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THE R&A

Early last week, the R&A released results of a pace of play survey with more than 56,000 responses from golfers across the globe.

It concluded that the average length of time for a round in Great Britain and Ireland was three hours 44 minutes, quicker than anywhere else in the world, where the most common answer was between 4-4.5 hours.

And it seems as though you bunkered readers agree, as we ran our own survey on our Google+ page last week (shown below) which revealed that, at the time of writing this article, 62% of you were in agreement that 3.5-4 hours was the acceptable length for a round of golf.

CONTINUES BELOW…

The R&A has promised to host an industry forum later in the year to discuss the findings from the survey and, over on our social media channels and forum throughout the week, you’ve been inundating us with your thoughts on how to speed up the game.

On the bunkered Facebook page, George Breckenridge said: “I think 3 hours 44 is too long. Medal play is worse. Extreme lack of etiquette also comes into play such as groups losing a hole to group in front, not letting through groups when looking for a ball. Also things like players leaving their clubs at the front of the green rather than taking them to the back of green.”

Commenting on the Google+ poll, David Howard said: “Medal play would be slightly longer. I do not think I could keep motivated if it were to take 4.5 hours. I still think that the reason it is so long for medal compared with bounce games is that people seem to want to do things differently than when they play socially. Result is normally a poor score. Play a consistent way for all rounds but do try to be reasonably quick.”

bunkered editor Bryce Ritchie was on BBC Radio Scotland alongside commentator Peter Alliss and journalist Graham Spiers last Tuesday morning discussing the results of the R&A survey, with his main point that the slow play of tour professionals is being copied by club golfers when it comes to playing in medals.

Doug Miller agreed partially and said on Facebook:

And on the bunkered forum, cmac1 said: “I don’t think it will be a surprise to anyone that the majority want a round to take shorter times. IMO it’s not down to the standard of player, we all started once, but be aware when you start to lag behind and encourage the group behind to play through.

“Be ready to play your shot when it’s your turn as opposed to following to each player’s ball, watch them play then make your way to yours! There are lots of common sense approaches to speed up play without having to walk faster, and your round (and everyone else’s) will be more enjoyable.”

The R&A pace of play survey :: Your thoughts

Do you agree or disagree with some of the points raised above on the R&A survey? Continue the discussion by commenting below or joining the bunkered forum!