The Pace of Play and Course Care initiatives… revised edition HERE 8th August 2025
1st August 2025
The Pace of Play and Course Care tips implemented recently… will be ongoing. Note that the trial of offering free drinks for shotgun starts has ended. We saw some encouraging results and gave away a few drinks and it has shown us all that we can go faster if we try. Our new Course Marshal, Mark Pearce worked his first shift today. If you see him out there, please say hi and welcome him aboard.
View the Pace of Play Revised 01_08_25
25th July 2025
Both the AM & PM fields on Saturday earned themselves a drink after every player in the field completed their rounds inside the advertised time.
Sunday morning players moved around the course at a pace that has not been seen in recent times.
Tuesday AM finishing times ranged from 3 hours 52 minutes for the quickest group to 4 hours 25 minutes for the slowest group.
Wednesday AM shotgun field missed out on the free drinks due to just one group finishing outside the time, and Wednesday afternoon was slightly improved but still has a way to go.
Thursday morning saw the majority of tee times range from 3 hours 52 minutes to a 4 hours 32 minutes.
The Thursday afternoon finishing times ranged from 3 hours 46 minutes to 4 hours and 28 minutes.
The results are not in for Friday as yet but it is looking encouraging.
To keep the ball rolling, the Club has employed a Course Marshal – from Friday 1st August, you will see Mark Pearce patrolling the fairways on Fridays and Sundays. Mark is a member at Mosman Park Golf Club, where he is currently the Vice Captain. He brings many years of experience managing competitions and marshalling the golf course. We welcome Mark to our team.
We will be continuing the trial of offering an incentive to shotgun start fields for now however, after the success of the first week, the times have been adjusted slightly. We are looking forward to seeing even further improved round times over the coming weeks.
View the PACE OF PLAY Times Revised 20 July 2025
18 July 2025
We have an issue with the pace of play here at Mount Lawley. We see the times our members are taking to play and it is not good reading. We have been hearing the complaints from our members about this issue and now it is time for us ALL to do something about it.
The Match Committee, with the approval from the Board, are implementing the following measures in an attempt to improve the pace of play and make our games more enjoyable.
Team Captain
Every competition, there will be a nominated “Team Captain” for each group. This has been trialed before and we are going to implement it again. When registering to play, you will be advised who the Team Captain is for your group. They will correspond to the position of the bookings on the timesheet. If Team Captain is player 1, it is the person booked in the first space on the timesheet and so on. If you have less players in the group than the number nominated as Team Captain, then it defaults to position one.
The Role of Team Captain
The Team Captain is responsible for the following:
Setting and maintaining a pace of play that will see you complete your round within the advertised round times, according to field size. 4 hours and 15 minutes. Their role is also to ensure all players in the group are repairing pitch marks, chopping in and filling divots and raking bunkers correctly.
Ready Golf
The Principles of Ready Golf must be learned and adhered to. We expect everyone to research these ideas and then implement them in your game. Here are some examples:
- Walk faster (the average walking pace of a Mount Lawley member is unacceptable)
- 2 In-2 Off – first two players to putt out on the green, should consider moving to the next tee and tee off if they are falling behind the group in front.
- Where possible, shortest hitter hits first
- Where safe to do so, play your shot, even if it is not your honour
- Enforce the 3 minute search time for a lost ball (there is a three minute timer on MiScore – tap on the round time in the top left corner at the start of a search)
- Not mandatory, but please consider calling up on par 3’s where applicable
- Rake a bunker for a playing partner if they are having issues
- Putt out rather than mark and wait
- Do an internet search for “Principles of Ready Golf” and then learn them.
Course Marshal
We have recently employed a Course Marshal. This role will be used initially on Fridays and Sundays, and we will look to expand to other days. The Marshal has the full support of the Board of Management of Mount Lawley Golf Club. They are to improve pace of play and also look for poor course care from the players.
If your group is approached by the Course Marshal and you are asked to improve your position in the field (i.e. you are too far behind those in front), you are not to argue or plead a case, you are to address the issue. Here is what the Course Marshal is authorised to do:
First Warning: Your group will be asked to regain the correct position in the field. You will be given 30 minutes to catch up to the group in front.
Second Warning: If your group has not regained the correct position in the field, or lost further ground, the following will occur:
Stroke Round – 2 stroke penalty to all players in the group
Stableford or Par – you will immediately pick up your ball and walk to the next available tee and tee off. You will wipe the hole you were playing.
Third Warning: You will be asked to front meet with Match Committee delegates and explain your actions, or lack thereof.
Should any member be reported for unacceptably speaking to the Course Marshal, they will be invited to attend a Disciplinary Meeting.
These steps are aggressive, however nothing that we have tried previously has worked, so it is time to get tough.
Shotgun Starts
We acknowledge that Shotgun Starts and the large field sizes we regularly see can make it difficult to move quickly around the course.
As such, we have decided that incentivization will be the best method to trial at this point. If the entire field can finish within a certain time, the Club will buy a round of drinks for every player who played in that competition. If only one group is outside of the time limit, no one will receive drinks. The size of the field will determine how fast we expect you to play.
Up to 100 players 4 hours 10 minutes
101-120 players 4 hours 20 minutes
121-144 players 4 hours 30 minutes
Admittedly Course Care and Pace of Play can work against each other, but with a few tweaks to everyone’s thinking and course behaviours, it can all be done in a timely manner.
We ask that everyone embrace this and work together to make our games of golf quicker and more enjoyable.
