2010 #3 YOU CAN SHORTEN YOUR ROUND 18 MINUTES BY SAVING SECONDS

It is more difficult to keep up with the players in front of you if you are a high handicapper. Because you have to hit the ball so many more times than a low handicapper, you don’t have any time to waste.

Unfortunately many high handicappers don’t know how to play faster. They try. But they hurry, hit bad shots, get in trouble, have to hit another shot and consequently take even longer.

Most tips to speed up play save only 15-30 seconds on each hole. So they don’t seem very important. If it takes you 15 minutes to play a hole, how can saving 15 seconds help? It doesn’t seem that it could, right? But consider this. If all 4 players in your group each saved 15 seconds on each hole, you would shorten your round by 18 minutes! If each of you did something to save 15 seconds twice on each hole you would shorten your round by 36 minutes! Can you believe it? Thirty-six minutes?

And the things that save 15 seconds are not hard. Choose your own. You need things that are easy to do; things that don’t make you rush; things that will become a habit; things you won’t have to think about. I’m sure you have heard them all before. But now you need to do them regularly, habitually.

*Park your cart so that as you leave the green you walk towards the next hole.
*Get in the cart holding your clubs. Put them away while others are hitting.
*First one in the hole should lift the flag – ready to replace it when the last player holds out.
*Write your score on the next tee while someone else is hitting.
*Play ready golf.
*Be ready to hit when it’s your turn. Not ready to line up, ready to hit.
*Line up your putt while someone else is putting.
*When you leave the cart take extra clubs.

Once you have saved those seconds, protect them. They are precious. Don’t carelessly throw them away.

*As you stand on the tee, don’t delay your practice swing to finish a comment you were making,

*don’t put your head covers on while the driver of your cart is ready to go to the next tee,

*don’t change your mind and walk back for another club,

*don’t even walk slowly.

*Don’t wait to pull out a club until it is your turn to hit,

*don’t wait to hit until the group ahead is off the green if you can’t reach the green with your best shot.

Treat your saved seconds like something special. Don’t let them slip away.

You can do it. The next time you play, take 18 minutes off your round the easy way, by saving seconds.