This summer's effort by the American Junior Golf Association to speed up its rounds got a lot of you thinking about how to speed up play at their courses. Good letter, excerpted here, from a Texas reader.
I understand the focus of speeding up the round, but the golfing community has missed the boat on educating golfers about how to shave minutes off of every hole. Why would Golf Digest or Golf Channel not commit a column or segment on pace of play? It seems to me, that you all can have a tremendous impact on our community by outlining what ready golf means. Very often my playing partners say they play ready golf, only to mark their 3-footer, or wait for honors on the tee, or wait in the cart for their cart partner to hit. Seems like that education would be much more beneficial than the tee it forward campaign, which by the way, people have ignored.
Tee it forward is a great idea, as a simple lowest common denominator focus; but I just don't think tee length is where the focus ought to be. You're not taking the driver, which most 10+ handicappers don't really know how to handle, out of their hands. They are still going to slice it or hook it into the trees. Granted it will save time on the par 3's as it puts a shorter iron in their hands. My suggestion will impact pace of play without impacting ego. BTW, I don't mind playing blacks, blues or whites because it's all about putting anyway. If we want to keep it simple with a new campaign, I'd say "Mark it once." By that, obviously, I'd say mark the ball line up the first putt, and putt until the ball is holed.Just a golfers thoughts.
Adam Beede, Dallas, TX
Couldn't agree more, Adam. And you're right to push us to do more on the subject. It's the little things that add up and your emphasis on cart behavior and putting are right on. We love the "Mark it once" idea. How about, "Don't mark it if you have to and then only once." Golfers I play with are always saying, "I'll get that out of your way," when it's not in my way or bothering me at all. There's a lot of nervous fussing about on greens. (Cleaning balls that aren't dirty is another one.) Let's get things moving!!
Bob Carney
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