MICHAEL CARMAN ON GOLF: Be considerate on the course

Play ready golf.

Passed down by then-Port Townsend High School golf coach Jim Kerns, this simple lesson has stuck with me since I began playing the game in the late 1990’s.

Keep up with the group in front of you, park your cart or place your bag away from the green so the next group can swing to the green, read the green as you approach it, avoid the Sergio Garcia-esque wiggles and waggles, etc . . .

Feel free to add your own addition.

Basically, the adage boils down to being considerate and taking into account positioning and politeness while playing a round.

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I think I am on target with my playing pace when I am either just walking up to my approach shot to the green, or ready to swing as soon as the group in front has departed the putting green.

I’ll usually give them a few more seconds to get to safe locations, behind trees, screens or what have you.

If players behind me are showing more skill (not too difficult) or just plain playing at the speed of the University of Oregon’s football team’s offense, I will politely let them play through.

For a certain local men’s club, the Ready Golf lesson had apparently been lost or obscured in recent years and pace of play was becoming a real concern.

I won’t pull a Seymour Skinner and “out” the club with a poorly-thought out pseudonym like L. Simpson or Lisa S., as the hapless principal did in a classic episode of “The Simpsons.”

I just wanted to touch on this issue and show what a local men’s group had done to find a solution.

Membership had made comments about a decreased pace of play at annual meetings.

Being responsive, the club leadership put together a policy to help speed things up during rounds.

The men’s club began to enforce their beefed up Pace of Play Policy last week.

It boiled down to groups finishing their rounds in 4 hours and 15 minutes or less.

Groups do have to clock-in after the first player in a group has hit and clock out after the final putt has been holed to avoid stroke or point penalties.

They also had to finish within 10 minutes of the group in front of them to avoid penalties.

While they might sound a little harsh, the rules have some wiggle in them for shotgun start events, and any penalty applies only to bragging rights and not official handicaps.

It turns out the added enforcement may not have been necessary.

No groups were penalized after the first day under the new policy.

The “slowest” group finished with three minutes to spare and most groups finished under 3:55.

All groups remembered to clock in and clock out and the men’s club committee didn’t find anyone who felt rushed or made to play differently.

Every course is different, 4:15 may not be enough time to play 18 at a course with some large slopes and it may be ample time for some of our flatter tracks.

I just want courtesy to be the overriding rule on all North Olympic Peninsula courses.

I really don’t want to write about anything like this golf course fight (http://tinyurl.com/2exr9at) that happened in Auburn in 2008 after complaints of slow play.

Play nice out there!

Turkey shoot

Port Townsend Golf Club’s annual Turkey Shoot/Toys for Tots Scramble will tee off at 10 a.m. this Saturday.

The blind-draw scramble event raises funds for the Marine Corps Toys for Tots (and teens!) toy drive.

Cost is $30 per player with a $10 greens fee for nonmembers.

Gift tree still going

Port Townsend Golf Club held a rousing holiday party last week, with attendance set at around 100 people.

Most of them donated toward the course’s Dollars for Coats program with PT Kiwanis and took tags from the Port Townsend Golf Club Christmas giving tree.

There are still some tags left on the tree and stockings up at the course to collect donations for the coat program.

Help out if you can, it’s the best way to get into the holiday spirit.

Give the gift of golf

The best gift for a Peninsula golfer will not involve a trip to the mall or fighting for parking spots in a crowded lot.

Take a short jaunt over to one of our local courses and golf staffers can help with gift cards for rounds or for lessons with club professionals.

The clubs also have merchandise and equipment that make for good stocking stuffers.

Play locally, shop locally.

It helps the game in the long run.

________

Michael Carman is the golf columnist for the Peninsula Daily News. He can be reached at 360-417-3527 or at pdngolf@gmail.com.

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