have—on new build projects—the
chance to ‘design in’ pace of play
up front. If it’s a renovation, we
end up being the point man to
solve whatever problems the club
is having. My old boss, Robert von
Hagge, used to say ‘In a round of
golf, you have a foursome out there,
but there’s only one person hitting
the ball at once. Everyone else is
looking around, watching the world
go by.’ Who typically plays slow?
Less accomplished players, those
who are learning the game and
maybe don’t yet know the etiquette.
But we’re also trying to grow the
game. We don’t want to make them
feel unwelcome and drive them
away from golf. So finding the right
balance is absolutely crucial.”
“There is a balance between speed
and interest, and you have to find
the right balance for every facility,”
says Richardson. “The USGA’s Tee
it Forward initiative has been very
important in putting pace of play at the
top of everyone’s agenda. But there is
a danger in dumbing down the game
too much in the search for faster play.
The fundamental tenets of golf course
design have to be upheld—that’s the
source of the fun of the game. Hazards
are the soul of the game.”
But there are conflicting issues at work
here. Many courses have added native
grass areas in place of maintained turf
in order to reduce their demand for
water and be more environmentally
conscious—clearly desirable objectives.
But tall native grasses, unless very
sparse and open, are ball-swallowers—
and searching for lost balls is one of the
key drivers of slow play.
“The challenge from a designer’s
perspective is to create character
without making it slow to play,” says
Davis. “You can take a flat piece of
property, put in 20 acres of lakes
and 60 acres of native grasses and
suddenly it becomes a slow course
to play. Members should get with the
professional and the superintendent—
the people who set the course up on
a day-to-day basis—and ensure the
course is set up in a way that tallies
with the design intent.”
“Simple issues like grassing lines have
a massive impact on pace of play,” says
Richardson. “A greenside bunker is
typically a fairly simple club selection
process—you grab your sand wedge
and you go hit the shot. Yes, it’s a
hazard, but it doesn’t slow play in the
way that multiple cuts of grass around
the green, which means you could
hit five or six different clubs, would
do.” Blume agrees. “Alister MacKenzie
said the ideal course should not
force golfers to waste time searching
for balls,” he says. “But that is much
harder to do nowadays. People hitting
further translates to them hitting it
further offline, and we cannot just go
on increasing the amount of turf we
maintain. You have to get creative and
provide width where it is most needed,
while removing turfgrass elsewhere.”
“For every business, consistency
of delivery is hugely important.
When you don’t deliver a consistent
experience, bad things happen—you
get a bad reputation,” concludes
Richardson. “In golf, we’ve had the
idea that, if you’re really busy, it’s
OK to deliver a bad experience.
‘Saturday mornings are a complete
disaster. Come back on a Wednesday,
you’ll have fun then’. This is not
a good message to give to your
customers!”
•
19
Pebble Beach addressed long waits at its photogenic seventh by
carefully adjusting the pace on the preceding holes for better flow
