Slow Play

A popular topic in the world of golf at the moment is slow play. Whether this be on the professional circuit or in your local club, nobody likes slow play.

Recently during the Farmers insurance open, J. B. Holmes took a little over 4 minutes to take his second shot into the final green on the final round of the tournament. People have taken to social media to defend him others to ask why he wasn’t penalised for this breach of rules.

There are always two sides to a story, he was in contention to win or force a play off in this event and was deciding whether to go for the green in two shots or layup.

The eventual winner of this tournament, Jason day - would pick up $1.24 million dollars and also very important points in the overall race in the FedEx cup standings, so I don’t care who you are but if you were playing for that amount of money and it’s the last hole in the tournament your going to take your time.

On the other side of this argument, many people are wondering why there has been no penalty applied when the player well exceeded the time limit for playing his shot. Does this mean it is now okay for club players to take a similar amount of time on shots.

Membership numbers are on the decline as the modern day working man and woman simply don’t have the 5 to sometimes 6 hours for a round of golf (door to door time), this is the stigma that has been created around golf these days.

The R&A and the USGA are working hard to eliminate this problem and will continuously try to improve this but here are a few pointers for everyone to try to help speed up there round and make everyone’s game more enjoyable:

Play ready golf – this is where regardless of distance from the hole, as long as it's safe, whoever is ready just plays their shot.
Be ready to play – make sure by the time it takes your partner to hit their shot you are ready to go. Countless people will stand next to there playing partner whilst they get ready for their shot when they could be getting themselves ready.
Leave your bag near the next tee – this is a very simple one as you are walking up to the green look for the next tee and leave your bag as close to this as possible, or at least in the general direction. This saves you walking all the way back around the green when you are finished the hole
Mark your scorecard on the next tee – pretty much is explained, don’t finish the hole and proceed to stay on the green to mark your scorecard, this can be done on the next tee when your other playing partners are teeing off

I Know I am guilty of at least one of the above and following these guidelines, we will all get round the course in less time.