Slow play can ruin a round of golf. That’s why there are rangers to keep the players up to speed.
But last week at Deer Run Golf Club, a public course in Victoria, a group of golfers “went crazy” when asked to pick up the pace, Tom Abts, general manager of the game, wrote in a blog post Friday. Deer Run and PGA professional.
According to Abts, the quartet played the first three holes in an hour, which if they continued at that pace they would have finished 18 holes in six hours (four hours is the maximum needed to play 18).
When the group arrived at the fourth fairway, there were three fours waiting on tee box No. 4.
“I went out and explained the situation to them, and asked to join the group in front of them,” wrote Abts, noting that the group was already on the sixth hole. “They were pleasant and promised to catch up.”
But they didn’t. They finished the first 9 in 2 hours and 20 minutes (a pace of 4 hours and 40 minutes), which “is not acceptable,” said Abts, noting that “it’s not fair for everyone behind them in this useless traffic jam” .
Abts said he spoke to them on tee box No. 11 and that “they are hostile”.
“They believed they had the ‘right’ to play at their own pace. I explained that they paid for a slot on the golf course, not the entire golf course. If they wanted to play at their own pace, they could rent the course for the golf course. day, but it would be a very expensive round of golf, ”Abts said.
He went to the clubhouse and got money to pay back the round. He offered it to her on the No. 12.
“Then they went crazy,” Abts said.
But they sped up their game. Abts said they did it not to “do the right thing”, but to make him look like an “idiot”.
“Now their goal was to play as fast as possible and then declare at the end of the round that they weren’t slow,” he wrote.
They finished their ride in 4 hours and 20 minutes and “I couldn’t wait to jump on me,” Abts said. They were “motivated to be the victims in this ridiculous situation”.
“Before they weren’t motivated to unfairly advocate the course … they paid their green fees and felt empowered to play at any pace … even though they ruined the round for everyone behind them,” Abts said. , adding that the quartet tried to “bait” him and personally attacked him.
Abts and Deer Run are no strangers to slow play, nor do people get mad at being told to play faster.
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In the 1990s, Deer Run had a reputation for being a slow course. The pace of play was 3.5 hours for nine holes, Abts said.
But he worked hard to change the reputation of the course.
Abts launched Fast Play on Friday in 1997, where the rule was that golfers had to play the top 9 in 1 hour and 55 minutes of you had to go home. There were rangers every three holes to keep people moving, and if they couldn’t play fast, Abts would meet them on tee box No. 9 and gave them the opportunity to skip the hole and play at no. 10 or go home.
“The responses were rarely good,” Abts admitted, but “luckily I was young and I could dodge pretty quickly – no one ever got punched, even if they tried.”
Slow players eventually started avoiding Deer Run, and fast players sought the course. Since then, the pace of Deer Run has been four hours every day of the week.
Abts admitted that it’s “pretty rare” for people to get angry when told to play faster. “Most people understand this and realize that they share the course … they haven’t rented it all day just for themselves,” he wrote.
“I haven’t had anyone hit me in years,” he concluded.
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