There’s nothing worse than a slow round of golf. It’s torturous waiting on every shot and counting the minutes of your day that are being wasted as you watch the group in front taking eons over every shot and walking at a snail’s pace up every fairway.
On the pro tours and in the elite amateur game, tournament officials will set a pace of play policy that determines how long players are given, or expected to take, to complete holes and each individual shot. This will be policed by tournament referees. Generally speaking, players who repeatedly fail to meet the targets are in line to face penalties. Those penalties will escalate and could mean penalty shots and, in the most extreme cases, disqualification for the worst offenders.
