Given the difficulty of a U.S. Open layout, Davis thinks 4:45 is not an unreasonable time for three long-hitting, skilled golfers to complete 18 holes. In fact, the recommended allotted time for the opening two rounds this year is 4:40. For twosomes on the weekend, it's 4:03.
Compare that to just 10 years ago at Olympic Club, when the USGA's allotted time for the final two rounds was 3:36—27 minutes fewer.
Speeding Up The Game Starts With Junior Golf
"Players will play as slowly as you allow them to. They don't really have internal clocks."
Stephen Hamblin, executive director of the American Junior Golf Association, speaks from experience when analyzing the dynamics of laggardly pace of play at certain levels of tournament golf. Competitors need to be timed, pushed along and held to a reasonable standard, or else everyone is in for a long day.
Hamblin, who feels a "moral responsibility" to the game to teach young players about all the tenets of etiquette, including pace of play, can draw from anecdotal evidence. Since installing a timing-station system at AJGA events, the duration of rounds has been reduced. The system entails six checkpoints. Red cards are designated for players who miss the checkpoint times. A second red card results in a one-stroke penalty for each player in the group.
"We don't need a harassing environment. The players dictate their own fate," says Hamblin, who last year saw the pace of play for threesomes over the 82 tournaments the AJGA conducted, average four hours, 28 minutes.
The USGA has adopted the system for 10 of its amateur-only tournaments. Colleges also are starting to experiment with a similar system. Mike Davis of the USGA has sensed for some time that college golfers might be the slowest players in the amateur ranks. Georgia Tech golf coach Bruce Heppler wouldn't disagree. He says they fall into bad habits -- because they are allowed to.
"No one should knock the college player per se," Heppler says. "He plays as fast as he needs to. But they have no real idea how fast they play, and at most college events we lack the resources to monitor it."
So it comes down to the fact players need policing. The AJGA system might be the answer for all levels. Hamblin recently instituted it at a Texas A&M University event. Coach J.T. Higgins insisted that no threesome had ever toured the difficult University Course in less than five hours. This past year with the checkpoint system, threesomes averaged four hours, 40 minutes.
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