It’s probably worth stating from the off that I am certainly not an advocate of slow play. In fact, it really winds me up the wrong way, particularly when it’s cold or you’re stuck on the course in inclement weather.
However, when it’s a weekend and the sun is shining, I can’t be the only one who enjoys a leisurely stroll around the course, chatting breeze and enjoying a half-time beverage in the halfway hut. For me, the only thing that could make the above better is actually sharing it with more of my regular golfing group.
While the tales of what happened in the group in front or behind are great when sat on the patio after a highly contested round, I wish we could all just play and experience ‘that magical shot’ all together.
While the argument can be made that more golfers will mean slower play, as a golfer who plays among a group of golfers with very low handicaps, I would argue that pace on the golf course is much more about the individual, their golfing ability and IQ as opposed to the amount of players in that group.
As a +3-handicapper and golfer who plays regularly with very low-handicap golfers, I often find myself waiting on the golf course. Just last month, my four-ball’s combined handicap totalled to +7 and we were behind a group of golfers whose combined handicap was approaching the 100 mark.
While handicaps are certainly a guide and not everyone is going to play to their handicap every week, myself and my playing partners should theoretically take around 107 shots less than the four-ball ahead of us. I have absolutely no hesitation in saying that we could have added one, if not two, more players who play in our regular group and would have still kept pace with the group in front.
Six is company
I honestly don’t quite have a solution on how you would police the matter, but I would love the ability to play up to a six-ball on the golf course. I completely understand that the more skilled you are doesn’t always correlate to how quickly you play – I think we’ve all watched enough professional golf to agree on that. So I think it would be extremely hard to put rules in place related to this matter that include handicap limits.
Perhaps after a certain time in the summer with twilight rounds or after midday on a weekend in the winter as the light is closing in and the courses are typically more quiet, golf clubs could entertain six-ball golf.
I feel as though if more players abided by appropriate course etiquette and let golfers through if they were waiting behind them, the inclusion of larger groups on the golf course would cause minimal issues.
Perhaps if during competitions, golfers had to accurately record their start and finish times via GPS, the club could identify slower players and therefore remove their ability to play in larger groups.
My overall point is that golf can take just about as long as you want it to. With a little more awareness from all golfers, understanding ways in which they can speed their pace of play up and letting others through, I think everyone could enjoy playing golf in larger groups.
