The conversation surrounding the “slowerization” of golf has moved from the pristine fairways of the PGA Tour to the crowded local muni.
While professional stars like Tom Kim frequently face heat for deliberate pre-shot routines, amateur golfers are increasingly feeling the squeeze during weekend rounds that now regularly eclipse the five-hour mark.
This lag is often attributed to a breakdown in “ready golf”, the practice of hitting as soon as it is safe to do so, and an over-reliance on professional-style green reading and ball-searching by casual players.
As the debate intensifies, longtime golf personality Paige Spiranac has emerged as a vocal advocate for a faster game. However, she is taking a controversial stance by defending high-handicap players against a common scapegoat.
A growing segment of the golfing public has suggested that early morning tee times should be restricted to those with a verified GHIN index, with some suggesting a 15-handicap maximum for slots between 6:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. to ensure the “rabbits” stay ahead of the pack.
Breaking the link between skill and speed
The assumption that better golfers play faster is a “fundamental misunderstanding” of the pace-of-play crisis, according to Spiranac.
Responding to the proposal that morning tee times should require a specific skill level, she argued that the correlation between a low handicap and a quick pace is far from guaranteed. In many cases, elite players, who may be more meticulous about wind direction, yardage, and putting lines, can be the primary drivers of a bottleneck.
“Pace of play is based on the individual and not their handicap,” Spiranac noted. “Having a low handicap doesn’t always equate quick pace of play.”
The reality on the ground suggests that an 18-hole round, which traditionally took four hours, is being hampered by behavioral habits rather than just extra strokes.
Activities such as plumb-bobbing every putt, walking back and forth to golf carts, and extended searches for lost balls in thick brush are traits found across all skill levels.
For the modern golfer, the solution may lie less in the scorecards and more in a universal commitment to the “ready golf” philosophy, where the priority is keeping the soul of the game in forward motion.
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