If the marshals are doing their job, then they'll know which foursomes are holding up play.  If they are over 4 hours and 15 minutes pace, then charge them more fees.  Really slow play = higher greens fees.  Really fast play = cheaper greens fees.  If your foursome has to wait on every tee box, then you get a discounted rate, no matter your time - since you had to wait on the foursome in front of you.  Time is money in most businesses...why not for greens fees?

It's an idea.  I've heard that some of the Golf AM Tours are playing longer than 5 hours.  In Wisconsin, you can a 2 shot penalty for being over 2:10 over 9.  After kicking into the prize pot, I sure wouldn't want to take myself out of contention.  I might even have to consider "going postal" if a playing partner cost me a penalty while plumb bobbing  a third putt from over 6 feet.

They should crack down.  People that plum bob greens, stay on the cell phone or look for extra  golf ball in the water,

most of whom cannot break an egg. 

Write the starting time on your score card and keep it to 15 minutes a hole or pick up. This gives ample time at the turn for snakes.

If there are enough marshalls, let folks know that after 4:45 minutes, they are finished for the day. Be it hole 13 or 14 or 18. Also assuming that they are not behind the group in front. Or hold them for 30 minutes for groups to pass at the turn-aound as a first or second warning. In some cases, there may need to be days/times when they can exceed the time. I'm in decent shape for 61 and can play single in close to 3:30 walking, but in deference to some retirees supporting the USGA initiative to walk for the exercise, they need some way to be able to move at a slower rate. Not to mention letting others pass as a courtesy at the next tee which almost never seems to happen.

I need at least 20 minutes to round up all my Snakes:)  Oh wait you meant Snacks.

I like your idea they should have to pick up and move on if they can.

Slow play frustrates the heck out of me. I played this past Sunday and the course was crowded, but let's be realistic. I don't care how bad you are, I was always told when I was learning the game that you can play bad..........fast. I don't know what the solution is, but I like the incentive idea. Then again, I wouldn't want someone going crazy because they didn't get done in 3 hours and missed their "incentive money". I just wish people would be considerate and let others play through.

People who are slow and inconsiderate on the course are probably that way off the course as well.

I think Marshall's are the only way to go and they need to be forceful and make people pick up if they need to.

My favorite is always the player who hasn't hit a drive over 220 all day long but they'll wait on a par 5 from 275 because they'll get it there if they catch one.  It's terrible around me.  Some of the public courses on a crowded day, the round is taking 5.5 hours.  That's just not enjoyable.

Brent

LOL, I was wondering what he does with snakes, I guess I wasn't smart enough to figure out snacks.....most typos I figure out quickly but that one had me stumped, and once I saw snacks I knew I should have figured it out.

John H

Those people waiting for someone 275y away, well they probably hit in too close to me one time and they don't want what happened next to ever happen again.

If someone is within 50y of my best ever shot, no matter how I'm playing right now, I don't hit.

I have choices, I could hit up close them, go up there and wait, which does me no good, and usually ticks them off, and causes them to play slower. Or I could wait on the tee until they are plenty far enough away that they will not hear my ball thump when it hits the ground, and they continue playing as normal.

Normally on par 4's I wait at least until they are the green, sometimes I wait until they leave the green, I prefer to do all my waiting on the tee.........then play the hole and wait on the next tee.

Everyone

If you don't have 6hrs to spend on the golf course then you probably shouldn't be there anyway. Calm down, relax, enjoy........remember thats what them slow players are doing and they paid to relax play golf and have fun.

Quintin, did I miss the sarcasm flag? Seriously, you wait until the group in front is off the green on par 4s? Remind me not to get behind you. Plus, if I'm on the the green of a 350-400 yard hole, and someone drives the green, I'd applaud him! No way it gets there with enough speed to hurt anyone, so why not applaud a great shot?

Also, 6 hours for a round is not relaxing. That means I'm standing around for close to 2 hours. Back before I had kids, I would meet a buddy at the course by 6am. We would leisurely walk 18 holes, and I would be at my desk working (20 minutes from the course) by 9:30am or so. This is with 85-90 strokes, no rushing, practice strokes, lining up putts, even the occasional 2 minute search for a ball. By your standards, that means we should have stood around for 3 hours.

Sorry, but I paid my money to have a relaxing round of golf. I didn't pay to wait behind someone that feels 6 hours should be anywhere near normal.

Dave I didn't say it should take 6hrs, I said if you don't have 6hrs then you probably shouldn't be out there.

I've been playing with 3 guys older than me, 2 of them can't see and one of them doesn't move real fast anymore........our last round 4hrs 10min cart paths only. So yes 6hrs is long, 5 hrs is long, but if I can't go with 6hrs I don't go because I know it might happen. When it does I wait for them to get off the green, play the hole and wait on the next tee. And if you're behind me you will most likely be waiting on the next tee with me.

There's no need to get in a hurry, no need to let them bother me, it will just mess with my game......and along those lines it is much better to play a hole then wait, play a hole then wait, instead of hit the ball wait.

So your solution to a 6 hour round is to make everyone behind you have a 7 hour round?
I can handle a 5 hour on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. And I'll plan for at least 6 hours away from home, but that's going to include a warm on the range, hitting some putts, and having a drink after the round. I would have to raise so much hell if I came up on a tee and the group was waiting for a green 400 yards away to clear. I would raise so much hell that you wouldn't want me coming up to wait on the next tee box with you. Sorry Quintin, but that is rediculous.

Sorry about that Caseman P, but I would much rather hit the ball and go hit it again without waiting than to wait-hit the ball, wait-hit the ball.

And since you would be raising so much hell, I guess I would have to explain to you that you will be waiting the same amount of time either way........of course you won't believe that, so I'd have to ask you to explain how you are going to get finished faster if the people in front of me play the same pace either way?

And then of course, since you haven't figured it out yet, I'd have to explain to you that slow players tend to play slower when someone is running up their butt.........so running up their butt is going to take longer, which means more waiting.

After that, I'd just enjoy the day watching your blood pressure rise.

Quintin is right hitting into them only ticks them off more. I personally wait until they get into their cart and start driving to the green. Most par 5s I can reach in 2 so I wait on those if I'm going for it. Matches are completely different though. Play will always be slower in tourneys.

NIce. That's what I would do if I were in your shoes, too. Just sit back and llet the other guy's blood pressure rise. But by raise hell, I mean that my goal would be to make you cry. I'd make you run to your car when you got off 18. I'd heckle you so bad on every tee box you'd develop a tick. But it's nothing personal. I do it to people camped out in the fast lane on their cell phones clueless to the rest of the world.

Alright, I got riled up. Felt just like a 3-putt when you're on a par 5 in 2.

Anyway, what I would honestly do in real life is endure the 6 hour round, whine about it to my buddies, then the next week I'd pay a couple bucks more and play some place else that spreads their tee times out and has a better reputation for pace of play. I don't think there's a whole lot that can be done to fix the pace of play and it's supposed to be a game of gentlemen.

Enjoy any golf you're able to get in this weekend, Quinn.

If there's someone out there who enjoys waiting then I'll be flabbergasted.  A wait on the tee is just as frustrating as a wait on the fairway.  I've seen men, women, young, old, scratch, and triple digit handicappers play slow.  It's infuriating.  Slow play cripples the game, and is probably the main reason that people don't play.

I used to play at a course that would make you wait by the club house until it was your turn.  When you got to the first hole (long par 4), the group in front of you was walking off the green, and there was a clock set to the time.  The marshal would write down your group's time and inform you that on each hole there was a clock.  If you're playing at the acceptable pace, each clock should read the same time as the one on #1.  On the third hole there was another marshal that would check your time.  If you were playing slow he'd let you know.  On the 6th hole (forced carry) if you were playing slow he would force you to hit from the drop zone.  #9 tee had a phone to call the grill if you wanted a snack, and you would see a marshal checking his clock on 10.  Surprisingly there were no stationed marshals on the back 9 after 10, and play never got backed up.  In my 4 years playing there I never once had an issue with slow play, and that course was always packed.  Tee times would book up like crazy, and you knew your round would take between 4 and 4.25 hours to play.  Everyone was all smiles at the 19th.  Playing within pace makes golf fun for everyone.  A round shouldn't take 6 hours unless you're 19th hole runs a little long.

That's why I play at the crack of dawn on off Friday year round or late on Sunday during summer.  When it gets light out at 6AM on Friday., I'll play Riverwalk and complete 9 holes in 1:45 (~3150 yd).  I can do Miramar at 4PM on  a Sunday and it takes 3 1/2 hours walking 18 holes.  There are a couple exec  courses that are very wide open and I can get out at 6:30 and play 9 holes in about 1:15 (that is with a twosome). 

I don't think there's anything that can be done to fix the problem.

Marshals just wear themselves out yelling at guys who ignore them. There will always be the hacks who are out there just to drink beer with their buddies and are in no hurry to go home to a nagging wife. There will always be the kid on his high school golf team who thinks every 4 footer on his Saturday afternoon muni needs to be viewed from 6 angles. There will always be the guy who slowly strolls from his cart to his ball to the sprinkler back to the cart back to the ball etc. etc. etc. because he already had a "put me down for 8" on the last hole and has given up playing the game with any focus. There will always be the guy playing for a $4 beer he doesn't want to buy his wife's brother so he focuses on his 2 minute pre-shot routine like there's a green jacket on the line.

I usually bring a magazine to read while waiting between shots on those 5 hour rounds. But if the front nine goes 3 hours, I go in and get a rain-check, complain, and head to grill some juicy steaks and hope that next week is better.

i too play in memphis and recently i got behind a group of older gentlemen playing as a fivesome. It took them at least 25-30 min to play hole number one. after they finished and i teed off and by the time i finished the hole they were just leaving number 2 tee box. I picked up and walked in and decided it would be a "practice" day. slow play is absolutely obnoxious.

Regardless of age, ability, or talent, golfers ought to focus upon being ready to play when it is his or her turn.  Shot prep is best exercised by the player who surveys and considers the shot as he approaches it--It's a simple thing to examine the green while others are putting, etc.  

The solution is rangers who actually do something.  When the group in front of you is standing in the fairway getting a sunburn, your on the tee half way through war and peace, and the guy on the green is "spidermaning" his putt for 16 with two holes open in front of him the ranger needs to step in.  Be it a "hey guys lets pick up the pace" or "on the next tee you need to let this group play through", or a "how about you guys play from the whites?" rangers are there to monitor the course.  An effective ranger will keep the play going.