How long should it Really take YOU to play a round of Golf?

[ASEAN NOW Golf]

 

According to Google, a normal golf hole will, on average, take a group of professional golfers around 10 minutes and a group of average amateurs around 15 minutes. This equates to an 18-hole round of golf taking anywhere from 3 to 4 1/2 hours.

 

They state that a round of golf, on average, is expected to take about four hours to play for a group of four golfers.

Even with just 73 players in the field at a PGA Tournament, the circuit average for a player to hit a shot is 38 seconds, although that number varies for specific shots (42 seconds to hit a tee shot, 32 seconds for a putt).

 

Can We be a Bit More Realistic

 

For starters, let us assume we have an empty golf course, and it is just you in your foursome, playing in the first group out.

 

 

Let us forget about the slope and rating of the course, which have been shown to have a negligible impact on how quickly players get around.

 

When we say that you are an average golfer, we mean “average” according to the numbers: a 15-handicap, destined to take around 90 shots over 18 holes.

 

As an average golfer, you drive it an average of 208 yards (that is according to a 2017 USGA study). Given the distance you hit the ball, you should be playing a 5,400-yard course (that is according to PGA of America recommendations).

 

But knowing your ego, we recognize that you are probably not going to tee it that far forward. So, let us assume you are playing from 6,000 yards instead. Still with us? Off we go.

 

Six-thousand yards = 18,000 feet = 3.4 miles. That is how long your golf course measures, assuming that you walk it in a straight line. But since we cannot assume that (you are going to miss some shots), let us increase that number by 50 percent to account for all the zigzagging you are going to do.

 

With that adjustment, we expect you to walk about 5 miles over 18 holes. Assuming a gentle walking pace of 3 miles per hour, that is a distance you should cover in 1 hour and 40 minutes.

 

Along the way, you will be taking 90 shots. Once you’ve gauged the distance and chosen a club (which is something you should be doing while you’re playing partners are assessing and hitting their shots), you’re going to need some time to play your shot.

 

But not too much time. Dallying over your ball is not just bad etiquette. It is bad strategy. The longer you take, the more you scrutinize a shot, the worse you are going to hit it. Do not believe us? Play a round of speed golf and see how dramatically your ball-striking improves.

 

Anyway, 15 seconds is plenty of time to waggle and swing. That is how long Brooks Koepka says he takes over his shots, and it seems to be working well for him.

 

So, 90 shots at 15 seconds per shot. Over the course of your round, that amounts to 1,350 seconds, or 22 minutes and 30 seconds. But since we are feeling generous, we will give you extra time and round that number up to 25 minutes.

That is nearly half an hour! You can watch a sit-com in that span. It is plenty of time to hit 90 shots.

 

So, 25 minutes per player, and four players in your group. That is 1 hour and 40 minutes in shot-preparation.

Add that to the 1 hour and 40 minutes it takes to walk the course, and we are now at 3 hours and 20 minutes.

 

Allow for Extra Activities

 

 

We understand that you are not robots. You will be doing other things aside from walking and swinging. You’ll be taking bathroom breaks (we’ll allow 1 minute per player per round for that); watching the wild animals, lighting cigars (15 seconds per player per round); and telling bad jokes (30 seconds per player per round; if it takes you longer than that to tell your jokes, you should not be telling them).

 

Which gives us:

—4 additional minutes for bathroom breaks;
—1 additional minute for cigar-lighting;
—2 additional minutes for joke-telling.

 

Add that to our total, and we are at 3 hours and 27 minutes.

 

Where is my Ball?

 

You are also going to lose some balls. Studies have shown, in fact, that the average golfer loses 1.3 balls per round. So, we will give you time to ball-hawk: 5 minutes per player per round should do it. Tack on another 20 minutes.

Which brings us to our grand total. It should take your foursome 3 hours and 47 minutes to play 18 holes.

 

Without rushing.

 

And if we are playing behind you, we are probably going to ask you to pick it up.

Now all this does not take into consideration you are playing behind a group of six Thais gambling and eating their way round the course. Under these situations you should get back to the clubhouse in the dark!!!

 

Please tell us about your average or longest round of golf?

 

 

 

[Lacessit]

I had a round at Hang Dong behind a group of 8 Thais, that took 6 hours.

Normally, in a cart, about three hours as a two.

IMO a group of four should take 4 hours.

My fastest round, when I was much younger, was playing as a two in Australia. Walked with pull carts, 1 hour 50 minutes.

[DaLa]

These guys played a 500 yard par 4 in 1 minute 29 seconds, therefore that should be 26 minutes 42 seconds.  But probably not on a hot day.

 

 

[topt]

Played today as a 2 ball, both walking, not rushing and taking extra putts after putting out on quite a few holes - 3hrs 15 minutes. 

Could have played a lot quicker. 

 

Have recently played in a 3 ball in about 3 hrs 20 but 4 balls anything from 4 to 4 and a half hours depending on the composition of the group.......  Starts to do my head in as I find it too slow.........

[Thailand]

37 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

I had a round at Hang Dong behind a group of 8 Thais, that took 6 hours.

Normally, in a cart, about three hours as a two.

IMO a group of four should take 4 hours.

My fastest round, when I was much younger, was playing as a two in Australia. Walked with pull carts, 1 hour 50 minutes.

1 hour 40 minutes at Hang Dong last year, basically empty course.

[scubascuba3]

At my UK course as a 2 ball it would take 3 hours, 3-4 ball 3.5 hours. Thailand anything around 5 hours, due to slow players, waiting for group in front, slow caddies, looking for balls every hole

[Upnotover]

Regular playing partner of mine managed to convince his other half a round of golf took all day and he was never home before 6pm.  All was fine until I moved house and had to pass his place to get to mine.  Untold rows ensued after she always saw me returning home around 2pm.

[Lacessit]

2 hours ago, Thailand said:

1 hour 40 minutes at Hang Dong last year, basically empty course.

Post-COVID, obviously. It used to get pretty crowded pre-COVID, because it was the cheapest green fees in Chiang Rai.

[bwpage3]

4 hours ago, Lacessit said:

I had a round at Hang Dong behind a group of 8 Thais, that took 6 hours.

Normally, in a cart, about three hours as a two.

IMO a group of four should take 4 hours.

My fastest round, when I was much younger, was playing as a two in Australia. Walked with pull carts, 1 hour 50 minutes.

1 hour 50 minutes = 110 minutes

 

110 Minutes / 18 holes = 6.11 minutes per hole

 

6.11 minute per hole divided by 2 golfers = 3.05 minutes per hole walking

 

 

[Lacessit]

5 hours ago, bwpage3 said:

1 hour 50 minutes = 110 minutes

 

110 Minutes / 18 holes = 6.11 minutes per hole

 

6.11 minute per hole divided by 2 golfers = 3.05 minutes per hole walking

 

 

My playing partner had a handicap of two, my handicap at the time was three.

[bwpage3]

18 hours ago, Lacessit said:

My playing partner had a handicap of two, my handicap at the time was three.

What does handicap have to do with walking distance?

[tgw]

3 minutes ago, bwpage3 said:

What does handicap have to do with walking distance?

 

well, walking several times from the right rough to the left rough... of course also add time for searching each ball and retrieving provisional balls.

Edited June 16, 2021 by tgw

[Lacessit]

8 hours ago, bwpage3 said:

What does handicap have to do with walking distance?

It meant we did not need to spend any time looking for our golf balls in the rough.

I'll admit some low handicap players can be slow in their pre-shot routine, neither of us were in that category.

Edited June 16, 2021 by Lacessit

[Excel]

I haven't played golf for decades but I seem to recall that the last time I played it took me around 40 minutes. The problem I had was that the ball got stuck inside the windmill and then I could not chip it into the goldfish's mouth ????

[billsmart]

I play golf every Tue and Fri with a group of ex-pats. We all put our balls in a hat and draw for groups. That would be threesomes or foursomes depending on how many are there. Most of these players are retired and 60 or above. I am 75 and many times not the oldest in my threesome/foursome.

There has been considerable complaining about slow play, and indeed, some players do take a long time to play a round. However, I approach my Tues and Fris at golf the same way as I so as going out for a good meal at a nice restaurant. I don't want to hurry through the meal with an eat-and-run attitude. I want to take my time and enjoy every bite.

So, I play at my pace and don't worry about complaints of slow play, which is rarely directed at me anyway. My advice is just enjoy yourself, and when playing golf, don't have as one of your goals finishing the round as soon as possible. ????️‍♂️

Edited June 17, 2021 by billsmart

[Rampant Rabbit]

Last time I tried it was  about 5'11

[animalmagic]

On my 50th birthday I did a beer per hole.  Absolutely no idea how long the round took!

[Lacessit]

24 minutes ago, billsmart said:

So, I play at my pace and don't worry about complaints of slow play, which is rarely directed at me anyway. My advice is just enjoy yourself, and when playing golf, don't have as one of your goals finishing the round as soon as possible. ????️‍♂️

No-one could disagree with the proposition golf should be enjoyed. Having said that, being stuck behind a dawdling/incompetent group of players is not an experience I enjoy.

In many other countries, the etiquette is when a group has fallen one hole behind the field, that group should let the following group through. Some clubs enforce that etiquette by employing course marshals. I have yet to see said etiquette observed in Thailand, which is why I play as early in the day as possible to avoid the situation.

Edited June 17, 2021 by Lacessit

[Lacessit]

4 minutes ago, animalmagic said:

On my 50th birthday I did a beer per hole.  Absolutely no idea how long the round took!

Can you remember if you did a face plant when you were trying to tee your ball up?

[animalmagic]

10 minutes ago, Lacessit said:

Can you remember if you did a face plant when you were trying to tee your ball up?

That's what caddies are for!  I remember the lake was very refreshing when I swam out to retrieve my hat.  

[ThailandRyan]

Fastest was 45 minutes, but then that was the local miniature golf course.  I aced the windmill hole.

One handed windmill hole-in-one - YouTube 

[BTB1977]

Depends on how cute the caddy is and if there's alot of bushes along the fairways

[joebrown]

It's amazing how long some players take to read, set up, strike and then miss a putt. I find I can do the same in half the time!

[joebrown]

2 hours ago, billsmart said:

I play golf every Tue and Fri with a group of ex-pats. We all put our balls in a hat and draw for groups. That would be threesomes or foursomes depending on how many are there. Most of these players are retired and 60 or above. I am 75 and many times not the oldest in my threesome/foursome.

There has been considerable complaining about slow play, and indeed, some players do take a long time to play a round. However, I approach my Tues and Fris at golf the same way as I so as going out for a good meal at a nice restaurant. I don't want to hurry through the meal with an eat-and-run attitude. I want to take my time and enjoy every bite.

So, I play at my pace and don't worry about complaints of slow play, which is rarely directed at me anyway. My advice is just enjoy yourself, and when playing golf, don't have as one of your goals finishing the round as soon as possible. ????️‍♂️

Sounds like you have most things well organised where you play. Where I play there are golfers who spend too much time measuring wind speed/direction and distances using GPS gadgets, quite often with no tangible benefit!

[Thingamabob]

So many variables-anything from 3 to 5hrs, plus more on occasions in Thailand. 

[Lacessit]

1 hour ago, joebrown said:

It's amazing how long some players take to read, set up, strike and then miss a putt. I find I can do the same in half the time!

The ones that take 5 or 6 practice swings on the tee or fairway amuse me, they must be exhausted by the time they actually hit the ball.

[tgw]

On 6/15/2021 at 5:29 PM, Lacessit said:

I had a round at Hang Dong behind a group of 8 Thais, that took 6 hours.

Normally, in a cart, about three hours as a two.

IMO a group of four should take 4 hours.

My fastest round, when I was much younger, was playing as a two in Australia. Walked with pull carts, 1 hour 50 minutes.

 

Yes, same here, fastest round was 1:45, playing with my dad, pullcarts.
The course was totally empty and we played quite well, we were both amazed at how quickly the round was over. Then we went on for another 27 holes.

[LNKDES1]

When I play a course, and there's a 6-some to an 8-some playing ahead of us, we make it a point that we never play that course again, and let them know why. We play in groups of never more than 4. In my 11 years living & playing here, we've only had to let one single go through.

[Surelynot]

On 6/15/2021 at 11:18 AM, Thaivisa Golf said:

the average golfer loses 1.3 balls per round

Oh dear......I am not an average golfer then by any stretch.

[ThailandRyan]

30 minutes ago, Surelynot said:

Oh dear......I am not an average golfer then by any stretch.

My handicap is the amount of balls I loose on the course....lol