2011 #4 SLOW PLAY BREAKING UP INTO 2-SOMES

The Scene:

Your foursome is preparing to tee off on hole #6, a long empty par 5. The group behind you has been waiting on every hole. Mary says, “Look, there is no one on hole six or seven. We are behind at least 2 holes.” She utters an expletive. “You know that’s not allowed. We are holding up everyone on the course. What are we going to do?” She looks fiercely at the rest of us. “Whatever it is we have to do it right now!”

What would you do?

A.  Let the group behind you play though?

B.  Immediately break up into 2 twosomes. 

B is correct. The goal is to catch up and by breaking up into two 2-somes you can catch up.

The problem is that no-one thinks they should do this. Eighteen-holers say it wouldn’t work for them because they hit the ball too far. The second 2-some wouldn’t be able to start until the first was out of sight. So breaking up would just add another group to the field and that would slow play down even further. They say their best choice would be to just let the the group behind them play through.

Nine-holers say, (as they did in their Cruel Rules Competition) “This is probably an unrealistic scenario for the 9-holers.  Keep in mind there are many things you can do to speed up your play ....”

But when players try this option and actually break up into two groups, everyone is amazed. It works! And it works especially well for 9-holers - even very slow 9-holers.

A 2-some plays almost twice as fast as a 4-some. That’s a known fact.

Let the first 2-some start immediately. Then, because they are playing twice as fast as they were, they will soon catch up with the 4-some ahead of them. They will then play at a slower pace until the rest of their group catches up with them.

As soon as the first 2-some is out of range the second 2-some should tee-off. Unless you are very long hitters both groups will be playing on the par 5s and par 4s at the same time.

Remember, the second 2-some is also playing twice as fast as they were, so they will soon catch up with the first 2-some. They can then recombine into one 4-some. The entire golf course is now caught up!

When your group is behind, you are slowing up not just the group behind you but everyone behind them, the entire course. So catching up is better than letting one group play through.

REMEMBER: IF you break up into 2 groups, you CAN catch up.