A two-day symposium on Pace of Play was held Nov. 12-13 at United States Golf Association headquarters in Far Hills, New Jersey. ASGCA Past President Bruce Charlton and Lester George, ASGCA, spoke to the 100 attendees on behalf of archtiects, illustrating recent projects which address the Pace of Play issue.

“Golfweek” magazine’s Brad Klein reported on the event, including the presentation of Charlton and George.

“Members of the American Society of Golf Course Architects,- Bruce Charlton on Poppy Hills Golf Course in Pebble Beach, Ca., and Lester George at Independence Golf Club in Midlothian, Va.,- showed how their recent renovations simplified bunkering, opened up vistas and created more diverse shot-making around greens, and how those changes reduced lost golf balls and gave higher handicappers a chance to play recoveries without slowing down play.”

Klein described a visual any commuter can appreciate in describing the challenges golfers find on many courses.

“Industry analysts explain it as akin to putting too many cars on a highway and watching gridlock develop. The key is in limiting the on-ramp flow. Course operators keen to squeeze as many rounds as possible out of a facility through tee-time intervals of seven or eight minutes are inadvertently contributing to the problem by overloading tee times, ignoring bottlenecks and expecting golfers simply to play faster when there?s actually no place to go.

“(Industry analyst Bill) Yates is working closely with a number of golf associations on expediting flow and reducing bottlenecks, in part through more relaxed starting times that are separated by as many as 11 minutes. The effort has led the LPGA this year to reduce its average playing time by 14 minutes, from 4:54 to 4:40.”

The entire “Golfweek” article can be found here.