Dear readers,
Several of you offered useful suggestions related to #1566
to help speed up the pace of play.
from Lulu in Hercules,
California:
Our club agrees that if a group gets behind, the first two
to putt out go ahead to tee off at the next hole. They wait for the other two
players to tee off and complete the hole together. They do not split up for the
remainder of the round; they just speed up play a little until they catch up
with the group ahead. It works!
from Lulu in
Australia:
We often do this, but we don't split the group. We only send
two who have finished putting to tee off and they wait on the next tee for the
remainder of the group to arrive and tee off, before continuing as a group. We strongly suggest that they tee off
before marking cards! There is never any question of poor sportsmanship. It’s
encouraged as “ready golf.”
from Lou in
California:
In a related instance we encourage our junior players to go
and tee off after they have putted out (especially if they are behind their Pace-of-Play
requirements) to go to the next tee and tee off. I was questioned on this
practice because there was no marker present. I checked with a USGA official,
and received the following response: “While the player and his marker have an
explicit responsibility for the correctness of the player’s scorecard, there is
nothing in the Rules of Golf that requires a marker to witness every stroke a
player makes. After each hole the marker should check the score with the
competitor and record it – see Rule 6-6a.”
