Distances between greens and tees – Long walks or driving cart distances from a green to the next tee will add significantly to the time taken to play.The pace of play is also impacted when greens have severe slopes and the holes are cut on, or near, the slopes. Green conditions – very fast or hard greens are two more examples of course conditions that can cause long round times.Grass which is too long around greens can also cause problems as even if balls are not lost the difficulty of the resulting chip shot can mean two and sometimes three chips are required to reach the nearby green. The length of the rough – Severe rough often leads to slow rounds as long periods are spent looking for balls.Tee options – A lack of teeing options to cater for different standards of golfer and/or hitting distances can lead to slow play as players are given fewer options to avoid both hitting less lofted, more difficult, clubs and playing over obstacles such as water hazards and bunkers.Foursomes golf by comparison, where partners play alternate shots, is the fastest. Strokeplay, where golfers need to complete every hole to have a valid score, is often the slowest. Types of play – The type of game chosen on any given day has a direct impact on the pace of play.But it is the poor management of the mix of these different groups through the day which causes long delays. Number of players in groups – A group of 4 golfers will clearly take longer to play a round than a group of two or three.Time between groups teeing off – if not enough time between groups is allowed the course can quickly become overcrowded meaning increased waiting and long rounds.

So simply in terms of increasing player enjoyment, there is a benefit to increasing the general pace of play and addressing the following key factors identified by the R&A affecting how long a round of golf takes:

A Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews (R&A) global survey of over 56,000 golfers across 122 countries in 2015, however, showed a clear majority – over 60% – would enjoy the game more it took less time to play. There is also no official policy across the game’s lawmakers on what an ‘acceptable pace of play’ is. There is no official data to calculate how long the average a round of golf takes. 10 key factors affecting how long a round of golf takes Overcrowding on the course is actually the most common cause of rounds which take too long. But according to those who have studied the pace of play, it is not players who are mainly at fault for slow play. Slow play can mean rounds taking over 5, and sometimes even up to 6 hours. of playersĪs every golfer will have experienced however these ‘expected’ times are often not a reality. So how long does a round of golf take? A round of 18 holes of golf is expected to take no longer than the following times: No. But why were golf’s rule makers looking at this? We therefore did some research to find out how long it takes golfers to play a standard round of 18 holes. The Rules of Golf changed a lot on 1st January 2019 with many of the new rules intended to improve the pace of play at all levels of the game.

Average time to golf 18