Playing off 30 in a Saturday comp: Stableford pick-ups, social scores and a faster round

September is when the comp sheet fills up again. The mornings are warmer, the fairways are starting to run, and a lot of golfers with a GA Handicap north of 30 are back for the spring Saturdays. Some of them worry they are the reason the field takes five hours. Mostly they are not. A golfer who shoots 108 is not slow because of the extra swings; they are slow when those swings come with a long search in the scrub, a walk back to the tee and a second go at a shot that was never on. That part is fixable before this weekend, and none of it involves a lesson.

This article is about the bits of pace that belong to higher handicaps. The habits that apply to everyone, from ready golf to where you park the buggy, are in our guide to a faster round in Australia.

Five minutes, not five strokes

Do the maths on a typical four-ball. If you go round in 108 and your playing partners average 85, you hit about 23 more shots than each of them. Under the Rules, you are encouraged to play within 40 seconds once it is your turn, and most shots take far less than that when you are ready. Spread across a group that is walking and waiting anyway, those extra shots add a modest slice of time to the round.

Compare that with one ball search that runs its full length, a walk of 200 metres back to the tee, or a hack out of the trees that stays in the trees. A single one of those costs more than a handful of extra swings, and a round with three or four of them is the round everyone talks about in the clubhouse.

Know when the hole is dead

Plenty of Saturday comps in Australia are played as Stableford, and Stableford is a gift to a high handicapper, because it tells you exactly when to stop. You get one point for a net bogey, two for a net par and so on. Once you can no longer score a point, the hole is over.

Say your Daily Handicap is 32. That gives you two strokes on every hole with a stroke index of 14 or lower. On a par 4 with stroke index 5, a net bogey is 7. If the ball is not in the hole after your seventh shot, you cannot score on it, so pick up, put a line through it and move to the next tee. For your handicap, the hole is counted at net double bogey, which here is an 8. You have not lost a thing.

A par comp works on the same idea from a different angle. Each hole is won, halved or lost against net par, which on that same hole is a 6. If your sixth shot has not gone in, the best you can do is lose it, so the ball goes in your pocket. The one format where you cannot do this is stroke play, the medal: every hole has to be holed out, or your card does not count. Our guide to formats of play covers the differences.

The cap in a hit with your mates

Outside a comp, the World Handicap System still limits what a hole can cost you. With a GA Handicap, the most you count on any hole is net double bogey: par, plus two, plus the strokes you get on that hole. If you do not have a handicap yet, it is par plus five, so an 8 on a par 3 and a 10 on a par 5.

Tell the group on the first tee: “Once I hit my cap, I’ll pick up.” Nobody minds, and it takes the pressure off you on the one hole that goes wrong.

The provisional habit

A ball is lost after three minutes of searching, measured from when you or your caddie starts looking. It used to be five minutes; it was cut to three in 2019.

If your ball might be lost outside a penalty area, or might be out of bounds, hit a provisional before you go forward, and say clearly that it is a provisional. Find the first ball in bounds and the provisional costs you nothing. Do not find it, and you are already in play. In spring there is a second reason not to go wading into long grass and tussock for a lost ball: snakes are waking up as the weather warms. A provisional is quicker and safer.

Some clubs have adopted Model Local Rule E-5. Where it applies, instead of going back to where you last played, you drop near where the ball was lost or went out of bounds, including the nearest edge of the fairway, for two penalty strokes. It is designed for general play, not elite competition, and it is only in force if your club says so. Check the local rules before you count on it.

Bunkers, bush and the one-shot exit

Here is the shot that kills both the score and the pace: the long iron through a gap in the gums, or a carry over a creek off a bare lie. When it fails, you are still in trouble, a shot worse off, and your group is standing around on the fairway.

Get back to short grass in one, sideways if you have to. A chip out and a full shot is two strokes; the brave option usually ends up three or four, and slower. In a bunker, remember the unplayable ball options. For one stroke you can go back to where you last played, or drop back on the line or within two club-lengths, but those last two drops stay in the sand. For two penalty strokes in all, you can drop outside the bunker, back on the line from the hole through where your ball was. Two strokes sounds dear; three more swings from the same plugged lie cost more, in shots and in minutes.

Buggy and bag habits

High handicappers play more short shots, and every one of them is a chance to walk back for a different club. When you leave the buggy or the bag, take three clubs: the one you think you need, one longer, and a wedge. Near the green, take a wedge and the putter together. If you are sharing a cart, drop your partner at their ball with the right clubs and go to yours, rather than waiting beside each ball in turn.

Choose the club while you walk. At the ball, one look from behind, one practice swing beside it, then go. A single swing thought is plenty.

On the green

Since 2019 you may putt with the flag in the hole, so nobody needs to tend it when you chip on from the fringe. Read your line while others are putting, finish short putts rather than marking them unless you would stand on someone’s line, and write the scores on the next tee, not on the green.

Where Australian high markers find a quicker round

The easiest tool is already on your phone. The Golf Australia Official App, published by Golf Australia and free to download, shows your official GA Handicap and scoring history, and calculates your Daily Handicap for any course. That matters for pace, because knowing your Daily Handicap on the 1st tee means you know which holes give you one stroke and which give you two, and so where each cap sits before you need it. The app also lets you choose between social scores for handicapping, competition scoring and non-handicapped rounds, depending on what your club allows.

Social rounds can count, but there are conditions. Golf Australia’s rules for a conforming social score are that you nominate before starting the round that it will count for handicap purposes, the format is Stableford, and you have a marker with you throughout. Your home club also has to accept social scores. The Stableford requirement is good news for your group: nobody has to watch you putt out a 10.

If you are new to comps, a nine-hole round or a quieter weekday field is a gentler way in, and our guide to your first competition explains the card, the marker and the sign-in. Shorter tees help too: see which tees to play.

And the ball: Drummond Golf listed a dozen Titleist Pro V1 at A$84.95 this September, just over A$7 a ball. That is worth three minutes of looking, not five, and not a hand into a clump of tussock.

Panxis Golf has no commercial relationship with any organisation or retailer mentioned here.

Your quick-round checklist

• Stableford: no point left on the hole? Pick up.
• Par comp: past net par? The hole is lost; pick up.
• Casual round: net double bogey is your cap, par plus five before you have a handicap.
• Provisional whenever in doubt, announced out loud. Three minutes, no wading into long grass.
• One shot out of trouble, and know your bunker options.
• Check your Daily Handicap in the app before you tee off.

None of this touches your swing. It just stops the extra strokes from becoming extra time. When you want to bring the number down, read five course management shots for firm Australian fairways.