QUICK PLAY

Having written often (along with others) about the curse of slow play, I've decided on a more positive tack. Recently, I joined 3 friends for a fourball at the Parador course. Having agreed to a modest bet, we decided that instead of matchplay (Ryder Cup style), the result would be decided on aggregate stableford scores, so that all four players were involved on every hole. So we were all marking our scores. As we all sat down for our post-match beverage, we realized that we had just completed our round in three hours and forty minutes. Admittedly, there was no-one in front to hold us up (there's a sign of the times!), but we were never aware of hurrying our shots, or that we were playing quickly. We simply made sure that we were ready to play when each one's turn came around, putted out without marking two-footers, picked up when we couldn't score any points, parked our bags to the side of the green nearest to the next tee, marked scores after teeing off. We even took time to repair more than our share of pitch marks, replace divots and rake bunkers. All this despite the fact that, as keen golfers, we all regularly followed the pro tours on TV, whose members now manage to stretch a three-ball round to five-and-a-half hours.

And there's the rub. The difference is, these guys are playing for their livelihoods, when a missed putt or a careless, technical breach of the rules can make a difference of tens of thousand of euros, not to mention the loss of playing rights for the following season. Furthermore, the pros don't have to rush off after their round to go shopping with the wife, so we club players really don't have any excuse to take more than four-and-a-half hours, thus depriving late starters of their right to complete their rounds before night falls. But the real benefit realized by our friendly fourball at Parador, was how much more pleasant it was not to be waiting endlessly to play our shots, while some character playing in front took five minutes to survey an eighteen inch putt. Let's all play ready golf!