Gentleman,
Recently members of the Executive Committee at the request of a number of our members have reviewed the “Pace of Play” during our Wednesday golf day. As a result of this review and in hopes of making our rounds more enjoyable for all of our members the following concepts have been suggested.
Pace of Play
It is accepted that a round of golf at Country Meadows can be comfortably played in 3 hours as per the course guideline.
It is important to keep your foursome aware of where you are in relation to the groups in front of you. If you can’t see the group ahead or there is no one on the hole ahead, you are likely behind and you should take action to catch up. Some suggestions to implement in order to catch up are following.
To maintain a 3 hour round, your foursome should be on the 7th T-box after one hour and the 13th T-box after two hours. While there is no simple solution to this issue there are a number of ideas we can keep in mind to maintain a steady pace of play.
Play Ready Golf. After the first tee be prepared to play your next shot on the fairway, green, or tee box. Furthest from the flag need not play first.
Flag in or out. There is abundant anecdotal evidence that suggests that not only will leaving the flag in speed up play but it is also advantageous to do so. If you haven’t already, try it. If some members of the group want to putt with the flag out, try to minimize the switches on the green. Closest person takes the pin out; first one to hole out tends the flag and replaces it after last putt. Please do not pull the flag out when there is a ball in the hole as this can damage the edge of the hole.
Lifting your ball on the green. If your ball will not interfere with another player’s putt, leave it on the green and be ready when it’s your turn.
Lost Ball. Take, at most, three minutes to search for a lost ball.
Know the rules. Long discussions about how to interpret rules can be time consuming.
Carts. Take your cart to between the green and your next tee box before heading for the green with your putter.
Pick-up. If you are having a bad hole you can “pick-up” and record a “most likely” score based on your handicap.
Scoring. Card Captain should mark scores after arriving at the next tee box and not on the green.
Card Captain. We will be asking the card captain to remind all of us during our round to be aware of the pace, please cooperate with him. Finally, it is only by our awareness and consideration for our fellow members that we can improve the pace of play and maintain the quality of our club and its members.
