Stuck Behind Slow Golfers

The reasons for slow play are many but I think power carts (buggies in the UK) are the primary culprit. Far too many golfers, especially those new to the game, don’t seem to understand that persons sharing carts do not have to wait in or by the cart for their riding partner to hit his/her shot before proceeding to their own ball. They do not understand that upon arriving at one of the two balls they should – at a minimum – walk over to their own ball and determine what kind of shot and which club they will use. Here in the U.S. the proliferation of courses built which require the use of carts adds to the problem. To be fair, many of the newer courses have been built around environmentally sensitive areas in such a way as to make walking virtually impossible. The distance from a given green to the following tee can be literally hundreds of yards. But power carts are here to stay as many courses would not survive the loss of that revenue steam.

However, not all slow play comes from power carts. Some players, and therefore groups, just play slowly. At least some of that is attributable to watching professional golfers. Watch how many 20+ handicappers emulate them, walking all the way around the green to analyze that 10 foot putt for a smooth quadruple bogey. If you ask them, they’ll tell you they’re “grinding”. I have to laugh when a professional tournament is running beyond their allotted time and the network switches to other scheduled programming before the finish of that day’s play. Imagine how long those guys would take if they didn’t have the assistance of a professional caddy.

Slow play is bad enough. But when these snails not only play slowly but refuse to let a faster group through, what the hell do you do? I’m sure there are many of you who, like me, prefer to play at a quick pace and from time to time get stuck in this situation, waiting on nearly every shot. Tell me your story. I wish to laugh with you, not at you.