Internet Golf Society
Rules
on Pace of Play
Background: Pace of play has become a hot topic around the country
and
as a leader in the field of group play and pace, IGS is obligated to
list the particulars that have become a factor among our outings to
speed the pace of play.
Pace of Play Strategies & Hints
-
New golfers or high handicap players should use the forward tees.
-
Minimize practice swings & excess waggles.
- Addressing the ball to contact should be ~12 seconds
according to the PGA's 1999 study among all handicap levels.
-
Two (2) is the ideal number of practice swings conducted by research
from the PGA in 1993, 97, and 2007
-
From the time you select your club until you actually hit your shot,
you should take no more than 15 to 35 seconds. The PGA found a
correlation between additional time and higher scores among all amateur
players despite objections from players, they were found to have lower
scores when less time was spent in addressing the ball. (PGA elapsed
time study, 1998).
-
Please avoid the use of mobile telephones on the course, consider
others and switch ring tones off.
-
You should not talk, stand close or otherwise distract fellow players
while they are taking their shots.
-
Put a ball mark repair tool, two ball makers and tees into your
pocket at the first tee.
-
Take the divot bottle that is on the cart, to your next shot so that
you do not have to go back for it after the shot.
-
Carry a spare ball in your pocket so that you do not have to go back
to your bag when you need to hit a provisional ball.
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Take more than one club to your next shot.
-
If you are the cart driver, drop off your passenger at their ball
before proceeding to your own ball.
-
If you are the passenger, take more than one club to your shot and
proceed down the fairway after your shot. Do not wait for the
driver to pick you
up.
-
When in doubt hit a provisional ball. Eliminate the need to go
back to where you hit your last shot.
-
If not in a tournament, play balls that are out of bounds, lost etc.
under the lateral water hazard rule.
-
Limit your search for a lost ball to three minutes. Group efforts and
reasonable search efforts are in
-
If your next shot is with your pitching wedge or sand wedge,
automatically take your putter with you.
-
Leave golf bags at a point beside the green that is en route to the
next tee.
-
Park golf carts to the side or behind the green so that when you
finish putting you will be moving away from the field of play and
towards the next tee.
-
Study your line of putt while others are putting. The PGA
considers this very important in an effort to eliminate slow play. A
cited example given was players standing and watching fellow players
while they could have been addressing their own putts on the opposite
side of the hole.
-
Continue putting until your ball is holed. Anything within reason
should be putted without interruption and marking in any group setting
was the PGA's 1987 pace of play report finding.
-
If you are the first in the cup, pick up the flagstick so that you
can replace it after the last person has putted out.
-
Mark scorecards on the next tee box, not on or next to the putting
green.
-
Drive immediately to the next tee box and mark the card there.
-
Always keep up with the group ahead of you.
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