by Lawrence Poploski

Created on: October 22, 2009   Last Updated: October 25, 2009

There are many ways to eliminate slow play from golf. You could wire golfers with remote control tazers that go off if they fall 1/2 hour beyond the norm for nine holes, thus freeing up the back nine for faster players. You could make anonymous calls to their cell phones telling them you have a date with their spouse four hours after their scheduled tee off time. You could even make them pay after the round, the fee predicated upon how quickly they make the eighteen hole loop, with slow players fined for being lethargic on the short grass. All of these are of course comical options that ignores the real problem - slow play.

Perhaps the best way to eliminate slow play is education. Too many amateur hacks watch professionals on television go through their shot routines and consciously or subconsciously assume the same mannerisms. In essence, they watch too much television. The game professionals play is not the same game amateurs play. Pros are working. This is their job. It's their livelihood, and as such, their attention to detail is highly configured. Slow play even affects them negatively, with stiff penalties levied by officials when professionals fail to keep an acceptable pace on the course. What amateurs fail to realize is by emulating the professionals, they are in fact harming their own ability to play better golf.

Because golf is as much mental and physical (if not more), amateurs invite failure by taking too long to get a shot off or make a putt. Professionals take their time being analytical while amateurs are just opening up a Pandora's Box of impending doom by allowing too much time to elapse between shots that allows negative thoughts to formulate. Virtually all amateurs would help their games by taking thinking less and moving quicker. How many times do we see a hack on the first tee frozen over his ball prior to his first shot wondering when he or she will take the club back? Even before they do, you know the outcome and it's not pretty.

The same behavior occurs with their short game, where they pretend to know what they are doing but in reality have no clue. They see professionals walk up to the green, inspect the carpet from four sides, walk back behind the ball and then ready for the shot. The professionals are following an important axiom - failure to plan is planning to fail. What they are looking at and contemplating is not what amateurs consider. But because amateurs see this routine played out on network television during tournaments, they think they too, have to follow the same mannerisms. They don't. They just need to hit the ball. If they take less time to play they will actually take less strokes in the process.

Amateurs can help stop slow play with two simple words: aim and swing. They need to take the word "think" out of the equation. It would even help if golf broadcasters reminded viewers that they should not try to play at the same pace professionals do because the two games are so different. In the event all of this fails, there are two more words that help slow players pick up the pace: "Move it!" If that is said loudly with proper conviction by the biggest player in your group, it more often than not will get the offending players in front of you to speed up their game. Hurry up when taking your time the next time you play. It will make you a better player.

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