Why is the playback problem the responsibility of every player

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Nelly Korda. Matthew Fitzpatrick. Lucas Glover. It’s a trio that hardly makes golf fans displeased, complainers or loud mouth lists, but in 2024, all three say slow game, which is one of the perennial sore points of golf’s perennial crawl back into the spotlight. The average golfer may not be related to the Tour professional in terms of driving distance and scoring ability, but we are all in the same position when it comes to the pace of the game.

“It’s a set of issues at the elite level,” said Michael Breed, a longtime top 100 golf magazine teacher and host of the Siriusxm radio show. “For casual players, there are different issues, but that’s also a problem.”

Recent USGA studies have shown that the average time of a round has surged to 4 hours and 30 minutes, a new high.

“Golfists think the pace of the game is the first thorn they enjoy with the game,” said Dr. Lucius Riccio, a former commissioner for the New York City Department of Transportation.

“And the total time it will be played, it’s about how long it will take [golfers] “There must be a wait between shots. If the second group is walking around in 4:15, but every time the shot is waiting, they are unhappy.”

Riccio’s blame on Golf Courses is a large part of the matter, for unconsidered course settings and misaligned TEE intervals. “You can put everyone on the cross in Crovit, but if there are too many cars on the road, they still won’t be more than 10 miles.”

Still, besides asking the golf director to make operational changes, golfers can do something to cut waste of time. “If your group is behind the front group 10 minutes but ends after 11 minutes, this will restore the entire course,” said USGA’s Green managing director Dr. Matt Pringle. “If each group does this, the afternoon group will be behind 35 or 40 minutes.”

Typical advice – ready-made golf balls, still realizing your position relative to the group in front of you, even if that means picking up – still applies, but every golfer can focus on keeping the train moving forward.

Just as there isn’t enough in our collective history, this life-changing moment is for Dr. Donuts and Pepper.

Scott Dawley was eating that “breakfast” at his table one morning when he saw an ad for a quick golf game. After taking the golf team at the University of South Carolina and the University of Houston, Dawley became a professional player in 2005 and grinded on the mini tour. By 2009, he had given up his dream and completed his office work, and surprisingly, their weight gained. To cope with the latter’s development, he started running and thought Speed ​​Golf might be a way to combine exercise with his first love.

Six months later, he fell in post-dawn melancholy and took off in the direction of the ball. “It’s running along the fairway in the dark, how much hasty it’s running in the dark,” he said. “It feels free.”

Less than an hour later, he finished the game. His score: 75.

Dawley is now running and racing in Speedgolf in the United States, but he still enjoys leisurely rounds, often pairing with his 79-year-old father. He wants people to know that fast play and good performance are not mutually exclusive – in fact, the first often leads to the second.

“People need to think of speed as a better golf ball,” Dali said, who scored 65 in 42 minutes at the Holden Smith Golf Course in Springfield, Missouri. “Going faster gets you into the area. There is no time to think about anything, but what you are doing, there is no time to feel frustrated or happy. When you go better, you go better, you go better, you go better, you allow you to go better.

Almost everything about golf seems to be the opposite. TV analysts, swing coaches and psychologists are all talking about slowness. Visualize the lens. Don’t sway until you’re ready. With multi-step pre-gun routine. “That’s how to play golf, but it’s not that,” Dowley said.

“Don’t imitate tours!” When he was the host of “Golf Repair” on the Golf Channel, he was not big for his thrivingness, but it felt like he was. “Almost as people are assuming, the more time they spend, the better they play,” he said. “The fact is, analysis and preparation can lead to confusion.”

Like Daoli, he sees green as a place where players can get time. “Even for professionals, the 10-foot-high percentage is relatively low,” Dowley said. “The average golfer polishing at multiple angles doesn’t change that number. Take a look from the back and believe it. Be an athlete.”

Golf can get tips from the Major League Baseball, another sport struggling at a slow pace, but has taken action to improve, including installing a clock in 2023, limiting the limits for time pitchers and batsmen. When it comes to golfers’ pre-shot routines, Dawley recommends reducing it from a typical 45 seconds to about 20. “Practicing less often will actually make you perform better,” he said. “I’ve taken hundreds of people to their first round of speed golf and they’re almost always surprised to play better than expected.”

Golfers can further cut time by playing in the middle of the green. “It’s boring, but faster,” Brad said, as the battle for the flag is more frequent, ending with green missed green.

“Remember the 150-yard bush next to the fairway?” he asked. “When you have everything you know roughly how far you went when you walked on the ball, so you just pulled a club and hit the club. The yard mark on the sprinkler head and on the rangefinder causes internal debate. I love rangefinders, but when you get a really accurate number, you start thinking.”

Ask any course ranger what happens when they ask a group to speed up, don’t mind picking up the ball, and creatively swearing, arguing or even physical confrontation stories. According to Riccio, this result is born from a deeply rooted mentality that places too much emphasis on punishing slow matches rather than strengthening positive habits. When a group is behind, Rangers are better off riding to some holes as pre-racing and encouraging ready-made races.

“There needs to be a perspective shift,” Dowley said. “When your day in the course is all about scores, you are not motivated any faster. He is not suggesting people beyond the world of golf to use time-based scores, but just letting everyone work hard at the pace and enjoyment of the game.

Breed made this suggestion, calling on golfers to attend Lombardi’s time, referring to the axiom of the legendary NFL coach that players (practice, meetings, etc.) appearing on anything are actually less than five minutes later. “Think about shooting before you shoot,” he said. “Prepare for putting before it’s putting.”

This mentality extends to what he calls a “tour tea party”, during which players walk together or ride on a cart, and they don’t start evaluating their shots until they arrive at the ball, and sometimes even continue chatting before they start chatting. “The conversation should stop for 50 yards before entering the ball,” Brad said.

Players have a hit rate of 45 seconds, but unless you get up first, you also have 45 seconds for everyone else ahead. “If you drive a shopping cart, drop another player and move towards your ball,” Riccio said. “Don’t sit in the carriage next to him and drive to your ball when he hits.”

Riccio has two organizations dedicated to speeding games, consulting services for course operators, and The 345 Golf Association, a research lab and promotional channel. The latter says there are 18 holes of target time, but based on his research, a series of shorter range guides, three and 45 are key numbers: “Walking 3 miles, it takes three minutes or less to clear the green, no more than three people should search for a ball (and the fourth hit), no more than three minutes, hit two-thirds of the ball in 45 seconds or less, he said 45 seconds or he said.

Varieties are based on their own rules: one, one. “Don’t put it in the bag after hitting the driver,” he said. “Take it with you until you reach the ball. Then pull the driver out of the next club you need. If you do this on every shot, reduce the number of times you have to go in and out of the bag.”

But if the course fails golfers, then all of these techniques will not help. “We conducted a study in a municipal course in California that was eight minutes apart from TEE a few years ago,” said Pringle of USGA. “This game is slow and almost every golfer complains about the group in front of them, but it’s not the fault of any group. There are so many golfers in the course that they never have the chance to come in decent time. We added the TEE interval and the situation improved.”

As usual, short holes produce pinch points: rods 3, short 4s and 5s. Golfers can help by waving these holes. “Then you’re walking instead of waiting for your putt in front of the group.” However, most golfers don’t wave their companions unless there’s a sign in the hole or culturally signaling them to do so in the course.

“If the facility is taking the proper steps, it doesn’t matter what individual golfers do,” Pringer said. “If not, mathematically, they will fail you.”

According to Riccio, the math includes another interesting fact. Although the average time for the entire round was 4 hours and 17 minutes, the average time for the first group in the morning was 3 hours and 45 minutes. This shows that the pace of the game will worsen during the day, sometimes because there are too many players in the course and because the subsequent groups do not keep up.

“If you play alone on an empty route and walk 3 miles per hour on a 4-mile route, that’s an 80-minute walk,” Richio said. “If you play 100 photos in each 45-second game, then the total playing time is 2:35, and another 75 minutes. But if you’re a quarter of it, you have to add the time you need for your match partner, which will be 80 minutes or 3:55 in total. Over 3:55, it’s the loss of time, i.e., an impossible time or a good part of the course.

This is also the annoying part, and everyone from players to course operators to rangers should focus on improvement.