Mad Scientist said:
5 hours for 18 holes?! That seems a little excessive - or is that common in tourneys?
No that is way, way, way, excessively slow. A rule of thumb is a full course with 24 holes takes 4 hours to play. Chop a half hour to 45 minutes off for an 18 hole layout.
It is bad to play in a slow group. It is much worse to play behind a slow group.
I don't care if players takes their time executing a shot, so long as they pay attention and move with a sense of urgency. I can't tell you how many times I have waited behind a group moving at geologic speed, watched them putt out and proceeded to have my group drive on the hole. As my group is finishing putting out the group ahead of us has not yet teed off-and the there are no groups in front of them! So my group just played the hole in the time it took the slow group to take scores and decide who should tee first! Of course this was not an aberration, it happens every hole until the round mercifully ends.
Almost uniformly the slow players DO NOT CARE, IN THE SLIGHTEST, THAT THEY ARE HOLDING UP OTHER PLAYERS OR THE TOURNAMENT.
The slowest players are not only slow they are inattentive. Think about the average smart, efficient player. If, for example, his drive leaves him a 100 foot upshot, as he is walking toward his lie, he has figured out who is away, what disc he will use and what line he will take. When it is his turn, he has disc in hand, steps to his lie, checks to see if his plan makes sense and throws the shot. Oddly enough this player has thrown a 100 foot upshot before and knows how to do it. The only question is how aggressive a line he chooses to take under the conditions.
In the same situation, the slow player is out but does not realize it. So the following exchange happens: "Hey Dude, you're out." Pause 30 seconds for recognition to hit the slow player (btw, 30 seconds is crazy slow reaction time). The slow player responds, brilliantly, "What, I'm out?" "Yeah, you're out" Now the slow player starts the cumbersome process of figuring out what kind of shot he has and what kind of disc he should use. So 30 seconds later he ambles to his lie and carefully inspects the situation. Can't be too hasty now, of course. But he is easily distracted and might need to change discs, just in case. So after mulling over his shot for another minute, he backs off his lie, looks around and says, "So I'm out?"
I just want to slap him. If you are in his group you can see this charade unfolding each shot. If you are behind his group, watching him for 10 minutes every hole before his group clears, it is maddening.
Although I am a big fan of groups officiating themselves, this is one of the few situations I would love to have an official there to give out strokes for courtesy violations (which taking excessive time is). But we all know that confronting a slow player will only slow down the process more. Where is a cattle prod when you need it?
A few years ago I was playing a tournament in bitter cold conditions, in deep snow and stuck behind a slow group from hell. We waited forever and got very cold as standing around is a frigid experience (trudge through deep snow, build up a sweat then wait for long enough it freezes to your skin). At the end of the round we were the last group in. The TD apologized but told us the second round was starting in 10 minutes as most groups had been in for well over an hour. Then he told us the free lunch provided by the tournament (pizza) had all been eaten. My car was a long way from tournament central, not that it mattered since I had not brought food, because, duh, the tournament promised a free lunch. Other than munching on snow, there was one source of nutrition: the tournament had a keg of Bell's Beer (2 Hearted Ale, strong stuff). So I slammed two beers and realized as I was stumbling to my starting hole for the 2nd round that I was more than tipsy, heck, I felt drunk.
