This type of competition is held each year in many different golf courses all over the province of Quebec and in the Ottawa Valley. Every golf courses member of Golf Quebec has a team of men, women and seniors. The format in a Match Play between 4 players and each teams has between 5 and 10 members.
Many host golf courses talked to me this summer saying they don’t want to host in the future because Pace of play is so bad. In some areas, it took almost 6 hours and 30 minutes. On a Sunday afternoon, clubs loose money.
Some host clubs decided on the following solutions: (they are all ILLEGAL UNDER THE RULES OF GOLF
Not permitting the caddies to step on greens
Ask players to finish there putts instead of marking the ball
Determine in advance to concede putts of a certain distance
If a group is out of position, they must skip that hole and go to the next hole
The last solution is not practical because the advantage is to the players that are ahead in their matches
Solutions
Monitoring Pace of Play in Interclubs must be on an individual basis. If a group is out of position, timing should be done on every player.
Pros: I am always amazed to see how quick players are when they are timed.
Cons: Officials would be needed at all facilities and there are few that are qualified and willing to time players
Instead of matches between 4 players we should bring it down to 3 opponents.
Pros: Less players = Less time.
Cons: We will need more clubs to host all those competitions in a situation where clubs don’t want to host Interclubs in the future.
Comments
We need to find a solution because this type of competition is very popular within the golfing community and certain districts will have problems in the near future
I WOULD APPRECIATE YOUR COMMENTS AND SUGGESTIONS ON THAT TOPIC.
Michel Desjardins
Rules of golf should apply. Slow play is a plague.
Édouard Rivard
To apply the rules of golf, we need officials. I agree that slow play is a huge plague, and many slow player don’t even know they are slow.
Howard Holcomb
Golf committee should set the pace of play. If a foursome is behind, they are warned once then put on the clock with the appropriate penalties if required.
It is the same as a marshal timing foursomes on the week end. They don’t keep up, their starting times are pushed back. The pace of play is established by the 1st foursome. There are courses where the marshal has the right to tell a foursome (threesome, two) to pick up their ball and move to the next tee.
Édouard Rivard
In Match Play, it is not possible to ask a group that is behind their time to go to the next hole. The player ahead of his match would have all the reason to be slow. It must be an individual penalty.
Blake Wimperis
Ban caddies. I played in a OVGA Senior Intersectional on Tuesday – only one player had a caddie in 10 groups. All groups played under 5 hours.
It is especially bad in Women’s Intersectionals when a husband caddies. Ban spouse caddies.
Most club players are not used to playing with a caddie. The interaction between caddie and player just slows the pace of play. Everyone wants to emulate Jordan Speith and Michael Geller and we all know how slow that pair are.
Édouard Rivard
I agree with you that the caddies seam to be one of the 2 major reasons. The first one being the lack of knowledge of the Match Play rules.
PGA Tour is a very very bad example regarding Pace of Play
Ans yes, for many reasons, Women’s Intersectionals take much longer the the men’s competitions
PHILIP KONIGSBERG
Any match that fails to be decided within 4hrs and 45 minutes (not including weather delays) should be declared null and the players are scored 0 points. After 4hrs and 45 minutes, players must pick up their balls and return to the clubhouse, otherwise the will score -2 points for their team.
Édouard Rivard
It is not possible to penalise the entire group