COMMUNITY

I've always wondered about the cost/benefit of playing the first shot you think of vs. rethinking and overthinking. Do these guys actually think taking extra time helps or are they just getting stuck in a decision loop?

Agree, just watching some the Pro's, on TV taking a few practice strokes next to the ball before putting out and than they leave the ball short of the hole. I, Always wonder why they stand over the ball so long before making the stroke. I, guess when your putting for money it just takes a little longer!

I have to agree with with Golf Channel was saying .. enforce the rules and it can be fixed over night... these new guys with guru coaches and preshot routines.. just hit the ball.. make a decision and hit the frieakin ball..

I didn't watch any of this weekend's play since I was either golfing myself or driving through the dustpan that is Nebraska, but this falls on the PGA Tour's shoulders more than it does slow players themselves, honestly. I think I was the only person on the planet who approved of Guan Tianlang's slow play penalty at Augusta last year. Everyone seemed to be piping steam about how outrageous it was to give a 14 year old a penalty, but I was completely in favor of it because he was slow! And what did Augusta National do? They penalized him a stroke! When he did make the cut, there was not one more peep that weekend of him holding up play.

There are two things the Tour could do. First is actually enforce their penalty system. It's supposed to be warning on the 1st offense, then a 1 stroke penalty, then a 2 stroke penalty, then a DQ. There hasn't been a 1 stroke penalty given by the PGA Tour since the 1990's. You cannot tell me that in the last 20 years there hasn't been one player to have gotten two bad times. I just don't buy it. So, actually enforce it. It sounded for all the world like Louppe, Na, and Bowditch were slower than molasses out there, but none of them got hit with strokes. Either make it "easier" to penalize a player with shots, i.e no warning and penalty right away, or again, enforce your own policy.

The other thing that could be done is make those penalties public. The PGA Tour, for those of you that don't know, does not publicly announce when a player is hit by slow play (hard to avoid when you'll see it on the score sheet) or when they test positive for a drug test. They do it to try and save the guys from public humiliation. We all know that one of the quickest ways to stop someone from doing something, is to humiliate them publicly. Kevin Na is already the poster-child for slow play, which he rightfully deserves. There are plenty of guys who could get that same notoriety if the PGA Tour made it clear they were slow. I don't want to sound like a prick, because these guys are human, but embarrassing them will make things faster right away.

Cog, right, you didn't watch it but Bowditch wasn't slow: he was in a slow group. That's a big difference! In fact, at one point, Bowditch laid down on the grass and took a mini-nap/relaxation moment, while Loupe was finishing the hole... He had to dig deep to not lose his cool because in fact he is a pretty fast player!

Also, in the final round, Andrew Loupe was given a bad time (one of two before the first penalty stroke is assessed) and Matt Kuchar was also put on the clock. After that, Loupe went down from a dozen practice strokes (with saw-off follow through) to about half that, so I'd say the threat works, but I too would like to see penalty strokes assessed and the talking heads on TV making a big deal out of it, so that it would resonate with the average golfers. I am seeing plenty of rounds in the 5 and 6 hours out there...

Buncha crybabies whining about slow players.
So what if the guy has the MOST ANNOYING pre shot routine.
On my clock at home, they still finished their round in the allotted amount of time. And when they were asked to speed up, they did.
I really don't like it when someone judges someone else because that person is different. My brother and friend tried to pull that crap on me last year. Pissed me off so bad that it led to me not speaking to my brother for almost 9 months. And we have always been best friends.
I had a few new check offs before I pulled the trigger. It was because I was trying to improve as a golfer. So my pre shot was different from theirs, and took about 10 seconds or so longer. But we had a 4 some and we finished 18 holes on a weekend in 3 hrs and 40 min. We stayed behind the group ahead of us and were never pushed by the group behind us. Not once did they ever have to look for my ball in the rough because I hit fairways. I was always last to putt because I hit the greens closer than they did. And when I spanked all of them, all they had was that same old drivel about slow play.
Slow play.........really?

absolutely....there is a difference between slowing down,calming yourself and hitting your shot vs just being slow because your chit chatting or some crap. as someone who is trying so hard to get better I shouldn't have to feel like I have to hit before I'm mentally ready. every course has a pace of play time so as long as I finish in the time allotted I don't see where the problem is. and I normally come in well below the time.

Sure. I don't see a problem when the funky pre-shot routine does not alter the timeline, but most of the time it does. Case in point: Andrew Loupe was given a bad time (the second step before the penalty is assessed) and Matt Kuchar was put on the clock (the first step, before a bad time is given), and guess what?... Despite them speeding play a little bit, unquestionably, they still finished well outside the window of time allocated to the telecast. I don't mind it so much because I usually watch golf on the DVR and I always add an extra hour or recording time to the scheduled time (and once or twice it hasn't been enough!) to account for slow play and a potential playoff.

But my main point is that what the average golfer sees being done on TV is what you can expect to see done across the country on your next week-end round and no, spending more than 6 hours for a round, a lot of which waiting on the jackasses in front (or in front of them) is not what I call "fun".

So, again, I don't have a problem with your 30s+ pre-shot routine per se as long as you keep up (and at 3h 40 mms you certainly are keeping up!), but if everybody did this and other things that slow play down, it wouldn't be long before it becomes unbearable for everyone. 30 seconds when it's your turn to go before you pull the trigger should be plenty enough!

It is a lot easier to be patient with the group ahead so long as they at least act like they are trying to play quick. When they are lagging behind the next group and still fish balls out of the hazard, blood starts shooting out of my eyes! When they have lost a hole or more, look back at you, and do not offer to let you play through I'm calling the club house. They can refund me for my round or send out the ranger. I will be polite enough by not hitting in on them, but they need to show the same courtesy and wave me up. They can play as slow as they want, behind me.

I also avoid peak times, that would be stupid of me to set myself up for failure like that.

Don't know why this has not been thought of by the Tour but how many times have you been to a restaurant and be given one of those timers for when your ready to be seated. I am sure some tech wizard can come up with a device that is small enough to attach to a golf bag that can be timer synchronized so that each golfer can be tracked as to the amount of time taken on each hole. It can be programmed so that if excessive time is taken, it can be sent remotely to a server which the Tour can monitor. The only thing that would have to be determined is how much time is to be allotted and when to institute any penalties or fines. I am sure it can also be programmed for an assortment of scenarios which would affect a possible excess of time.

It's hard to watch in my opinion. I don't like watching TV to see guys stand around and talk for a minute, and then hit a golf shot that lasts like 10 seconds. I've never found golf boring, but when these guys take a long time to decide what to do, or do a huge rehearsal, I can't blame anyone for saying it is boring, and even I sometimes wanna fall asleep. This is especially the case when it's a bunch of no-names who don't carry a whole lot of public appeal right away.

A local course has GPS units on each cart. It keeps the group informed on their pace and the clubhouse on their locations. It also warns golfers on blind shots if the group ahead is within range. In addition it enforces the cart path only rule. If you want to order lunch, it even does that.

I don't mind a semi-extended pre shot routine as long as it's productive and you can play well enough for me to keep my mouth shut. Then you laser every shot even though you can't hit 1 out of 10 shots within 15 yards of the measured distance? Sell the laser and invest in some damn lessons on how not to take 10 practice swings from 150 yards and duff it down the fairway 35 yards. I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the best player out there but you'll NEVER be leaning on your club waiting on me to hit. Put the ball on the damn tee, back up a few damn steps, pick your damn line, take a damn practice swing or two, address the damn ball, don't stand there for damn ever, and hit the damn ball. Pick up your damn tee and get out of my damn way so I can hit my damn shot quickly to keep our damn group ahead of the damn group waiting behind us and try to catch up to the damn group that is now 2 damn holes ahead of us after 6 damn holes played.

But THIS is damn ridiculous.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v..

40 seconds of walking around and practice swings only to drive the ball 30 yards left of the fairway???

I say shock collars for every golfer, pro or amateur. With every shot that they go over the time limit they get zapped with increasing intensity .Collars can only be removed by the pro shop after paying a slow play fee.

Wow, a guy can wait six months to take his first shot you sure are impatient about taking the second.

You guys still don't get it.
You want SO BADLY to hate on some new guy named Loupe, because he does something different than you.
He played within the rules. So STFU!
He was probably in the transition phase of incorporating some new swing thought into his swing, that was working very well for him. We all have done this at the range. And when it works, we rehearse it before EVERY swing that counts. Lets be real about this. Every pro does it.
Tiger does it. He rehearses his cut-swing about 10 times before every mid iron shot.
Speith does it. He talks to his caddy as he rehearses slow motion swings.
My point is that as long as a golfer can keep up with the pace of play, why are some of you hating?
This is a diverse world we live in. We need to accept each other in our differences.
These guys kept up with the pace of play.
So why are we even talking about this?