Playing through in golf: Is there a right way to do it?

Two against four. It was quite the mis-match. The course was jammed, we were visitors, and we’d been on the quartet in front like Max Verstappen on a backmarker from about the 2nd hole.

We had tried very hard to keep our distance. We’d spied the groups in front, knew it was going to be like this for the long haul, and reckoned it unlikely if we got through one that we’d manage to snake through any of the others.

The sun was out. We didn’t have anywhere to be. All was good.

No-one wants to feel like they’re having to run round the course, particularly when it’s just about numbers rather than anyone being slow.

Etiquette experts will always tell you to let the faster group go through but it feels irrelevant when the rest of the course looks like a motorway after a breakdown.

But I really don’t like getting the nod. It can have a negative effort on my own game as I stutter my way stop-start through the madding crowds. I think it’s better to just remain in place and deal with it.

So we proceeded with due care and attention. But despite our efforts, the pressure was clearly proving too much to bear. As we got through the turn, so came a wave from in front.

What happened next comes right out of my golfing Room 101. Some of my worst shots have followed the subsequent rush to get on with it. I think they call it Sod’s Law.

This time, however, we managed to get club on ball before setting off in that bizarre half-running motion you do when you’ve been invited past and want to carry out the manoeuvre as quickly as possible. So far, so good.

But as we got ready to jet off, a strange thing happened. Instead of watching us perform one of Monty Python’s silly walks, the fourball returned to their positions and a couple hit their approach shots.

We all arrived at the edge of the green in a six-ball. Is it just me, or was this really odd?

Playing through: What’s the best way to do it?

It all went south from there. I putted out faster than Usain Bolt and all but sprinted to the next tee. Now the delicate space-time continuum had been disrupted.

We’ve barely hit out drives and the fourball have sidled in behind us. Now they were waiting.

There is plenty of etiquette set down for when a faster group should be given rite of passage but are there any guidelines for how you should let them pass?

Should you just step to one side and then wait until they’ve cleared the green or is it acceptable to keep going and put on the brakes only when it becomes inconvenient to play on?

I definitely prefer the former. I think if you’ve given someone the courtesy of playing through you should just stay where you are until they have, you know, ‘played through’.

My worst kerfuffle on a golf course came in a very similar circumstance when the trio in front, having waved us on, eventually found the ball they’d been looking for and rescinded the offer.

As we were practically passing them on the fairway, they just started hitting their shots again and swept back in front. I was incandescent.

It’s exactly these kinds of half measures that lead to disagreements. Who wants to cloud their day with a silly, and entirely avoidable, head-to-head?

So if you look back, see me, and are courteous enough to ever let me go past, can you do me a favour and just stay where you are?

Now have your say

Is Steve right about golf etiquette playing through, or is there nothing amiss about playing through becoming a six-person free-for-all? Why not let him know by talking to him on X.

NOW READ: NCG’S 5-point etiquette plan

NOW READ: Playing through: The rule that everyone ignores