Slow Play: Don't only blame the Players.

It's the Policies, too… It has been my good fortune and privilege in recent months to be involved in debate over a wide range of subjects that get to the very heart of our sport and, essentially, to its future well-being as it grows and spreads.
Of these discussions, there was a particular and unique degree of relevance emerging from the Slow Play Symposium staged at St Andrews just a few weeks ago. The findings of those two days of debate by some 60 appropriate officials are of enormous significance to the most popular golf destinations.
In order not to cloud the issue with too much detail, I wish to simply highlight the main conclusions. In so doing maybe we not only explode a myth or two about the causes of those interminable rounds, but also point out ways of easing an escalating problem. From the symposium an unexpected message goes out to the proprietors of pay-as-you-pay establishments, tournament organisers, course designers and the committees of golf clubs.
The view emerged emphatically that the main reasons for slow play are more likely bound up in the way competitions are run and courses are set up than by the individual.
Excessively slow individuals(with all their irritiating bad habits of which we are all familiar) are a contributory factor for rounds of five and six hours and more, of course, but a whole catalogue of other causes were identified and accepted by all who attended. One of the most pressing problems highlighted was that of sending out groups with too little interval between them. This simply creates tailbacks in much the same way as occurs with heavy traffic on a motorway.
By trying to get an excessive number of players around on a tight schedule, possibly for commercial reasons, the course becomes log-jammed with groups too close together and the pace of play gets slower and slower. Give each group a few minutes longer to get into a rhythm before being pressured from behind and everyone moves around the course more freely, perhaps with just the occasional hiccup.
The R&A have discovered the truth of this in their Open Championship. By extending the gap between starting times up to eleven minutes the pace of play has picked up to the point where, for the first time in many years, there were no five hour rounds at Muirfield in 2002.
In contrast, where resort course administrators book in groups at, say, seven minute intervals in order to increase the volume, the system becomes counter-productive as jams develop and play gets slower and slower. The practice of 'cramming players in' has been described as "An entirely false economy," and also certainly undermines the quality of the product.
Other important reasons pinpointed for slow play was that of ' deep rough being allowed to form in areas where golf balls are most likely to get lost ' the newer lengthy courses, often with a considerable walk between green and the next tee and, surprisingly some might feel, new technology. This is because to those who now strike the ball in excess of 300 yards the shorter par fours are more like par threes, virtually reachable off the tee, while most par fives have become 'two shotters', again causing hold-ups.
Among the speakers were Peter Dawson, Secretary of the R&A, Bill Yates of Pace ManagerTM Systems, an acknowledged specialist, Graeme Marchbank, former rules official on the Ladies Tour, now Director of Golf at Gleneagles, John Paramor, Chief Referee on the European Tour, Julie Wade, leading amateur golfer for many years and now a member of the R&A secretariat.
As a result of the findings a whole variety of measures will be communicated throughout the game. We will actively play our part by informing our membership of the role professionals should play. Here are some of the guidelines:
Maintenance: Ensure that the length and location of the rough, especially around popular landing areas, avoids numerous lost balls. Also, that the speed of the greens is reasonable.
Course Design: Adopt favourable sequences of holes to avoid bottlenecks (i.e an opening par 5 followed by a difficult par 3 is a recipe for slow play).
Player Behaviour: Organisers should communicate with the players. Tell them what is expected of them, to be ready to start promptly, to exercise good habits and etiquette at all times.
I found it a most thought-provoking two days from which a possible change of policy arose for consideration on the Costa del Golf and elsewhere: "Increase, rather than decrease, the interval between groups. Perhaps more players will arrive earlier and happier at the 19th. That would be even better for business…!