# Pace of play



## e.ktech (Oct 12, 2007)

Hey everyone, please take this survey on pace of play, its for a school project. Thanks for your time. 

Pace of Play


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## Fourputt (Nov 18, 2006)

I looked at your poll, but I can't really participate because it is a bit too simplistic. It doesn't even come close to addressing the real reasons for slow play. The 4 choices that you offer are just the bare minimum. The biggest reason for slow play is simply that players make no attempt to play any faster. They often are completely unaware that they are even playing slowly, and wouldn't know how to go about picking up the pace if you asked them to. It is a problem with all experience levels and with all types of courses. 

While a tight course with a lot of hazards can definitely take longer to play than a wide open course where you rarely lose a ball, that difference can be minimized by players knowing the rules without having to ask or look up a procedure, and by simply being ready to play when it's their turn. It's people standing around wasting time when they should be getting ready to hit that causes 95% of slow play. You hit your ball into a hazard??? Don't stand there trying to see it on the bottom of the pond... drop a ball at the right place under the rules and hit your shot. You hit a ball into the woods?? Play a provisional, take a quick look for your ball (the rules _allow_ 5 minutes to search, but they don't _require_ that you take that long), then go finish the hole with the provisional. On the green, don't stand around until it's your turn to read your putt, read it while the others are doing the same thing... then when it's your turn, give it one more quick look and address the ball and hit it.

Maintaining a reasonable pace of play is a frame of mind, and it can be learned, but it has little to do with handicap or experience level. It has mostly to do with simply keeping your mind on the game and being prepared to play when it's time to play.


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## TGOH (Aug 20, 2007)

*Agrees with Fourputt*


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## e.ktech (Oct 12, 2007)

I see your point fourputt, however the survey doesn't only ask for handicap and rounds per year, those questions were only to weed out players we don't want data from. The questions toward the bottom address the causes of slow play. The reasons you gave for slow play are possible answers to number 5 A. Inexperience or D. Lost Balls. But if you don't want to do the survey you don't have to.


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## Fourputt (Nov 18, 2006)

e.ktech said:


> I see your point fourputt, however the survey doesn't only ask for handicap and rounds per year, those questions were only to weed out players we don't want data from. The questions toward the bottom address the causes of slow play. The reasons you gave for slow play are possible answers to number 5 A. Inexperience or D. Lost Balls. But if you don't want to do the survey you don't have to.


The point is that it is more than simple inexperience. I know players who have played for more than 20 years who are much slower than my brother who just started this season. I thought my previous post stressed that. It is just a much more complicated issue than what can be answered in a few multiple choice questions. If you are taking the entire premise for your paper from that survey, then you will never get to root cause of the problem, which is lack of education and enforcement, not inexperience. I though maybe by offering some deeper insight that maybe I would be of more help, maybe help you put up a more refined poll, but I guess not. :dunno:


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## e.ktech (Oct 12, 2007)

I understand your point, thanks for your time


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## white_tiger_137 (Mar 23, 2006)

Yah there really are way too many explenations for slow play to try to pin point a single cause. 

Some people play slow because they just want to relax and take in the scenery. 
Some people try to fish 50 balls out of every pond they pass. 
Some people walk slower than others. 
Some people take more strokes/lose more balls. 
Some people take the game way too seriously and take 6 practice swings and 4 waggles before every shot.

Not to mention the difference in pace between foursomes/singles and riders/walkers.


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