being public land. So we have something in common in respect of that period.
The differece being that you were a junior and I was an adult and at that time, and even now, juniors get the raw end of the stick, with the exception of lower membership fees. Club rules in relation to you not being able to play in the club championhship is something I have never come across at any of the clubs I have been a member, which, in order were Chingford, St.Georges Hill, Clevedon. Almerimar(Spain) Frinton, Sweetwoods Park, Wimbledon Common, Sherfield Oaks and now Caversham Heath.
I suppose you are attempting to put me in the same class as your Colonel Blimps and if that is the case, then you are very wide of the mark.
If you seriously believe that golf is more fun with the modern technology then I am afraid I have to disagree with you very strongly. Blades were fabulous, as were persimmon woods, in fact I still use my persimmon woods to this day.
Unfortunately, like you, by the sound of it, am suffering with the ravages of life, but you seem to still be coping with a very respectable handicap for your age.
Yes, I was still playing off 6 when I had my first heart attack at 62, but have declined rapidly since then I'm afraid.
Everyone who plays this game has a point of view which others have to respect even if they disagree with all the anomalies of the game.
Last edit : Tue 2nd Aug 2011 20:40
Reply : Tue 2nd Aug 2011 20:05
John, I am very sorry if you got the impression I was labelling you in with a certain type of golf club member. I don't know you, and even if I did and you were a Blimp I wouldn't do it in an open forum.
I do miss the gent's nights, with all the pomp & circumstance... not to mention the port.
As for blades; hit out of the middle they are sweet. And it is easier to work the ball with them but I doubt I'd be playing off 5 if I had to turn out with them every week. I dragged my old Titliest persimmon driver out a couple of years back. Again, hit out of the centre it is at least comparable with modern technology but hit off centre it went nowhere.
Modern technology at least allows me to think I'm still half decent.
As to the ravages of time. Growing old gracefully was never in my business plan but being hit by a car whilst on the pavement wasn't either... women drivers...my turn to start an argument.
Reply : Tue 2nd Aug 2011 20:47
Brian. I am playing in my mid-week medal tomorrow with my friend who is 61, fit as a fiddle, plays off 4.5 and still hits the ball a very long way, yet he will not play me off of his drives.
My back is killing me and preventing me from even making an attempt at a follow through and really should stop playing, but I try to carry on regardless. My club has just given me 2 more shots on my handicap, but that will make no difference at all to my scores, especially at my present club which is the 17th longest in the country. I cannot reach any of the par 4/5's in regulation figures and only one of the par threes is within my range.
Noticed you play at Cleveland, played there many moons ago, nice links. You are lucky.
Reply : Tue 2nd Aug 2011 22:45
My club has two courses and manages the potential for slow play in very simple way.
Every day, one course is designated the 2 ball course and the other for 3 & 4 balls. A 2 ball may play on the 3 & 4 ball course but are advised they should not expect to be played through unless the group in front is not up with play. 3 & 4 balls are not allowed on the 2 ball course. The courses are rotated by the greenkeeping staff with the 2 ball course generally being the one they have to do the most work on that day
I have yet to experience being held up since joining
Reply : Tue 2nd Aug 2011 23:06
As it should be, Chris, but then Minchinhamton is a proper club. I will certainly pop down for a game soon.
Reply : Wed 3rd Aug 2011 00:00
"I have yet to experience being held up since joining " """""""" " "
I bet they have behind you Slug...http://www.golfshake.com/scripts/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/devil_smile.gif" title="devil" width="20" />
Reply : Wed 3rd Aug 2011 00:29
Oh Dave, that's the old 'I've never had an accident whilst driving, but I've seen hundreds in my rear view mirror' excuse!
I agree with most of the statements made above, I hate being held up but I'm also accutely aware of what's going on behind as well, I'd hate to think that any group I'm with are holding others up. I don't think the type of club is a particular problem either, I've been held up on both munis and exclusive private clubs - my own personal experience is that the big corporates are the worst and even then they vary. De Vere seems to be the worst as they seem to want to get as many groups out onto the course as quick as possible, Wokefield being the worst example. Course layout is the major problem here.
Reply : Wed 3rd Aug 2011 08:51
Slow play in private clubs is down to those odd few '*uck you' types with some chip on their shoulder, who seem to go through life purposely pissing people off at every opportunity and you will always get them. Slow play on Muni's is simply down to people not knowing what etiquette is and you can't blame them for it... there are rarely signs on muni's where it says 'it should have taken you no longer than 1 hr to get to here'