Slow play: It affects us all

The curse of slow play – a player’s perspective

ONE of the hot topics it seems already this season is slow play. It is something that has been talked about for plenty of years but it doesn’t seem to be going away.

The tours do plenty which not everyone knows about and it is not quite as easy as just saying we should all be round in four hours or so.

For a start the courses are being set up harder and harder as the standard of play is improving so, with the pins in trickier positions, quicker greens and thicker rough, it will slow things down. It is difficult to just find your ball and then hit it.

There are players on every tour who have a reputation for being slow or disorganised and that is one of my frustrations.

I tend to play quite quickly and, if I hit first and have taken 40 seconds to a minute to play my shot, then you would expect your playing partners to then be ready to hit their shot. But that’s not always the case.

If I was playing after someone I would know they take 15 seconds from a certain point like walking in to the ball so I start preparing my routine from that moment.

There is no real time limit for how long a round should take as it all depends on walks between tees – there might be some distance between the 18th green and 1st tee for example, and how long the course is.

In the amateur game devices are allowed but there was a study done in the States which showed that rounds, where they are allowed, take even longe

The European Tour try to get a threeball round in four hours 20 minutes on a fairly quick, compact course but a lot of the places we play are set up for golf carts with 300-400 yard walks between holes.

One way plenty think will improve things is allowing distance-measuring devices and I use one in practice rounds while my caddy, Mark, is exceptional at making notes and working out angles and that is a massive part of having a good man on the bag. He is always ready with yardages and always has the numbers right.

In the amateur game devices are allowed but there was a study done in the States which showed that rounds, where they are allowed, take even longer.

At the pro level that might be slightly different as we know most of the courses and we have very good yardage books whereas at amateur level it might be your first round there and you don’t have that level of information.

It doesn’t happen very often for me but it’s not a nice feeling when you are put on the clock. The referee will approach the group and tell you that you are drifting behind or are over on the allocated time. Every event has a timesheet and most of the time they are pretty accurate with it.

But there is the odd occasion when I have been in the first group out and we have been flying round and might have got two or three holes ahead of the group behind but still not played to their schedule.

The referees occasionally point out an individual but it doesn’t often happen that way. It is normally the group and they never seem to tell you that you are off the clock!

The good news is we’ve had brilliant weather in Dubai, where it hasn’t rained for two months. The bad news is I haven’t been able to hit a ball.

I have been doing a lot of physio and training as I’m still struggling with my wrist ligaments and tendons so I missed out on Q School in Spain.

It is the same injury as the one I picked up at Wentworth in 2010 when pushing for a Ryder Cup spot. I had steroid injections a few weeks after that and that got rid of the pain and reduced the swelling but the pain has come back again.

I have been able to hit some putts and hope to hit some balls after some more intensive treatment and then it should take two or three weeks to get tournament ready.

I am hopeful of getting a few invites and go from there. The European Tour have a certain amount of sympathy but, going by the rules and regulations, I played too many events in 2011 to qualify for a medical exemption.

So everything’s a bit up in the air but I’ll be raring to go when my season finally gets under way.

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By Ross McGowan
on 08 February 2012

Slow play: It affects us all

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