A Few Ways to Play Golf Faster

Most golfers understand the need to keep their group moving. If you play ready golf, thank you. Let me add a few items to your ready golf list.

On the tee: If you're next to hit, be standing beside the tee box, club, ball, and tee in hand as the player ahead of you is hitting. As soon as the ball is struck, you may step into the tee box and begin preparing for your shot. The wrong way is to be standing beside your cart, watch the ball being being hit until it comes down, then get out your club, ball, and tee, and walk into the box. Being ready could save fifteen seconds per shot. If you're in a foursome, multiply that by three people and eighteen holes and that equals thirteen minutes.


From the fairway: After you hit your ball, don't clean your club and put it back into the bag. Grab your cart and go, carrying that club with you. That gets your group moving down the fairway without delay. When you get to your ball and are waiting for your turn to hit, you can then clean the club you're holding, put it in the bag, and take out the one you're going to be using for the next shot.

From the fairway: Not everybody in the group has to watch the shot that's being played right now. If you're the next player to hit, as soon as the player ahead of you takes his or her stance, you can begin your pre-shot routine. Unless that person is one who freezes over the ball before starting to swing, the stroke you end up taking won't interfere with theirs. That could save you at least fifteen seconds per shot, or if everyone in your group does it, about seven minutes in the round.

On the green: Putt out. I play behind foursomes of old guys who seem to play as fast as a twosome. You know how they do it? They putt continuously until they have putted out. They don't spend a long time reading the green, either. They take a look, and they go. (They do the same thing from the fairway, too.) I don't know how much time that would save, but fifteen minutes per group per round might be conservative.

If you're falling behind: Say you're falling behind the group ahead of you anyway. No blame. A good way to catch up is to split your group between the green and the next tee. The first player to hole out goes to the next tee right away to tee off. The second player to hole out does, too. You only need two players to stay on the green--one to putt and the other to take care of the flagstick. By the time they get to the next tee, the first two players of the group will have already teed off.

No one is being asked to rush, only to play a little more efficiently. Got any thoughts of your own?


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