July
At the risk of being burned at the stake, I am going to address an on-going issue that has historically caused and continues to cause heart burn at our tournaments. Primarily Par-Tee Singles is a golf club. Secondarily Par-Tees Singles is a social club. Therefore, there is room for all levels of players at our tournaments. That's who we are. Our novice golf program provides a forum for new golfers to get out there, practice their golfing skills, and decide if and when they would like to join us in our monthly tournaments. That being said I want to emphasize that the problem is not with our novice golfers. My editorial is not meant to discourage our novice golfers from participating in our regular tournaments but to encourage them to join us and feel comfortable with golfing protocol.
Our big problem is slow play. Slow tournament play has been an issue the 15 years I've served on the Par-Tee board. I've heard comments from board members such as "there is no way to address this issue that will work," "it won't matter what we do," "we're not always the slowest players," "other golf clubs deal with the same issue," and "we're really going to make our members mad if we bring the issue of slow play up."
The board has been proactive in addressing slow play. Currently as well as in the past our tournament directors have passed out slow play guidelines at each tournament along with the pairing sheets. In the past one tournament director verbally gave each foursome instructions to enable players to keep moving. We tried having the person with the lowest handicap in each foursome be the captain to keep the foursome moving. This year Bill Vizza again addressed the issue in an email listing pace of play guidelines. These guide lines are currently posted near the bottom of the tournament schedule on our web site. Bill's email was in response to one of the major golf course professionals telling me that if the economy gets better many of the golf courses in our area will not let us book tournaments at their courses. We have apparently earned a negative reputation.
Another way to look at this issue is - how does each one of you like traveling sometimes two hours to get to a venue to play a 6-1/2 hour round? Guess what folks? I think if I asked our tournament players how much they enjoyed their 6-1/2 hour round I wouldn't get many hands raised. These long rounds are miserable. As many of you are aware - to golf a good game you need to be able to focus and not wait to play each hole.
O.K. enough said! So - how do we work on this issue when most of our attempts in the past proved to be fairly futile?
The game of golf is a team event. We book a series of tee-times. Each tee-time consists of four players. Therefore, our playing guidelines and game skills have an effect on our foursome as well as on the other players on the course. One of the issues I see is that many players do not let their team mates know when they are doing something incorrectly. We all tend to assume that everyone knows what they're doing. I would like to suggest that we help the players in our foursome when they appear to be hesitant or need instruction. If there is an issue with a suggestion - the players involved can talk to the tournament director after the round so that all of the interested parties can acquire the same knowledge.
When we first start playing golf we experience a tremendous learning curve. Experienced golfers need to help new and uninformed intermediate golfers navigate the golf course.
I am going to address many issues regarding pace of play as well as some etiquette in my subsequent editorials. I am going to try to look at each issue in its' entirety so that we can get a comprehensive view. I would like each of you to look at each issue to determine whether or not you can find anything you need to work on that would help you with your game so that we can improve our team effort. I am very aware that the first thing I personally need to do is clean up my act. My hope is that if we all participate in an individual effort, we should be able to improve our playing time as well as our individual golf games. As a result we will experience more enjoyable rounds of golf no matter where we play.
The first issue I would like to talk about is regarding etiquette - USING YOUR CELL PHONE ON THE GOLF COURSE. Most courses have a policy asking players to turn their cell phones off during their round of golf. I've seen players not pay attention to that policy and I've seen players get past the pro shop, thumb their noses and turn their phones on. When these players answer cell phone calls they are distracted from their game. They are less able to concentrate are so engrossed in their conversations that they aren't aware that the other players in their foursome resent their lack of consideration. Needless to say using your cell phone during a round of golf is rude and inconsiderate. If we anticipate an emergency we can alert the pro shop and have them contact us on the course.
A few years ago I purchased a tape on "The Spirit of the Game." This tape came into existence after Arnold Palmer approached the United States Golf Association and asked them to spread the word about why etiquette on the golf course is so important. Seven elements of proper behavior on the golf course are creatively addressed in this video: The Teeing Ground, Pace of Play, Course Condition, Honesty & Integrity, Putting Greens, Walking & Riding, and Manners & Behavior. I have viewed and enjoyed this tape many times. If any of you are interested I'd be happy to loan it to you. It's a wonderful learning tool.
The last issue I want to address in this editorial is playing "ready golf." "Ready Golf" is a big deal. From the tee box of the first tee until the green on the 18th hole each player needs to play "ready golf".
Starting at the tee box: etiquette is that the golfer teeing off the farthest from the green hits his ball first. I.E. the guys usually hit from the white tees, the gals usually hit from the red tees. After the guys hit first when approaching the next set of tees the remaining players tee off. A lot of precious time is wasted when players mill around wondering who is going to tee off first or who has honors. Playing "ready golf" at the tee box means hitting your tee shot when ready. With that in mind always be ready for your shot. At most of the tee box this is easy because the only holes that don't require a driver are the par 3's. Therefore, we know our first shot on the longer holes is going to be with our longest club. Get your driver in your hand as soon as you get out of the cart to approach the tee box. Also, carry an extra ball or two in your pocket with extra tees in the event that you need to hit a provisional ball or break a tee.
In order to play "ready golf" every player needs to pay attention to where the players in his/her foursome are. On subsequent shots toward the green, if the player has his clubs and is ready to make his shot he should go ahead and do so if the other players are clearly not ready. Safety must always be a concern but if another player is looking for a lost golf ball on the opposite side of the fairway, the ready player needs to take his shot and then go assist the other player in trying to find his ball. A key element in fairway shots while playing "ready golf" is looking ahead to where you hit your ball. While approaching your ball assess the distance you think you will need to hit the ball. Gather the clubs you think you will might need and carry them to your ball. Going to the ball empty handed and coming back to the cart takes time. Going back and forth from the cart to the ball because you've changed your mind regarding your club selection also eats up precious time. You may not always choose the correct club but you will save time overall and gradually get used to and become more accurate at assessing the clubs you need to choose for each shot.
Ah!!!!! "Ready Golf" on the putting green. If you need to chip a shot onto the green, carry your putter with you and maybe a sand wedge if there is a bunker close by in the event that you shank a shot. If you are on the green and there is a player taking a shot from a bunker you know that he will have to crawl out of the bunker after his shot and rake the sand. You have enough time while he does this so that you can go ahead and putt. If everyone is on the green focus on your own putt so that when it is your turn to putt you are ready. If you feel that you need to look at your putt from all angles of the green you can get off the green out of range of the other players and check out your putt before your turn. Walking all around the green and then assessing your shot takes up quite a bit of time. The message is that we can do what we need to do to assess our putt but we can spend less time in that effort.
It's time for me to sign off and start thinking about what to talk about next. I am going to try to cover as much as I can in small batches so that we can all think about the information with regards to our game.
June - July
By now we've all had an opportunity to figure out that we are either doing very well with our golf game or need a little help from our friends. The NCGA sponsored clinics began in April and will end August 14th. These clinics are free to NCGA members.
