electronic scoring and pace of play

[Kor.A.Door]

I dont worry about pace of play, I just keep up with the group in front of me. It's that simple. Recording scores in an app is easy and takes little time to do. We use it every Saturday in our group and it doesn't hurt pace of play. People who don't care how long it takes them to play golf are the problem as far a space of play, it's people, nothing else.

[THEZIPR23]

I will simply add to this topic by sharing my experience with an FSGA Fourball tournament this past weekend.  36 holes over two days for this event as a reference point.  Tee times on Saturday, split tee foursomes - two, two-man teams per foursome on each hole and tee time.  All golfers involved were either single digit or scratch or better, so you are dealing with (in some cases) "professional" amateurs who play in these type of events all the time.  For reference purposes, this was my first time trying an event like this, and with a current 6.2 index, me and my buddy brought up the rear, finishing T40 in a 42 team field.

 

The title of this topic absolutely applies to this event, because the FSGA (Florida State Golf Association) uses the Golf Genius app, and asks that one member of each foursome use the app to record scores as you play.  For the sake of this post, I will say that I was responsible for posting the scores for our foursome on both days, as I have my iphone handy just for the purposes of this app in this tournament, and otherwise I leave my iphone on silent in my golf bag and never touched during the round.  The Golf Genius app is extremely easy to install, setup and use.  The FSGA gave us a unique code for our foursome, and you punch in the code, and the app pops up with your group.  You select your name, and it shows the first hole, and asks you to simply post a score for each player for that hole.  My standard method was to pull the app out while we were finishing putting on the green, and as soon as each player finished out I would post the score to the app and save it once all four scores are posted.  If I was last to putt, I would pull the app out after I finished, and post the scores while walking to the cart.  This method neither slowed us down, nor hindered our foursome from maintaining pace of play in this tournament.  Also, by each group having their scores posted during the round you are able to look at the leaderboard and see where you stand during the round as it compares to the field.  Very convenient for the competitors that want to know where they stand.

 

As for pace of play, the FSGA had signs on every hole, and marshalls always monitoring each group to determine our pace of play.  At the turn there was a marshall with a watch and a clip board, and each group's time was written down as they completed the 9th hole.  Their policy was pretty simple.  There would be no warnings during the round, and if you were behind the expected pace of play, the offending slow group would be assessed a 1 stroke penalty.  And if you were the group behind the slow group, and you were within 10 minutes of the slow group in front of you, you were fine with pace of play.

 

I saw this policy work fabulously on Saturday, as we were the 2nd group off of #1, and had to wait a bit on almost every shot on the front nine for the group in front of us, who were first off.  But I don't know what was said on #9 green by the FSGA to this group, but by the time we got to 10 tee the group in front of us was gone, and already putting out on #10, and we never saw them the rest of the day.  We finished our round in 4 hours and 11 minutes.  Sunday was a shotgun start, and we were never delayed the entire round, and finished in 4 hours and 7 minutes.

 

So to all the naysayers that say there is nothing you can do about pace of play, I would strongly disagree, as the FSGA has a great system in place for their tournaments, and it absolutely does work.  And being new to this I really had no clue how it works, but the veterans that we played with were all very aware of their pace of play throughout the round, because apparently the FSGA doesn't hesitate to issue penalty strokes in their events.

 

What a great system they have in place, and what a great tournament to take part in.  It's great knowing that when you tee off at 8:00 am, that you will be done just after noon, and that you don't have to guess on how long it will take to complete a round of golf.

My association, the NCGA, has a very similar policy although the player do not enter scores on the app. Scorecards are kept and the officials enter after signatures are complete. 

 

You have a set time from the time you tee off until you finish, the time for each completed hole is printed on the scorecard. The officials let you know throughout the round where you stand, but if you finish behind your time after 18 (they measure the time when the flag goes back into the hole) or you finish 14 minutes behind the group in front of you it is a 2 stroke penalty to the entire group no questions asked. Now I have seen an instance where a penalty was issued and I don't believe it was warranted. And also a time where the complete time was almost unfair, but in general it works very well and you know almost exactly how long your round will be.