Why 5-Hour Rounds Are Killing Golf | The Weekend Golfer Podcast

📝 YouTube Description:
Are 5-hour rounds ruining golf for weekend golfers?

In this episode of The Weekend Golfer, we talk about slow play, packed tee sheets, golf course pace, and why weekend golfers are getting frustrated with how long rounds are taking.

Golf is supposed to be fun — but when a round turns into an all-day event, it changes the experience for everyday golfers.

In this episode:
⛳ Why slow play is becoming a bigger issue
⛳ How it affects weekend golfers
⛳ The real causes behind 5-hour rounds
⛳ Ways golfers and courses can improve pace of play
⛳ “Let’s Talk About It” segment

👇 COMMENT BELOW:
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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

What's up everybody? Welcome back to the Weekend Golfer, the podcast for everyday golfers like you and myself. Get our voice back here. And I just want to talk to you guys about something today. Well, first let me start off with a question. When is the last time that you've played golf that it felt like it probably took at least five hours, if not even maybe more? Like just to get through the round, like borderline took you half a day almost to get through this round. Because that's what we're going to be hitting on today. And a lot of different elements of how golf has even gotten longer in the capacity as well. I know there's been some issues with that too. Um, between the PJ tour and live golf, which we may dive into that as well. Um, but that's what we're gonna be talking about today. But more specifically, why five hour or more golf rounds, like five hour rounds or more, are just killing the experience for us as weekend golfers. So if you're excited about that, stay tuned. Some of the challenges that we deal with, some of the good things, the bad things, all that stuff. Um, and so like even with today, like the reality of golf right now is that you know, previously we were just talking about how it has gotten expensive, but now it's starting to see where it's actually it's taken a while to play as well. Because I mean, obviously, most of us are playing on the weekends. Um, you know, we book a tea time, we're excited, we're ready to go. Like we well, we may not get up for work, but we got a tea time early in the morning, we're ready for that tea time, like two hours early for that tea time. Um, but we're getting out there and we're playing, things are going well, and then all of a sudden, like you get on like maybe like the third hole or something, and now it's like, all right, now you're waiting. Which, you know, sometimes that's gonna happen. Like, I get you are gonna wait probably on a T-box, but my issue so far with the like the length of time that golf takes is okay, if I wait on maybe one to like three to four maybe holes entirely in the raw end of the round, like out of 18 holes, four is like a max. But if I am waiting on the T-box on every single hole, that is a problem. That that is a true, that is a true issue that like we are seeing now where you get these groups that are playing, and like I I've if anybody works for a golf course, I certainly understand any managers, superintendents, whatever the case may be, um, I certainly understand that you know it's a business for one, and that the more people you get out, meaning that like having foursomes go out and play, you know, you're making more money in that regard. And I get that. But this is a conversation I even or had with my dad not too long ago when we were playing last. And it's just like the the issue is you can have a foursome and it'd be playing, but the average golfer, especially the average weekend golfer, we're not playing a hole in a matter of eight to fifteen, like eight to ten minutes. Like it takes most people spend that much time trying to find their ball, let alone get finished the hole in eight to ten minutes. And so the T times are kind of like stacked together, which you know we're stacking groups up, but like there, there the T times are stacked together to where I may be behind somebody, I have a 9 30 T time, and then I may be behind somebody who had a 9 uh 10 or whatever, 920. It's like okay, that's great. But I'm like, if it's been 10 minutes, why are you still in the fairway? Like you should be at least somewhere near the green so I can at least hit my shot. But even then, after the T-Box, the issue still continues. Um, usually you get to like um what's like a part three or part four or part five, excuse me. And you know, maybe you might get some, you feel like you might get some distance, or if you play a part three, it's gonna take them that you know, they should probably get through it pretty quick. Then they move on to the next one, part five, they got a little bit of time. You know, you think that you would create some space. But if I'm waiting on every T-box just to be able to play my shot, it throws the rhythm off. And that's one of the worst things that can happen when you're playing good golf, you're in a rhythm, you kind of got your mojo going, um, your back's feeling loose, everything's feeling good, and then you start getting cold because you have to wait 10 minutes just before you can tee off on your shot. Like that's an issue. That's one of the things that I struggle with, what that we're seeing now in weekend golf. Um, I haven't seen it recently, but I know it definitely happens. Um, but stacking groups, that's another issue. What I mean by stacking groups is okay, let's say me and my buddies, we're gonna go play. I got um six of us total, so we're gonna do a tea time. One of us will have a tea time with three guys, another of us will have the second tea time with another three guys. Great. If we get out and we're now four holes in, and now we just combine together to play uh as a group of six, that's a problem because now we are playing, and especially if we're not even playing like Captain's Choice or Best Ball, like now we're chasing everybody's shot, and there's six golf balls out here, not a single one of them's in the fairway. If we were not that good to be in the fairway consistently, do not stack groups. If you I mean, like even the PJ only lets three players play at a time, and I get foursomes is a quality number to have in regular average golf, but stacking groups is an absolute and like that that's irritating. I get it, you all want to be out there. I've done it in the past too, I get that, but at the same time, it's like, hey, we're gonna play golf. If you want to talk to me about something, call me. If not, I'll see you at 18 when we get done and we can all talk about how the golf round golf round went on the 19th hole in the clubhouse. We don't need to keep doing that because that it goes back to that losing that rhythm thing. If I just made a birdie on uh a part three and now I'm mojo, I'm feeling good, the swing's feeling good, now I'm on a part five, I'm ready to rip it. You know, I've got my minds focused, I'm locked in, and then it's like I gotta wait a whole bunch of time. I hit a bad shot, I'm blaming the group in front of me. I'm not even worried about the fact that I mishit the the face. I'm more upset at the fact that now I've had to wait an additional 15 minutes because the guys that I'm playing in front of me are doing things that normally necessary golfers don't do. So, you know what I mean? Like at the end of the day, I don't want to lose my I don't want to lose my swing. Or lose well, I don't want to lose my rhythm just because of I can't swing in the product, like I can't hit my golf shot because I have to wait. That's an issue. And so that's that's the thing that we've seen, but we're gonna dive into it a little bit more, more or less like why it actually is happening, actually. Okay, so the thing we've talked about, you know, this the reality of it, but like why is it happening? Um first and foremost, let's just let's just kind of break this down a bit. I always believe first and foremost it is overbooking tea times. Um, and again, I get it in the mindset of a business owner, I would want as many people to come out to my golf course to have a good time to play, but also I want to think about the quality of what they are getting. Because if we have a tea time every 10 minutes, I'm not necessarily thinking about the fact that it probably takes the average golfer who shoots anybody anything probably a 90 or above, it's gonna take them a little bit longer to do it. And also, um, like it's when you have inexperienced players as well, like you can't control that. As a as a as a golf course owner, manager, whatever the case may be, if somebody happens to book a tea time, you just happy they booked a tea time. But if I'm going out to play and I notice that there is an inexperienced player, somebody who's just out here learning, like I can't fault them for that. I would say that if you know you're about to go play as an experienced, inexperienced golfer, or if you're playing with somebody that you know, like you're bringing them to the course and you want them to learn the game of golf, try to book an earlier tea time. Um, or go on a weekday that doesn't get as backed up because that weekend golf, those are the hardcore people, they've been waiting all week for this. They're trying to get out there, have a good time, play some golf, and go home. Um, but the inexperienced player, they can get more quality out of their round if it's early in the morning or possibly during the week. So I think that's kind of one of the concepts there with that. And one of the other things that I don't see too often, but it could be a possibility, um, is just the lack of course management. Um and I I'm not saying this so much into like the um for like the people that are running the golf course. I mean, there's a part that they play in that as well, yes. But this is so this is much more for like that experienced golfer who knows how their game is, um, who knows what their handicap is, or knows roughly what they shoot anytime they go out to play, like course management is something that we probably don't take a lot of credit to actually do. So, what I mean by that is if like if I'm going out to play a course that I know that I've played before, then I know necessarily how I want to maneuver around that golf course because I know typically what I have done in the past. So if I know that I'm usually in this fairway bunker, maybe I need to aim a little bit differently so I don't end up in that bunker, but even then I'm prepared for what I'm gonna do if I land in the bunker. I also don't need to take 25 minutes, or um, that's an exaggeration. I don't need to take more than three minutes really to try to find a ball. Really, two is like the the the home, like the home ground. If like I lost a golf ball two minutes roughly, usually now I'm at a point where I take 30, 35 seconds. If I don't find it in the area that I thought I lost it, I'm getting another ball, dropping it, and let's go. Um, because I don't want to let that shot dwell on me so much that now I can't hit my next one. But instead, it's just okay, hey, I took a drop, let's keep going, let's let's clean this hole up and let's move to the next one. So, like that's what I mean by course management of how are we maneuvering through the course to make sure that we're not holding up the group behind us, we're not waiting, you know, we're not taking 20 minutes to find a golf ball or uh you know 16, however many minutes, like we're doing the full, like as my dad would say, doing the full Tiger Woods approach by you know putting our ball down on like our ball lands on the green, we're giving it the whole treatment, we're putting the ball marker down, we're bending down, looking at the line, we're practicing a few putts beforehand, we're picking the ball marker up, then we go and hit the putt just to miss it. Again, course management. If you know that you're not making good putts, or if you know that you're averaging more than 40 plus putts on a round, then okay, you might need to practice your putting, do that stuff while you're off the green. But keep the same, I'm all for the rhythm, keep the same rhythm. But if it works for you, it works for you. But at the same time, I don't want to be waiting 10 minutes for you to do all this looking, looking from behind the ball, looking from the side of the ball, looking from behind on the back side of the ball, from the other side of the hole, moving to the left side. Like, you don't need a full 360 view to see your play. If you put the ball in the hole, if you miss it, pick it up, take a buggy, go home. Like I didn't come like that's the thing. As weekend golfers, like, we're coming out to play golf to enjoy it. We are not coming to watch somebody pretend that they are on the PGA tour trying to win a masters. This is not that kind of golf course. So again, this is what I think a few things while I think is happening. I think that we're overbooking tea times. There is a uh a large amount of inexperienced players that are playing that we're not necessarily taking into account of what they are doing or what their knowledge is, of course, of the course management and course etiquette for that matter. Um, course management on ourselves. So those of us that are experienced, like we're not practicing or playing in the way that we would probably we're not practicing, we are but most of us aren't practicing the way that we would play, but we're not doing what needs to be done to make sure that we're getting through the round properly. And then there's also like I didn't even think I hit this one, but there's no true enforcement on golf courses. And what I mean by that is usually like you every most golf courses have a starter. And a starter, if you don't know, a starter is basically the person that verifies that you're out there for your tea time. They usually take a note of what golf cart numbers you have, and they kind of track how the pace of play is going for the day. If they start getting issues of a backup, uh like a like the somebody may say, Hey, it's taking us way too long to get to these holes, like this group in front of us, they're taking way too much time, then more than they should, to play their game, but play their next shot. Then usually the starter is the one that's sent out to the golf course to say, Hey, you guys we're moving, we're a little bit behind pace, let's pick it up a little bit, let's you know, keep make sure we're going. Um, if ball goes out of bounds, you know, just take a drop, keep it moving. Because everybody wants to enjoy. So, like a lot of some golf courses don't even have that. There's no enforcement, there's nobody out there to make sure that the round is going the way that it should for everybody. Because I've been to some golf courses, there is no starter, and that's when you get those overbooked tea times that those inexperienced players that are out there, so much is going on, and at that point, you probably are not gonna be a repeat customer at that golf course. But you go on the opposite side, and I've even been told, hey, pace of play is going a little bit quicker today. We got we need you guys to pick it up a little bit. And I'm like, Oh, all right, cool, no problem. Then I'm like, okay, now I want to make sure like we're playing ready golf at this point. We're not just waiting to say, oh no, you're further back. No, no, you got it, you got it. No, you can hit. No, if you're ready, hit the ball. Like, that's where we are. Let's get through this hole, let's get through this round. Let's go have a good time while we're playing and let's get it done. All right, so a new kind of segment that I wanted to start doing on the podcast for you guys is a segment that is called Let's Talk About It. So, all right, what basically this whole thing is this is like a specific thing that we want to talk about. This is where we're gonna dive into some nitty-gritty things and any side type of things that you want me to you know discuss or talk about, give you my opinion on, let me know in the comments down below. This is what that segment is for. So, in our very first inaugural moment of let's talk about it, because this is always gonna be real, first and foremost. I will try to be as real as possible. Um and since we're talking about slow play, I will tell you my perspective, my full authentic perspective of slow golf. So for me, slow golf is probably one of the top three most frustrating things I deal with on a golf course. It's it's it's a part of golf I understand. But for me, slow golf is terrible because if I'm in my rhythm, if I get to a point that I feel locked in, my driver's coming off the face good, I'm hitting my irons pure, like we're making some shots, we're making pars and birdies. But if I'm starting to get into a rhythm, and next thing I know is now I'm waiting because I mean I average about 285, 290 on my driver, so now I gotta wait because of who's out here. I don't want to have to make a decision to be like, well, I want to at least go ahead and start playing the hole. Let me just take a five iron just so I don't hit the guys there when I know I can drive the ball and be in my sweet spot of like 75 to 60 yards in on a par four. Like, I don't necessarily I don't want to have to change my golf game and my game plan that I probably took into that course because you playing slow. And I gotta wait, or you know, maybe and and most people I don't even think people talk about this, but if you go play with a group of people, there's a there's a small dynamic of who tees off first and keeping that same rhythm. Most people, most of us average golfers, like average weekend golfers, we're not playing like okay, I'll break it down this way. When the professionals go out and play their tour round, uh whoever had the best score on the previous hole is the one that leads off on the T-box. Not many of us are playing that way. Usually if it's John that's starting off on the T, and then it's me, and then it's Chris, like that's kind of how the rhythm is, or if we're at a point that we're trying to get through the round, it's whoever's ready. Um, also, like for me, sometimes like I play with my dad a lot of times, and he's obviously a little bit older than I am, so he plays from the senior tees. So if that's the case, then I typically will always usually kind of go first, or if it's in this situation where there's guys that are up there in the area that I'm trying to get my ball to land to be respectful, not to hit them. I don't hit, my dad doesn't hit that far, he goes first. So that's a small thing that just even changes the rhythm of like what's going on, what's happening, because usually I'll set the mark because then I'm like, hey, I'm playing a little mental game of my mind. So he'd be like, I'm gonna hit this ball where I want it to be, and I want it to be better than what he does, but I also want to feel like he's I want to put pressure on him to hit a good shot as well because he just saw where mine went. Like all that goes through my mind, and that can all change because of just somebody who's playing slow. So, on the other side though, I get it. Golf is a growing sport, it is growing because of all the different things that are happening. Uh, live golf definitely changed the dynamic of golf as it is, is what people watch. Um, more people are playing. Uh, these courses are just trying to keep up because most people are calling, hey, I want to play, I want to play. Everybody, like I get it. Everything is growing, which is good for the sport, it's good for the game of golf. But on the other side, if every round turns out to be a five-hour experience, there are two people that are gonna be upset about that. The first person is gonna be my wife. For me being gone playing golf for that long, she's not gonna be a happy camper. And because of that, I'm not gonna be a happy camper. Who is number two? So, at some point, we have just got to be a little bit more intentional and smart about how we're setting tea times, how we're putting people on the course. Like, I wouldn't even be on mine, like, hey, I want to find a course that only allows threesomes out there. Like, you can play three guys, you know, and then it's it's different. Like, if you go to certain courses, you walk, whatever the case, I get that. But like, just cut it down to three and just see how much that improves the game of golf. Like, just three courses, like we can get three Charlotte courses just to commit to that. Three three golfers every uh every tea time, not four, three. And you know, same use those same tea times. I wonder how different it would be. That's just again my my two cents of it. Um, but again, slow slow golf is not a fun thing because I I mean, yes, I want to take my time and I want to like be intentional about how I'm playing my specific game of golf. But I also don't want to have a tea time that is at 9 30 and I'm leaving the golf course at four o'clock. That is not okay because it took me that long to finish around. Like, golf really should be anywhere between three and a half to four hours max of playing 18 holes. That's how long it should be, but it's not. It hasn't been, I get it, not happy about it, but we gotta fix this. So, all right, so we've dived into it, what's going on, what the issue is, but I kind of want to be a little bit specific, speaking to all of my weekend golfers, of course. Um, how is it really affecting us? And I kind of hit on it just a little bit before. Like, if I'm out on the golf course for more than five hours, like, you know, obviously my wife's gonna ask, you know, hey, how is golf? You know, if you guys are out there a long time, like eventually that's gonna get tiresome. So she's not gonna be a happy person if I'm out on the golf course because it takes so long to get through a round. Um, but I think it hits us as weekend golfers the most about these long golf rounds is because for one, like that, it's limited time. Like we don't have um the freedom of time to do things. Sometimes, like I mean, last Thursday I played, and I'll get to that round as well. But last Thursday I went to go play uh a golf course here in Charlotte called Highland Creek with my day. A lot of y'all might have seen the TikTok video I posted about that. Um, and I'll get into some other stuff with that as well. But played that day. We had a tea time at 9.30. With that golf round, I had my daughter's birthday party that later that evening. So I'm like, I'm not trying to be out here from 9 to 4 because her party was at 6. So I ain't got time to do all that. Luckily, we were out by 1.30. I finally got home round two. So ideally, where you want to be, it could have been a little bit shorter, it could have been done at like 12, leaving, getting home around 1.30, but I get it. But as weekend golfers, we have limited time. We have family, we got work, we got life and things that are going on. We don't really want to be spending five hours on a golf course. Some of us do. Some of us do. I don't. Um, and then also it's it's harder to try to like it's it's hard to kind of keep going in long rounds. Like if you've been out all day, let's just just put yourself in this place. You out on a golf course, you got a tea time, maybe nine nine-ish, nine thirty. And you know, you're doing good, slow place is going, you realize you finished the front nine and it's 12. So it's three o'clock. It's you've already been out there for three hours and you just finished nine holes. Now, you're at hole number thirteen. It is now beginning to shift to the hottest part of the day. By the time you get to hole number 16, you might be just done with the game of golf, honestly. Because if it is like if it's 90 degrees and the sun is just leaning on you, like the sun is just leaning on your back. Like, you you're gonna be you're not gonna be a happy camper. And if you like me, I get a little irritable when I get high and bothered and my blood pressure's moving. Like, I'm gonna get a little irritable, and so that's not gonna just that's not gonna be a Game of golf. Like at that point, take my golf clubs, put them in the truck. I'm ready to go. I don't care about the last two holes. Like, put me down for a I don't even care. Bogie, birdie, whatever you want to do. I don't care. Like, it's hard to get through rounds that seem long because eventually you just get tired of being out there. And even professional golfers don't want to be playing golf that long. That's why Liv's whole push was the fact that they were playing golf. Um, three guys on a T-box, they were all starting at the same time, and everybody got done faster. So you didn't have to go play, you know, a seven o'clock tea time one morning and then go play at two o'clock the afternoon and being done at seven o'clock that evening the next day. Like it's just it's hard for long rounds. And then, you know, it turns your fun into frustrations. I was just talking about the fact that like if you get hot and bothered, it's not fun anymore. The golf is not fun. I've been out here way too long. I've been sitting here waiting to hit my shot because I'm waiting on John Doe up there to put his putt in the ball because I'm trying to play this part three and he done missed three putts already. Like, just pick it up and go at this point. Or, you know, a lot of guys are playing their own ball as a force of them, and none of y'all are hitting the fairway. So we're just watching the carts do this from a distance because I can't figure out if I can even hit the ball or not. So I have to wait for y'all to get on the T-box. By the time I realize that, 10 minutes have gone by, and I could have at least played a four-iron or eight iron somewhere in that gap. But I don't know why four or eight, but I could have played something to at least get started. Can't even do that. So fun golf can quickly turn into frustrating golf just because long rounds, and I think that affects us because again, as weekend golfers, we're kind of used to that on like some of us, we on the go, we ready to clock, we ready to do all this stuff, we're ready to move. And you know, some of us, you know, golfers are relaxing time. We have all day to be out here on the golf course. Even if I had all day, I won't be out there that long. So again, we don't have unlimited time as weekend golfers. Golf shouldn't feel like it's a full-day commitment every single time we go out there. Alright, so and we and one thing that I talked about I don't like where I was starting on that one. Okay. So, you know, what is we talked about, you know, a bad pace. What is a good pace? So I kind of hinted at it before. A good pace, again, to me, is like if I play 18 holes in three and a half to four hours, that's a kind of good pace of golf. Like that's you know, I got time to think about what I want to do. I can take a few practice swings and I'm kind of ready to go. Like over time, that should be about three and a half, four hours of a golf round. Um, but also there's a steady flow, there's a steady consistency. Like I'm not waiting 10 minutes one hole and then waiting three minutes the next time on the T-box. Like, I'm waiting anywhere between if I do have to wait, I would hope anywhere, like I said, no more than four minutes to get ready to go on my on my shot. So there's a steady, there's a steady flow that's happening. Um, we're also in a mindset of possibly if we need to playing ready golf. Like, if you know uh John is in the fairway and Jane is on the other side in the rough, she's still walking to her ball. John got plenty of John, go ahead and hit. Like, put your ball on there, get your club, you go ahead and get on the green. While you doing that, Jane gonna come up, she hit her shot, you know. We ready, we're playing ready golf. Like everybody is playing. Because at the end of the day, you mean you want to beat your people that you're playing with, but also you're trying to beat the course. Like, if I can beat the course, I know I'm gonna be better than the person I'm playing with. Like, I ain't worried about, you know, uh, like when I play with my dad, I ain't necessarily worried about his score. I'm more focused on mine. Because I know I can play better golf than he can. He probably would watch that and say he can't, I don't. But either way, I know that I can do certain things better than he can, and there's also days that he can wipe the floor with me. So like it's a back and forth. So, but we're also in a mindset of like if he's ready to go and I still gotta go find my ball, like he'll go ahead and hit his shot, and I may just take a drop where I am, and then I can play my shot. Like, we're playing ready golf. And um, lastly, there's like it's an enjoyable pace. Like, we're enjoying the game of golf, we have a good time, you know. We have enough, like it should honestly what should happen from the time that you get off a T off a green to the next T-box before you tee off. Obviously, if you're walking, you walk over, if you're driving, you're driving. You drive over to that place, you confirm your score, whether it's on your app or whether it's on the scorecard, if you're one of the old school people. Um, you confirm the score. You may talk about what happened on that last hole, or maybe what discussing what's going on next if you haven't been out here. Um, maybe somebody's asking for yardage distance. You know, somebody usually has their watch when we play at least, somebody has their watch on. They're saying, All right, this one's you know 453 yards, uh, looks like the bunker's down, whatever. Like that's just happening. That's happening on while that's going on, and that's like at all takes you three minutes. Three to four minutes before you're like, okay, cool, I know what I want to do, let me hit my shot. Three to four minutes. That's all it should take. That's from the time that I got done putting my ball in the hole on the last screen to the time that I put it on the T, getting ready to tee off, three to four minutes. All that should happen in that time period, and nothing more than me just having to sit there and wait to watch so-and-so hit his ball um four yards in the field in the air, duff it, and now I gotta go hit it, watch him hit it again, and he ain't move nowhere beyond that. But you can actually enjoy golf when it is moving. Like, I I think we all as weekend golfers we can enjoy golf even more when golf is moving. And all right, ladies and gentlemen, my weekend golfers. I want to uh close this out by saying that I want to hear from you. Like, what is the longest round that you have ever played? Like, let me know in the comments below. Send me a message on uh TikTok. You can follow me at the weekend golfer too. Instagram is the same thing at the weekend golfer too. Uh, YouTube, you can follow me on there, try to get some more videos for you guys for that. And I already talked about the first round, uh, beginning to work on those. But let me know what's been your longest round that you've ever played, and also what do you think is the biggest cause for slow play? Like maybe it's something I didn't even discuss today. But what is the the biggest cause that you think is leading to slow play on the golf course? So let me know down in the comments below. Also, make sure that if you're on Facebook and you haven't already, make sure you uh join the weekend golfer clubhouse. Just a space on Facebook for a group of people that want to talk about golf, anything that you want to share, fun things, selling items, whatever the case may be, it doesn't matter. Just a hug for everybody for all of us weekend golfers who are just trying to make sure that our voice is hurt besides watching the pros play golf. So, but again, this is the weekend golfer. Everyday golfers get a voice, you guys stay blessed, and see you guys in the next one.