Knuth on Slow Play: Editors' Blog: Golf Digest

Knuth on Slow Play

Thursday, November 29, 2007 Comments

While we're on the subject of slow play, we retrieved a 1994 piece Dean Knuth did for us that's the best yet at explaining the problem and offering solutions...for recreational golf anyway. For starters, Knuth's research revealed that while 58 per cent of us rate our own play fast and only 5 per cent of us think we're slow, we believe 56 per cent of other players are slow and only 2 per cent fast. Hmmmm. Thomas Hamlett suggested here that tees be restricted by handicap. Knuth offered another solution:

The biggest problem in course management is overloading the course. This happens when tee-time intervals are less than 10 minutes apart. A course using six-minute intervals is guaranteed to get more goand guaranteed to create more angry golfers. Overloading causes backups on the first par 3 or a short par 5, where better golfers wait for the green to clear before they hit their second shots.
The biggest problem with overloading a course is the psychological aspect to slow play. If golfers get held up fairly early, they lose their expectation for fast play and will play deliberately. The difference is an hour or more in total time of play.

Worth a read.

--Bob Carney

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Archived Comments (2) Click to expand

Thanks for writing of slow play. I have been at it 40 years, and I do not understand why it takes 5 hours to shoot 99. And the magazines don't help. Dave Pelz is a huge contributor to slow play, and don't start me on Tiger.

But there are things course managers can do. #1. As Knuth said, space the groups as they hit the golf course. #2. Instruct refreshment cart operators to serve only on tees, and never, never, never during the play of the hole, and post the policy and announce it to everyone who shows up. And give the server a printed placard with the policy. #3. If rangers can't remove or accelerate players, at least have them help with finding balls, especially on holes where players are hitting blind or into a rising or setting sun. #4. CUT THE GRASS. If the event is not a championship, heavy rough is a real problem on public courses. #5. Put holes in realistic places. Too many public courses let the maintenance staff put the holes where the individual worker believes will be amusing, like on false fronts or sides of slopes, or in extreme rear corners. Hello. Daily players will not stop putting from the front of the green because the hole is in the back rear. #6. This is for the off season. Holes with very large bunkers not only provide the opportunity for players to stay long periods of time, but also provide barriers to entering and leaving the green complex. Very few large bunkers actually improve the golf course. #7. Have the starters ask people near teeing grounds or on verandas near greens not to shout. This is less for pace of play than for pleasure of play. People are getting ruder and ruder every day, and think nothing of hollering over their buddy's hollering while someone else's foursome is teeing off.

Thanks for letting me vent.

jim48315

Posted by jim48315 September 3, 2008 9:42 PM

Jim: good venting. I like those ideas. The simplest is, if you have to ask who's away, fire away. And when the cart stops and it's within 20 yards of your ball, get out and walk to it or get prepared to hit.

Bob

Posted by Bcarney September 5, 2008 3:43 PM