How to Speed up Your Golf Rounds

When the sun is shining, golfers flock to golf courses. As such, queues can then emerge at the tees. If that happens during your round, you should maintain a good pace on a busy golf course to ensure that play is not held up. Here are a few suggestions.

Do not Linger on the Green

When you have holed the ball, do not linger on the green. Do not remain on the green to fill out your scorecards and put clubs back in the bag. You should put the flag back in the hole as soon as possible, and then vacate the green. Fill out the scorecard and put your club back in bag when you're at the next tee.

Searching for Balls

You must not spend any longer than five minutes searching for a ball. That's stated within the R&A book. If you can't find your ball after five minutes, drop another one to resume play. Don't search the ball at all if it lands somewhere where you probably won't be able to find it in five minutes.

Play Provisional Balls

If your tee shot might have landed the ball somewhere where you might not find it, you should play a provisional ball. A provisional ball is a second shot from off the tee. If you cannot find your original ball, you can then resume play from the position the second ball landed at. This will save you having to go back to the tee after searching for a ball. If you do find your original ball, don't include the provisional shot on your scorecard.

Don't Always Play to the Rulebook

If you're not playing in a golf tournament, don't always stick to the rulebook. For example, if your ball landed in an unplayable like, you would have to drop it two club heads back from the point it landed. However, if you drop the ball in a more convenient location, on a better lie, than two club heads back your next shot will probably come off better. That could save quite a bit of time. 

Those suggestions should speed your golf rounds up a little bit. If you're still holding up play, you might as well stand aside for the group behind to play through.