How to play in under four hours without rushing a shot
Be ready when it is your turn, one practice swing, provisional when in doubt, and play the tees that match your distance.
Five-hour rounds are the most cited reason golfers give for playing less. Almost none of the delay comes from swinging; it comes from what happens between swings. Here is how a group plays in four hours without rushing a single shot.
Be ready when it is your turn
The largest single saving. Choose your club, check the yardage, and make your practice swing while others are playing, not after. This alone removes twenty minutes from a round and nobody feels hurried.
Ready golf — playing when you are ready rather than strictly by honor — is now explicitly encouraged in stroke play.
One practice swing
Two practice swings per shot, over roughly eighty shots, is fifteen minutes of a round spent not hitting the ball. One is plenty. Tour players take one, and their livelihoods depend on it.
Park the cart or the bag on the exit side
Walk to the green from the side nearest the next tee, with the clubs you might need. Golfers who leave the bag on the far side add a hundred yards of walking per hole.
Three minutes, and then it is lost
The search limit is three minutes. Hit a provisional whenever the ball may be lost, so that a failed search does not mean a walk back to the tee.
Watch your playing partners’ shots. Four sets of eyes lose far fewer balls than one.
Putt out
Unless you are in a competition where it matters, finish short putts rather than marking, walking off, and returning. Marking a two-footer in a casual round costs the group time and gains you nothing.
Play the right tees
A golfer who carries the driver 200 yards playing a 6,800-yard course adds an entire extra shot on most holes, and every one of those shots takes time. Choosing tees that match your distance speeds the round and lowers the score at once.
Keep up with the group ahead, not ahead of the group behind
That is the only standard that matters. If there is a clear hole in front of you, you are slow, regardless of who is behind you.
Let faster groups through
If you are searching, or you are a twosome behind a fourball, wave them through. It costs two minutes and removes the pressure that makes everyone play worse.
The four-hour checklist
- Be ready when it is your turn; think while others play.
- One practice swing.
- Provisional whenever there is doubt.
- Bag or cart on the exit side of the green.
- Putt out inside three feet.
None of it involves hurrying. It involves not wasting the time between shots, which is where the round actually goes.
