Pebble Beach Is Wrong

I have been fortunate enough in my life to play the hallowed grounds of Pebble Beach on more than one occasion. It is beyond me how (according to reports) Tiger Woods does not stand in awe of the course. Oh sure, there are many more creative, challenging and difficult courses in the world, but I certainly have never seen nor played a more perfect one. Pebble Beach stands unto itself as one of the greatest combined creations of man and nature. That doesn't make it perfect, though.

Decades ago, the rub against playing Pebble was the pace of play. Five hour-plus rounds were literally expected, and this was before the explosion of golf's popularity in the nineties which led to every etiquette-lacking hacker with money believing they were entitled to a round at the most sacred course along the Monterey Peninsula. Ten years ago, the topic most discussed about Pebble Beach was its 6 (SIX!) hour rounds.

The last time I played Pebble I saw that they had begun to attempt to address the problem; albeit stupidly. Everywhere you look now in, on, and around the course are signs saying “golf is a 4:30 game.” The motto is so prevalent throughout the entire compound that in some cases all you see is “4:30,” meant as a subliminal reminder that an 18 hole round of golf at Pebble Beach should take you no longer than four and a half hours.

This to me is like telling your child who is getting F's in each of his classes that in life, the real key to success is getting a C-. Tony Robbins himself stands in awe of such motivational techniques.

We have dumbed down our expectations of ourselves, our fellow man, and our own commitments to consideration, to the point that the most famous golf course on the west coast is now advocating and applauding taking 15 minutes to play each and every hole on their course. This is now considered a barometer of proper pace of play etiquette? Fifteen minutes per hole? Is each member of the foursome losing 3 balls each on every hole? A four and a half hour round of golf should not only not be revered, it should be chastised, demeaned, and called what it is; rude and unacceptable.

I recall the first time I ever played Pebble Beach on the morning after my wedding (yes, I DID marry the perfect woman, thank you for asking). We were the first group out at 7am and the starter beat into our heads that we would set the pace of play for the entire course throughout the whole day.

“If the first group falls behind,” he said more than once to more than one of us, “the whole course gets backed up all day. I really need you guys to come in at 4:30.”

I laughed at him. Not rudely, at least not intentionally. I couldn't believe what he had just said. Our foursome consisted of two people walking with caddies, and the other two riding in a cart since a member of our group was my best friend's father who was in his early 70's at the time and not up for walking 18 holes. I was hung-over and exhausted (hey, give me a break, it was the morning after my wedding), and I still looked at the starter and told him, “If we aren't done by 11 A.M., send out a search party.”

We saw the starter three times during our round and he kept cheering us on, telling us he couldn't believe how great we were doing with our pace of play. The second group out was three holes behind us after 9 and when we finished our round (at 11 A.M. sharp) they were five holes behind us, which is simply stunningly unacceptable. By the way, we never rushed, never ran, never sprinted during our round. Eight cigars were smoked amongst us and many laughs had. It was a perfect day of golf, all completed in just four hours.

Golf should never take more than four hours. Candidly, the only reason we took that long that day at Pebble was my physical condition, the use of a cart (which actually slows things down at a course like that) and the naturally built-in awe factor of being on that course for the first time. Still in all, we never lost composure of our etiquette. Polite golfers are polite all the time and refuse to ruin the game for others coming along behind them. Sadly, polite golfers seem to be a dying breed.

I cannot begin to tell you how many times slow, rude, oblivious, inconsiderate golfers have taken a perfectly glorious round of golf and turned it into a steaming pile of fury within my foursome. Perhaps more surprisingly is the number of fellow golfers I meet who claim to have the same complaint. What I can't seem to wrap my mind around is how all of us can be complaining about the slow pace of play while clearly some of the same people are causing the problem. In our next issue, we'll discuss specific pace of play violations and how we can all solve them. Until then, start with this tip; turn around and look behind you every once in a while. If there's a group waiting to hit, with their hands on their hips, you're too slow. Pretend you have some class, and let them play through so that everyone can enjoy their day.

Rob Williams is the owner and host of the Rob, Arnie and Dawn morning talk radio show heard each weekday morning 5-10A.M. on Sacramento's 98.5FM KRXQ, Reno's 104.5FM, KDOT, and www.robarnieanddawn.com. To reach Rob, e-mail rad@robarnieanddawn.com

How To Speed Up Your Pace of Play

1.) Choose a set of tees appropriate to your skill level.

2.) Each member of a foursome (or any group) should proceed directly to his or her ball.

3.) While walking (or riding) to your ball, use the travel time to begin thinking over your next shot - the yardage, which club you'll use, and so on.

4.) If sharing a cart, don't drive to the first ball, wait for the first player to hit, then head to the second ball. Drop the first player off at his ball, drive on ahead to the second ball. The first player should walk over to the cart as the second player is playing his shot.

5.) When using a cart on a cart-path-only day, be sure to take a couple of clubs with you when you walk from the cart to the ball.

6.) Carry a few extra tees, ball marks and a spare ball in your pockets so you don't have to return to your golf bag to retrieve them, should you find yourself in need of one.

7.) When you think your shot might have landed out of bounds or be lost, immediately hit a provisional ball. Don't walk ahead to search, only to have to return to the original spot to replay a shot.

8.) Limit your search for lost balls. If you're not following the rules anyway, don't spend more than a minute searching - or just immediately play your provisional.

9.) Never hold up play because you're in the middle of a conversation. Put the conversation on hold, take your stroke, then continue the conversation.

10.) On the green, begin lining up your putt and reading the break as soon as you reach the green. When it's your turn to putt, be prepared to step right up and take the stroke.

11.) Leave your bags or golf carts to the side of the green, and in the direction of the next tee, never in front of the green.

12.) Never stand on or next to the green after holing out in order to write down your score. Write it down when you reach the next tee.

13.) If all else fails, try playing "ready golf," which simply means that order of play is based on who's ready, not who's away.

TIPS:

• Most experts say that a good pace of play not only increases enjoyment of the game, it can actually improve one's game. Standing around on every shot allows the muscles to cool down or limbs to stiffen up. A brisk pace can help keep a golfer loose and ready to play.

• Pace of play can be boiled down to two simple phrases: be prepared and be ready to play.

• Use the groups ahead of you and behind you to gauge your pace. If the group that teed off directly in front of you is pulling away - putting a full hole's distance between them and your group - you need to speed up. If there's no one in front of you holding you up, but you are holding up those behind you, either speed up or allow the trailing group to play through.