More than half the world’s golfers would enjoy the game more if they could play rounds in a shorter time. This is one of the conclusions of a macro-survey on the pace of play that the Royal and Ancient Golf Club (R&A) carried out among 56,000 golfers in 122 countries.

As part of a broader ongoing project a survey was conducted in the six months from September 2014 until the start of March 2015 to gauge golfers’ attitudes to pace of play. The survey was offered in Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, French, German and English to facilitate a broad range of responses. In total there were 56,248 responses identified as coming from 122 countries.

For the purpose of this report countries are grouped together to form regions: Africa; Asia; Australasia; Continental Europe; Great Britain and Ireland (GB&I); Latin America and the Caribbean; and North America. The number of rounds played each year by the respondents would indicate that they are keen and active golfers (averaging approximately 2 rounds per week) and their demographic is generally representative of golfers in terms of gender and age. The sample also demonstrated the longevity of golf as a sport with the median response for years playing golf of around 20; with the exception of Continental Europe where this dropped to 11 years.

Whilst there were differences between age groups and genders these were not as marked as one might be led to think. For this reason the answers are generally broken down by region rather than by gender and age ranges. The results of the survey indicated that playing in groups of four was most prolific, except within Continental Europe, where playing in groups of three was more popular. Results on types of play varied between regions. In Australasia, the amount of stableford played (63%) and the amount of competition play (81%) were particularly noteworthy.

Respondents were asked how long they took to play 18 holes and the most common response was between 4.0 and 4.5 hours; except within GB&I where this dropped to 3.5 to 4.0 hours. They were also asked how long they took when they started playing and in general the times reported were comparable to those taken today. Weighted averages indicate that the average round time within GB&I is around 3.44, whereas the averages within other regions range from 3.54 (Continental Europe) to 4.09 (Australasia; and Latin America and the Caribbean).

 

Frequency of play

Respondents were asked which factors prevented them from playing more golf. Globally the two options yielding the highest level of response were work commitments and family commitments; although there was some variation for responses within age groups and by region. The time taken to play was next in the list as a factor when viewed globally. The factor of cost of play was cited as a reason for not playing more golf by respondents from Asia (28.5%) in particular, but not within GB&I (2.2%). Cost of equipment and difficulty of play were not given as reasons very frequently, although within golfers over 75 years old the proportion citing difficulty of play increased to 7.4%. Females cited alternative hobbies (17.7%) slightly more frequently than males (11.4%) as a factor preventing them from playing more golf.

 

Attitudes to pace of play

Respondents were asked if they were generally happy with the amount of time taken to play golf. The majority responded positively saying that they were always happy (4.3%) or happy most of the time (64.6%). The remainder of respondents were either sometimes happy (27.1%) or never happy (4.0%). Unsurprisingly those who were never happy generally took over 4.5 hours to play their golf.

Despite this positive outcome the majority of respondents said that playing in less time would improve their enjoyment of the game (60.1%). They were also asked to quantify the reduction in round time which would increase their frequency of play. Just over half of the respondents said that it would not make a difference, but around a quarter of them said that the round time would need to improve by 21 to 39 minutes per round (i.e. approximately 2 minutes per hole) to increase their frequency of play. This increased to 40 to 59 minutes per round (i.e. around 3 minutes per hole) for those who said that their typical round time was 5.0-5.5 hours.

It is interesting to focus on those who were less satisfied or in the extreme never satisfied with the pace of play; as this unsurprisingly leads to a different picture. The group that were never satisfied identify improvements between 21 and 59 minutes as possibly impacting their frequency of play. This is further exacerbated in golfers from 25-44, some of whom felt that the time taken to play would need to improve by between 1 and 1.5 hours to increase their frequency of play. Realistically, such reductions in round times would be very difficult to achieve by improvements to pace of play alone.

 

Causes of issues with pace of play

At this stage this report is intended to describe the results of the survey rather than proffer solutions. In general respondents blamed other golfers for issues with pace of play, citing poor etiquette, bad play and players’ pre-shot routines most frequently. Within North America the most frequently cited cause was players using tees which are too difficult for them; which indicates that the USGA “Tee It Forward” campaign is of particular relevance within that region or, at least, that the campaign\'s message has filtered through to golfers in North America.

 

Next stages

There are questions which solicited open-ended responses and one of the next stages is to review these comments. There are around 30,000 suggestions for what might improve pace of play and numerous other comments. A summary of some of the key points is included in this report, but this requires further work.

 

A conference will be held in St Andrews in late 2015 to discuss: pace of play and the three factors that influence pace of play (players, management of play and the course); the contents of this report; and the publication of a guidance document on possible measures to mitigate for pace of play issues.

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