Slow play has been a topic of concern for Rideau View’s playing committee for several years now. After hiring the UK consulting firm STOP Slow Play Inc which specializes in identifying the actual cause(s) of slow play on a club to club basis the committee has chosen to make several radical changes in club policy. The consultant identified some key, though, polarizing factors in providing the committee with solutions. The new policies were presented to the Board of Directors last week and, surprisingly, yet convincingly, all of the changes were met with approval from the Board.
The changes in policy are:
1. The immediate cancellation of both Men’s and Ladies League. All fees paid to date and sponsor contributions will be refunded. The consultant, through, the cooperation of our marshals/starters have determined that BOTH leagues encourage the consumption of alcohol, gambling, and unnecessary conversation between group members. The result is a round of golf that is 38 minutes longer than any other day of the week.
2. All members will be required to go through a MANDATORY club fitting and ball striking analysis by the professional staff. The consultant has identified a large percentage of the membership are attempting to play the course with equipment which is either outdated and/or not fitted properly. Golf ball loss is the equivalent to time loss and using properly fitted equipment will result in a faster pace of play. Members will not have reservation access to tee times until they have gone through this process.
3. Ladies will not be part of the draw process until after 10:00am on weekends and holidays. After careful review of average times for the last twenty years the consultant identified a period of time where SLOW PLAY was not an issue. It was during this time that ladies did have have full playing rights and while this is a radical change, the consultant felt it was a necessary one.
4. The new restroom facility located on the east side of Hole #4 will be closed until further notice. Since it’s opening it was discovered that round times increased just over 12 minutes versus the previous years time averages. The Board will begin a process in determining other options/uses for the facility.
5. Juniors will no longer have access to the tee time reservation system. The consultant accessed the hard drive of the reservation system and identified that juniors had openings in their foursome 92% of the time. In the opinion of the consultant this is due to senior members feeling intimidated by the younger, smaller junior member’s ability on the course. The result leads to many twosomes and threesomes on the course which interrupts the pace of play.
6. ALL members will be required to arrive at the course a minimum of 45 minutes prior to their tee time. Failure to do so will result in a loss of playing rights. After a year long analysis of observing “trunk slammers” arriving mere seconds before their tee time compared to that of a member who had arrived 45 minutes prior to their time – trunk slammers averaged a 13 minute longer round than that of the more time observant and warmed up member.
The initial feedback from members is mixed. I conducted my own personal opinion poll – calling members of all categories to get their immediate reaction to the effective changes in club policy. I asked them to keep their comments to just one word to describe their feelings and current state of mind. Here are just some of the comments:
Astute
Profound
Reasonable
Inventive
Laughable
Frightening
Original
Offensive
Ludicrous
Sensible.
Have a great day. 
April Fool’s much???
UK Consultant..funny…
If you want to improve the pace of play- teach and encourage everyone to learn how to play “ready golf”.
At the course where I stayed in Florida this winter, “ready golf’ was expected of all players in every game and was explained to all new players when they arrived.
Our foursome at RideauView plays “ready golf” every morning, and walking and putting out each hole, we normally finish in between 3hrs/15min and 3hrs/30min.
Most players do not understand what “ready golf” means or is.
Briefly, it is what it says.
On the tee, whoever is ready hits away-forget about who has the honor.
On the green, whoever is ready putts-forget about who is away.
On the fairway, as long as no one is in your way- hit when you get to your ball and are ready- forget about whose ‘turn’ it is.
After putting, go directly to the next tee and mark while you are there.
Once you try it, you will never want to play a (long) 4 hour round again.
When a 4 hour round is considered a “normal” pace of play, you can be sure slow play is here to stay.
Some years ago at the British Open, Colin Montgomerie and another player teed off as the first group on the final Sunday and played 18 holes at Muirfield in 2 hours and 37 minutes.
I have played at the Belfry in England, on a Saturday afternoon with 3 locals out for their weekly game and we easily finished in 3hrs/30 min.
I wish Nike would change their slogan from “Just Do It”, to “Just Get On With It”
One club in the US (albeit an expensive public course) had an interesting system to keep play more speedy. They used those cups on each green that are linked to a clock or computer somewhere, and keep track the number of balls going into the holes, and the times, sort of like at a bowling alley. If a foursone is suppossed to finish the hole at, for example, 3:17, they have 2 minutes grace, and at 3:19 the bottom of the cup rises to ground level (i.e. the hole is no longer a hole. In order to play on, the foursome must insert money in a slot in what is then the hole cover. I forget the amount but it was either a five or ten dollar bill. It is explained when you sign in, and players are encouraged to get bills of the right denomination handy, in case they need them. We just skipped the first hole that did that to us, and made sure we got to each of the holes within the time limits. There’s a clock (like we have on some holes) at each tee box. I’m not sure if that system is still available, but you may want to look into it.
Great article and glad to see the board has taken a step to reduce slow play. Got a laugh which is refreshing on these cool days. Norm