Golf Rules: Twenty That Aren’t in the Book!
Nobody likes a pushy playing partner.
There’s a difference between a steady pace of play and Speed Golf and there’s a huge difference between monitoring your own pace of play and pushing others in your foursome to increase their pace. The latter, I fear, too often falls into the category of passive aggression.
Each of us has some kind of routine we follow for setting up our shots, and while some of those routines can get a bit excessive, mid-round comments on the order of “You need to pick up your pace” are about as welcome as lightening and thunder. They are also far too often subtle and not-so-subtle attempts to derail a competitor’s focus and concentration – not particularly sportsmanlike behavior, no matter how thinly veiled as a benign effort to maintain the pace of play.
Golf is a game that allows us to savor the peace and solitude of the moment, even as we make steady progress through our rounds. Don’t rush your playing partners.
Next: Putting Protocol