Six Days In A Row Of Golf !!!!......And I Stink ?

I took 4 workdays of vacation into the weekend.
So, I played 6 days in a row at my local state park course.
I was first or second ( solo or group ) off the first tee ( except Saturday - I'll explain later )
I walked every day.
I lost wieght ( yeah ! ) but my legs were sore.
By Sunday ?........I was shot/bad/sore......and so was my score !!!
I shot 92 the first day ( from the whites ) and was expecting to improve
with each round..................NOPE !
I got worse EVERY DAY !:evillaugh
By Sunday --- on the back nine ( 53 !! ) -- my body lost all swing function --
I shot my worst in quite some time........101......UGH.....!!!!
*
Met some nice people along the way.
One guy was a golf course manager ( at one time ) and explained to me
about the UGLY , burowing wasps around + on the greens and sandtraps.
Cicada Killers -- he called them - "and no they don't sting people. They use
the cicadas to plant their larvae into them ( as a food source )....to grow."
"Are you sure they don't sting ?....cos that cup you just putted into has a nest of them in there."
I said, laughing......but the truth.:evillaugh
* I never knew this ?......they just look MEAN + NASTY !!
*
Saturday
I was suppose to be Daddy Day Care ---- no golf.
However, my wife casually mentions her mother wanted to have the baby that day.
SEE YA !!!! Thanks Honey !.....BYE.....I'm headin' to golf !!!
I get to the course late ( for me ).
I tee off at 8:35 am w/ some guys who shouldn't be playing the blue tees.
I play whites + we're 3 walkers = total.
4 younger cart guys in front of us are S...L...O..O...O.....W......
They lose the group in front of them......I see an entire hole open ( at least ).
But........
When they come around back to the clubhouse to play the ninth hole ?
They ZOOOM ahead........and then ZOOOOM off the 10th tee + hole !
WISE - ASSES
They figured we'd "out them" for slow play .....to the starter ( who could care less ).
And then.......by the 12th hole we're waiting on them...AGAIN.....and AGAIN !!!!
*
I noticed these guys would pull up to the next tee box and sit.
WTF ?
I guess, it's too exhausting drivin' that cart ?
They need some rest....right ?
*
A 5 HOUR ROUND............whoa ?
But I didn't care cos I GOT TO PLAY GOLF......unexpectedly.
*
I woke up this morning and said "Thank god I don't have to play golf.":evillaugh
It's official --
I'm a Golf Junkie.
* Just thought I'd share*

 

With physical activity, ones body needs a break.
If you work out the same muscles each day they will tend to get weaker each day.
By your last day I bet your muscles were compensating for the other overworked muscles.
Next time try every other day.
That is my free tip of the day.

 

Congrats on six days straight.

The 5 hour round would drive me crazy. Slow play is one of the reasons I don't play now. Some of the guys I played with did the "drive up to the t-box and sit/talk". Nuts. I guess they didn't mind 5 hours on the course. I prefer nine holes, 2 hours and I''m done.

 

Yes.....every other day would make better sense......but I'm senseless !
I guess, if I had some chores to do around the house -
I would have broken up my play.
Got all my chores done the previous weekend.
And as much as I really HATE using a cart ---
probably should have.
But I don't often get 4 workdays off ( in a row ) anymore with
a 2 yr old + my wife's work schedule.
So, I got a little NUTZ !

 

I've done six, seven days straight. No thanks. I need a day off. I once played something like 17 rounds in 19 days in the islands. Maybe it was 15 in 18. Whatever, it was nuts. I do four days in AZ every December for a tourney, and in the past would often add a couple days before or after. No thanks. I need a day off.

I played 36 yesterday. Even that is starting to get old. Or maybe it was the IDIOTS in front of me who soured that second round. Wow, talk about apes thinking "men" play the blue tees. At this joint blue = 6,800+. One guy seemed to warrant it, the rest shoulda been on the fronts. Fucking. Idiots.

The annual golf trip with Ed and Kevin is coming up soon, central Oregon. Single, single, double, double over the four days. Brasada Ranch, Tetherow, Crosswater and Meadows at Sunriver, Pronghorn (might be Fazio) and Glaze Meadows at Black Butte.


Hard to believe there can be too much golf, but I guess we're all learning that as we start adding years.

 

I tend to play 2 days and then rest 1 day, but I would love to play golf 6 days in a row even if I didn't score so well towards the end. Anyway, sounds like you had a good time overall and just got frustrated by a couple of things such as your scores toward the end and then the slow play.

As far as slow play goes, I've noticed a lot of starters really don't care about slow play unless you can prove that the group is intentionally going slow. If they're hitting when it's their turn, most starters are ok with that, but the group still should have let you play through regardless. I've also noticed that most complaints of slow play come when people aren't playing their best. I'm not saying that is or isn't the case with you, but in general, it tends to be true.

 

lol

Do you know one person who will say, "You know, being out here for 5:30, waiting minutes on every single shot, well, that's when I play my best"?

Starters start the play, and by that definition they aren't out there when the concrete starts to set on two. Solving slow play begins at the top, not with some old fart driving around in a cart with a "Marshal" sticker on the windshield in exchange for free golf on Tuesdays. It also begins with the first moment of beginner introduction to the game.

Ultimately, slow play is not going to go away. Golfers have been bitching about it since that second shepherd stepped up and whacked a rock with his crook. Some courses do and will handle it better than others. Those courses need to be rewarded with our business.

 

mdlee3 -
No....I was only frustrated the last day ( Sunday )......when I just
couldn't physically hit the ball down the fairway....and yes, my score was ugly !
The slow play was Saturday --
As I said....I wasn't even expecting to play that day....and I knew...
if I'm starting at 8:30 am....it's gonna be a slow round.
*
The great thing was having 6 days in a row of great weather !
*
Our starter(s) have alot of moving around to do ---
they can't cover all the ground they should because of the way
the entrance to the course is set up.
First tee is down the hill from the golf shop --
and the carts are over there --
10th tee is also down the hill --
So, they TRY to watch the time when foursome "Make The Turn" -
but usually they're busy elsewhere.
*
I just couldn't figure why all the sitting around in the cart on EVERY tee ?
Somebody asked "Are they drinking ?"
Nope.

 

That's not what I said and I think you're smart enough to realize it. I was just pointing out that if somebody happened to be behind slow players and happened to shoot their best round ever, I guarantee that person wouldn't be complaining about slow play.

If you notice, I also said regardless of what the group's skill level was, they should have let Joe Strummer's group play through if they weren't making an effort to play at a steady pace. Slow play itself isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it does depend on how it's done also. Here are a few examples:

1) You have 2 people in a cart. On the 2nd shot, one hits a ball across the fairway into the rough on the other side. Instead of getting back in the cart, he walks to his ball while the guy in the cart drives along beside him. This is unacceptable as it's unnecessarily wasting time.
2) A father is out teaching his son to play golf. Teaching is fine. However, that father/son group has a foursome come up behind them and instead of letting the foursome play through, the father decides to keep teaching the son, possibly having him hit multiple balls from a spot. I don't care if it's a member or not, this is unacceptable. I don't care if somebody wants to hit several balls, but at least let people play through.
3) This one I came across just the other day. Drive up to a tee and there is a foursome there talking. We actually say them from the previous fairway, but we thought they were waiting on a group in front of them that we just couldn't see because of some trees and a pretty big hill. We finish off that hole and go to the next tee and they're still there talking and there's no other group in sight. As soon as we stop, they get out of their carts and all tee off, not ever even offering to let us play through. This was another unnecessary waste of time and that one actually cost the golf course a little money because my group, which was just me and my brother, and the group behind us were all going to play a 2nd round that day, but we didn't get time because we got behind these fools on the 3rd hole and never got to go around them. This group was at least a decent group of golfers so once they hit, they didn't take long to finish a hole, but they also wanted to wait at every hole. Decent golfers or not, my brother and I still played faster than them since there were only 2 of us and 4 of them.
4) Some groups always seem to have at least 1 person that loses a ball on every hole. I'm not saying anything about their game because sometimes it seems I lose a ball on every hole and other times, I go a month and a half without losing one. However, if your group loses a ball on every hole, at least let the group directly behind you play through, especially if there's not a cluster of people directly in front of you. This keeps the game moving for everybody.

These are just examples that annoy me when it comes to slow play. If somebody is going when it's their turn and just sucks at golf and can't hit it more than say 50 yards and can't even get the ball airborne, that doesn't annoy me nearly as much as people that think they're good and intentionally waste time, slowing down the game for everybody behind them. If they let faster groups play through, the way they should, then I don't care what they do as long as they aren't tearing up the course.

Them sitting in the cart at EVERY tee is where I would have had an issue with them. I am fine with some slower play just because it reminds me to slow down. I tend to try to play too fast and that's when it hurts my game. I'm not saying I want to wait for every shot I take, but if I have to wait to tee off or wait to make my approach shot, that's not necessarily a bad thing, not for me anyway. The people ahead of me need to be at least be playing though.

At my home course, if I get started at pretty much anytime after 8, then there is usually about a 4 group wait on the 1st tee. Most people won't let a small group play through on the first hole, but after that hole, a group of 2 will usually end up in front of the group of groups that was at the 1st tee with them by usually the 4th or 5th hole. Then, once you make the turn, there will usually be another group or 2 waiting on the 10th tee and it works out the same as the front 9 usually.

 

For any sort of rhetoric, slow play remains a bad thing. I just simply don't now anyone who wants to linger, be out there longer than necessary, regardless skill or that day's performance. Yes, of course, playing well is nice, and it is harder to get totally pissed off at slow play if playing well versus lousy, but slow play still bites, and I don't really know a lot of folks playing recreational who improve with the stops and starts.

(Caveat: I am an EXTREMELY fast player. So my vantage point is so colored.)

One thing I never default to as a solution is playing through. Playing through to where, often? And then what about the next group that happens upon the tortoises? If the mindset we've instilled in the industry is, "well, someone can just play through," then we've already lost the battle. It is not my responsibility to play through a slower group, it is the responsibility of the slower group to keep pace with the group ahead. EVERYONE goes yard, has that bad hole or holes. That, as you've noted, does not necessarily plug up the works, and often it is not cause for consternation; I'll take a bad fast player over some attitudinal slow stick each and every time. It's all that other crap. Playing through should be the last resort not the fall-back mindset starting out the round.

Until golf course operators get real teeth, all these admonitions for HOW to play more efficiently and quickly are not going to solve any problems; those of us who play quickly do so because we already know and practice it. PSA and admonitions flood the mags, the airwaves, the chatter, and yet collectively we still play horridly glacial too much of the time. It's not for lack of information. It's for lack of an effective enforcement mechanism. Of course, we've batted that around here many many times.

 

I'm not completely disagreeing with you completely. As I've said, slower than usual play usually tends to help me out because it slows me down when I'm playing too fast. That doesn't mean I want to linger though. 'm on the golf course so that means I want to be playing golf, not standing on the tee box waiting for people who are intentionally taking their time. I'm like you when you say you'd rather have "a bad fast player over some attitudinal slow stick each and every time." If you noticed in my examples, every single one of them was the case of somebody not actually playing the game. Well, except #4, they could be playing and just having a bad day.

As far as playing through, that is a golf etiquette and is posted on many scorecards, at least at public courses. You have every right not to play through if you choose not to, but if you refuse to play through, do you really have a legitimate reason to complain? I ask that with the assumption that you've seen the pace they are playing at when you refused and also that they didn't chance their pace afterwards. There are times when playing through isn't a valid solution either. If you're at the tail end of a cluster, it may not do any good to even offer to let somebody play through because it won't benefit anybody. except the 1 group you let play through. There would still be something holding up the groups in front of that group though and unless they speed up or just play 9 holes, then more than likely you'll be behind them for the majority of an 18 hole round. If you happen to be say the 1st group of a cluster and the group behind you is playing quickly, then it would benefit several groups to let them play through. More than likely, they'll pull away from your group within a couple holes so it won't even slow you down and the groups that were behind them can go a little faster because now their is better spacing between the groups at the front, which means less waiting MOST of the time.

I do have something I've noticed, but before I go into that, I have to point out something I've seen a couple articles on lately. I've seen a couple articles fairly recently, within the last year at least, that said the USGA was encouraging people to get out and play 9 holes more because time constraints and money were preventing a lot of people from playing 18 holes very often, but it would be good for golf if people would play at least 9 holes. I was also on a Southwest flight last week and there was an article in there about a golf resort, but towards the end, it said that the USGA was playing around with different round lengths, such as 12 holes instead of 18 for basically the same reasons as trying to promote 9 holes. I've seen a lot of people that do play 9 holes all the time instead of 18. Probably close to 50-60% of those people take as long to play 9 holes as it takes me and my brother to play 18. If the USGA is claiming that time constraints are preventing people from playing 18 holes, then why is it taking longer for people to play 9 holes? They shouldn't have time for that either.

 

Seems to me we're seeing twin sons of different mothers with some of our words.

I do want to comment on the "etiquette" aspect of playing through, like it's some time-honored credo. (And, yes, scorecards also say we should play in X time and that goes for naught, too). To wit: Time-honored doesn't always make right.

I never said people should not play through, it just shouldn't been seen as some type of safety valve or be the first on the checklist of things to do when things slow down, better yet, before they slow down; it actually should be very far down that list, because if we are doing the other stuff, it won't be needed or maybe even an option. The single upshot in the whole pace thing is a golf course is only as fast as it's slowest players. One group going out in the third slot that's slow mucks up the entire day. I don't care how prepared or good or fast or conscientious are the poor saps stuck behind, every other group is doomed, and it won't abate when the idiots get off the course; the damage is done. They need to be removed. That's what I'm talking about with the operators needing and being willing to use "teeth."

The USGA is desperate. The PGA of America, too. I love 9-hole rounds, I play one almost weekly. The concept is sound. But it does not address slow play, it merely cuts it in half; turtles remain turtles and even if the total elapsed time is halved, the constituent parts remain constipated. Anything that brings players out, puts money in registers -- it's all good. But advocating 9 is not addressing slow play. In fact, it's a cry that the problem is perhaps unsolvable.

I am not following your comment on pace of 9-holers, however, being as slow as 18s. Are there some stats out there?

 

There are no stats, just something I've observed at my local courses. It doesn't prove anything, but here are 2 examples.

My brother and I can play 18 holes in about 3 hours if we don't get caught behind anybody. We played about a month ago and teed off in front of a couple of guys about our age. I didn't know them, but my brother kind of knew one of them. This particular day it was actually pretty dead on the course as there was a chance of thunderstorms so we were playing pretty quickly. So we completely finished the 1st hole by the time this group stepped up to the tee. I don't think there's anything wrong with that when the course isn't busy, but if it is busy, then they tee off when we're out of range of them. We get to the 5th tee, which is the first par 3 on this course, and look over and they are just driving up to the 2nd green. We finished up 9 and they were had just teed off on #4. We stopped in the clubhouse and got some water and I believe my brother got something to eat also, then went to play the back 9. We didn't see them again until we came up to the 18th tee. At that time, they were driving away from the 9th tee, up the fairway. We finished our round and their balls were on the 9th green finally, but they were still driving to the green.

My other example is from the nicest of the 3 local courses. This course actually does post that it's a 4 hour course and from what I've heard, actually enforces it, but since I've always played fairly fast, I haven't gotten to see if that's true or not. Pretty much the same situation on the first tee except when we're on the 2nd hole, we see the next group was looking for a ball.It's also nearly impossible to lose a ball on that hole unless you just never saw it leave the tee. We don't see them again until we're done with 18. They were getting their stuff out of their cart and were telling somebody else that had just showed up that it took them 3.5 hours to play 9. Now I don't know if that's common for them or not. If it's common for them, it needs to be addressed. If it was just an especially bad day for them, then I can understand taking longer, but it should still never take 3.5 hours to play 9 holes.

 

Thats weekend public course golf for you,good thing about being retired or working a job with a weekday off you can avoid some of thiese crowds.

 

I'm on the IR right now, but my wife comes home with this story from her Thursday league. Wait, wait, wait, every hole on the front. They finally play through at 10. Nobody in front of them for 3 holes. She had enough time to load her clubs in the car, have a beer and as she was driving out of the parking lot, she sees the slow group hitting up on #18.

Imo, there is nothing more frustrating then slow play! Even if I have a bad 100+ round, I'll still play quickly.

 

+1

It is traffic management, nothing more, nothing less. When I got through the slugs yesterday -- on 7 -- I had a walking foursome, a walking threesome and a duo each with a cart in front of me. I waited but it wasn't the same. That first 7 took 2:00. That last 11 took ... 2:10. It's as much a function of the why and how of the waits.

I recently played 18, on a hilly course with a caddie (a.k.a. walking) and got around in just over two hours. (And I am in rather horrid shape, btw.) As I said above, I play very fast. I've gone sub-2:00 with a cart, in 115 degrees and it was my second round that day, as well. At home, it takes me a few ticks short of 1:30 to walk nine because my home course is a massive bitch, 1:45 if I'm screwing around counting critters, hitting multiple balls.

I'd say 3:00+ is my favored pace if going out as a duo, 3:30-3:45 is fine if four. If you're not doing all the other insane crap that too many amateurs do because they think it is golf, you can have more than enough banter and needles in that time, as well as your golf.

 

Perhaps, but I play all days of the week and I see the guys in the 2nd example out there quite a bit during the week, not just on weekends. It's just we usually don't have tee times so close to each other so I can't see how they play on a regular basis.

 

+1

And I hope you get off IR soon, Joe. You need to come out here and play golf with me in January when its 70 and beautiful. How will the weather be at home in Vegas then?

 

Everyone always mentions 'ready golf' as a solution to slow play. Unfortunately, most golfers have no idea what that means. It's almost like they don't want to play their shots if they are anywhere 'in front of' another golfer - as if it is a courtesy thing.

We are spoiled on our club - almost every tee time before 8:00 a.m. is filled with 1, 2, or threesomes. They are the regulars, and all play fast. Also, if a 'foreigner' (as we call them) group gets in the way, we have 3 spots on the front, and 2 spots on the back nine, where we (and the other 'regulars') simply cut across and play maybe 15 or 14 holes. Membership has it's privileges.

Also, our course is extremely easy to walk, with few places to lose a ball, so that is not really a factor. The regular pre-8:00 groups average about 2 hours 45 min for 18 holes. In fact we all know the various pacing of each group - and can cut across as needed when the 'slower' groups are in front. Spoiled is what we are.

On other courses, Dad and I will take a power cart and rip through 18 holes in about 2 hours. We routinely catch up to groups, and simply state that we are playing through. Some groups get upset, but they soon forget that we were there, since we are generally two or three times faster than them.

One last note - we played a mountain-type course a few weeks ago, and the starter mentioned that the course was dead and that the last group teed off about 2 1/2 hours ago. We caught them on 15. It took longer to play the last 3 holes, than the first 15 holes!

 

Indeed, membership does have its privileges. And I love a design that allows you to move about, skip, pick/choose as you want. Pop out late for a short loop, whatever. Good stuff.

OK, sidebar: A certain guy named Michael Jordan showed up at my home course on Saturday. Guess he must be doing his camp down in Santa Barbara? A buddy was over there, sent me a text: "He might be Air, but he chips like shit." lol