This is an open letter to slow play.

Dear slow player,

SPEED UP!!!! That 3 foot putt is not getting any shorter the longer you stand over it. That shot over the bunker from the hard pan lie is not getting easier by you walking up to the green twice to see where you are trying to land it.

The truth is that this game is so hard. It is probably the hardest game in the world and your delaying the obvious is not making it any easier. Standing there throwing handfuls of grass in the air over and over to judge the 1 mph wind is only making your decision tougher.

Let me give you a couple ideas that can save time, and strokes, off your round. First, develop a pre-shot routine. Try making this your cue to your body that a swing is coming. Make sure it is the same each time so that your mind and body are trained that action is following whatever it is that you do prior to the swing. I will stand a couple feet behind the ball choosing a target line. I will tug on the shoulders of my shirt and take my stance. I look at the target once and fire. This process takes roughly 20 seconds. Yours might be shorter or longer, but anything over 1 minute can not be healthy in terms of your mental state prior to swinging.

Second, if you have played longer than 5 years of golf, take no practice swings anywhere from 100 yards out. Practice swings are such a double edged sword. Using a practice swing as a pre-shot routine does two things that I do not like. It tells your body to concentrate on something that will have no result. And it adds one swing, at the end of the day, for every practice swing you make.

How many times have you made a practice swing that was great and uttered the worst words in the world “just do that again.” Only to shank one in the woods? The practice swing can be a built in excuse or can make you believe you “wasted one.” What about your score? If you actually impact the ball 100 times in a round, that is somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 full swings or so. If you take a practice swing for every one of those swings you are at 160 full swings. I can not believe that most of us are in shape enough to make that many swings.

Ready golf is another of the best ways to save time. If you are in a cart, drop your partner off at his ball while you go to your ball. Take a couple extra clubs and once he has hit, you can hit and pick him up on your way to the successful shots. Ready golf means that just because you are away, someone else might be hitting…that is okay. Unless you are embroiled in a Ryder Cup match, does it really matter that your buddy, who you chose to play with, hit from 6 yards in front of you, before you?

Truth is that with the given economic state of our country, we are probably going to see golf courses close and the supply of golf courses will be lower. If we ALL are going to keep playing, we are going to need to speed up. Look for ways that you can play a bit faster and always remember that if you play freer and faster, your scores will usually be lower. Less time thinking is more time succeeding in most cases.

Random Thoughts 19th Hole