The Loop
Good news, golfers: Study shows you're not the primary reason for slow play
I'm an impatient fellow, especially on the golf course. I'll wax poetic about the game's intrinsic beauty, enjoying the symmetry of competition and companionship, being one with nature, etc. All that jazz goes out the window if I'm waiting 20 minutes between shots for Mr. and Mrs. Haverkamp to clear:
Luckily, the R&A researched slow play, producing a manual not only on its findings, but its recommendations to fix this problem.
And, amazingly, it turns out golfers are not the primary reason for rounds taking longer than a cross-country flight.
"Individual players can, of course, have a negative effect on pace of play," wrote the R&A. "But that effect may be relatively insignificant when compared to the impact that course management practices and ill considered course set up can have."
To alleviate some of these issues, the R&A proposed increasing fairway width, lowering the cut of rough, keeping hole locations away form slopes and using club staff to keep play moving.
The R&A's studies showed that 60% of the 56,000 golfers interviewed would play more if rounds weren't so long.