Depending on how fast a reader you are, you might finish a new book on slow play in golf before you finish your weekend round of 18.
The Art of Fast Play: Solving Golf’s Maddening Problem of Slow Play tackles the ongoing issue of slow play on the golf course. As we’ve seen in recent months, the professionals — and the amateurs playing with the professionals, as was the case with 14-year-old Guan Tianlang at the Masters — are not immune to this. In the worst case, they are docked a penalty stroke.
But for us amateurs hacking away like the weekend warriors we are, the only punishment we get are some yells from the foursome behind us who have been waiting on every shot since the fifth hole, or a visit from one of the roving marshals who ride around the course like police officers. Except they’re usually past retirement age and they’re not armed.
The book’s author, Sam Marshall, offers tips and suggestions on how to pick up the pace. For example, according to an article on golf.com, Dunn writes staying alert and entering sand traps the correct way as methods to employ a faster pace. He even dedicates a whole chapter on the proper way for a group to operate golf carts.
So what is the ideal pace of play? Dunn says that a foursome should make its way around the course in about four hours.
What about you? What’s your group’s average pace?
