thecandydan
Par Member
I don't mind a couple of cards with five players and generally don't feel five people play much slower than four. A tournament where every card had five would definitely drag. I actually played on a card of five a couple of weeks ago and our group didn't hold anyone up. In fact, we were waiting on the group of four in front of us more often than not.
Yes, with a card or two of five players it's more about who is slow and fast.
But around here it's not just a couple cards it's TDs who fill tourneys with 5/hole instead of 4/hole. So on a 24 hole course it amounts to 120 players (often plus ghost groups) versus 96. Or 72 versus 90 (plus the ghost groups). So 25% more players per card -- I wouldn't say it takes 25% longer to play but probably 15% longer? In which case those 3 hour tourney rounds take 3hr27min instead. Over two rounds that amounts to an extra hour . . . and it's all standing around waiting time, no extra action. (Kinda like baseball games that used to take 2 hours are now 3 hours but have the exact same amount of actual game action.)
No complaints from me mind you, around here we have a great independent TD who runs tons of events in different formats including many one rounders which are what I usually choose to do. Thankfully I have plenty of choices in my area. I'll occasionally choose to do one of the crowded slow two round tournaments but they are less fun imo.
I also think that stepping back . . . as the average course gets longer and harder the traditional model of two round tournaments will make less sense. Clearly the DGPT has reached that conclusion on behalf of touring pros. And of course the DGPT also always just has foursomes even though they (often) could clearly sell more spaces and garner additional entry fees for the payouts by having fivesomes.
Sorry to stray from the rules discussion.