Thank you for visiting our site. The Three/45 Golf Association is a not-for-profit membership association advocating for a quicker pace of play! It is an association of golfers, course owners, manufacturers, and architects in association with established golf organizations and media all interested in this issue. Studies have shown that the current slow pace of play is the biggest obstacle to enjoying and growing the game. My research indicates that improving the pace of play is a complicated issue and will require just about everyone to get involved if we wish to make progress – individual golfers, course managers and course designers. If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem!
Lucius Riccio Ph.D.
Our Mission and Purpose:
- To teach the principals of faster pace of play
- Bind and link like minded golfers who want the pace to speed up
- Have members who serve as role models and teachers
- Help course management control pace of play
- Link architectural design to pace of play concerns
Because of the complexity of the issue, it will take a concerted effort of many people interested in this game to quicken the pace of play. How complicated is it? Let me explain.
I studied the golf course as a factory using the principles which have enabled America and other great industrial countries to produce at an astounding level of efficiency. Managers of those factories had to understand the complexities of production to make such progress. I set out to do the same for golf courses and golfers. But another analogy might be better: a highway. Let’s consider the golf course as a highway.
A few things become obvious. First, if it is a one lane highway, you can’t drive faster than the car in front of you. The slowest car sets the pace for the highway. Second, some cars are capable of going fast but their drivers choose not to. Third some highways are wide and straight. Others are narrow and twisty. Everyone drives slower on the narrow and twisty ones, and very slowly in the most twisty places. Fourth, there are occasional crashes or potholes which slow everyone down. Fifth even if you are in a Ferrari, if the highway is full of cars, you won’t be able to drive fast.
How does this relate to golf? First the slow group determines the pace of everyone behind. Second the slow player determines the pace of a group. Third some courses are too hard to play and have individual holes which take too long to play. Fourth every group has players who lose a ball, hit one in the water or three putt a green. These things slow down play for everyone even if the group in general plays fast. Fifth, to increase revenue, many courses put too many groups on the course which guarantees slow play no matter what the individual golfers (even if they are Ferrari’s) do.
When you realize the complexity of the issue you realize why it has been so hard to make progress on this issue and why so many well-intentioned efforts to improve things fail. It will take a major effort of almost everyone involved in the game to make progress. And it must be sustained. That is why I have started the Three/45 Golf Association. We need to get as many people involved as possible.
Lucius Riccio Ph.D.
The Three/45 Golf Association Pace of Play Principles ®
The name Three/45 Golf Association has many meanings. First we are trying to get the average round of golf to be less than four hours, so if you try to play in 3 hours and 45 minutes, we will have accomplished our mission. But it implies much more than that. It was designed to give you advice on how to play. My simulations indicate we can all play in less then four hours if we all follow the Principles.
There are Principles for individual players, for groups of players, for course superintendents, for course managers and for course designers. To be a true Three/45 Golfer ®, you must follow and teach the Individual and Group Principles. To be a Three/45 Course Superintendent/Manager ®, you must set up and manage your course for Pace of Play improvement. To be a Three/45 Course ®, your course must follow the Course Principles.
Here are the Principles as they stand now. Please feel free to suggest new Principles which work for you, your group or your course. The idea is to get us all to work together to make a quicker pace of play happen.
Principles for Individuals:
- Walk directly to your ball at a speed of at least 3 MPH (about 100 yards a minute.)
- Be ready to hit and never take more than 45 seconds to plan, address and hit a shot.
- Never take more than a total of 45 seconds to putt out (all putts.)
- Never take more than 3 minutes to look for a lost ball or a ball in the water.
- Pick up or concede putts when you are 3 strokes out of the hole.
- Read The Return of the Four Hour Round by Pat Mateer at least 3 times.
- Teach the Principles to at least 3 new players each time you go to the course.
- Share at least 3 pace of play ideas, known successes and failures with the Three/45 Web Social Site.
- Organize a Three/45 club in your area to advocate for a quicker pace of play.
Principles for Groups:
- Your group should never take more than 3 minutes to clear the tee, fairway landing area or green.
- Limit the number of players looking for lost balls to 3 – the fourth should be hitting.
- Wave up the following group on Par 3s if a group is waiting before you have reached the green.
- If your group is out of position, speed up and get back in position within 3 strokes.
Principles for Superintendents/Course Managers:
- Set your first tee interval to at least the time it takes to play the longest par 3.
- Have at least 3 on course check points providing Pace of Play feedback to groups.
- Adjust difficulty conditions on holes whose average time to play is more than 45 seconds more than the time estimated by the USGA Pace Rating System.
- Reduce putting surface speeds to control for 3 putts.
- Get course set-up advice from one of these 3 experts: the USGA, Bill Yates or Steve Southard.
- Provide the 3 fastest groups with preferred tee times and or Pro shop rewards.
Principles for Course Designers:
- Design the sequence of holes so slow play holes are the first 3 holes, preferably the one with the highest cycle time (or nearly the highest) being the first hole.
- Set up your course so it never takes more than 45 seconds from when the last player holes out until the first player tees off on the next hole.
- Design holes so difficulty factors come into play only for 3 handicap players or lower.
- Design the course so there is a difference of 45 points in slope rating from the back tee to the forward tees.
If everyone follows these Principles, we can get the pace of play back to where it should be and we can all enjoy the game more!
The Three/45 Golf Association Pace of Play Principles Plus ®
The Problems Caused by Variability
Lucius Riccio Ph.D.
One of the facts that came from my simulations of Pace of Play was that even if the overall pace was quick, there would be times when your group will have to wait on a shot. That is because not everyone and every group plays at the same pace on every hole. Even if all groups were trying their best to maintain a quick pace, there will be times when a group loses a ball, or a ball goes in the water and a discussion about a drop ensues, or a difficult green or pin placement creates some three putts. This kind of variability creates waits even when everyone is trying to be good. In Factory Physics, variability is the enemy (I tell my students.) The same is true on the golf course.
Some courses are more prone to such problems. Some golfers are more prone to create them. You will notice that the Three/45 Pace of Play Principles © make mention in several places on how to reduce variability by never taking more than 3 minutes to look for a lost ball (although the Rules allow 5), by never taking more than 45 seconds to hit (although you should average far less), by clearing the tee, fairway and green in 3 minutes, and by encouraging managers to set up their courses to minimize playing “crashes” like the lost ball or three putt.
But even with all of those and with everyone following the Principles ©, some waiting will occur. Actually my simulations show that even with a modest amount of hole by hole and group by group variability, every group will wait some amount, and that total wait time will vary from group to group and possibly by a large amount. So there could be a day when everyone plays in 4 hours but one group had to wait on several shots and another group not often at all. The group that waited a fair amount on their shots might complain that it was a “slow” day while the other group said it was a great day because they almost never waited to hit. Although both played in 4 hours, their experience was different.
The gist of this is we need to remember that just by getting the total time to play down under 4 hours, we still need to recognize that there will be some waiting due to the imbalance of the time to play each hole by each group. So we need to keep a couple of points in mind beyond the Principles ©. They tell us what TO do. But we also need Principles © of what NOT to do. Here is a start. Please suggest more:
- Never get frustrated by the Pace. Keep your head in your game.
- Never give up on the Principles © or on teaching them to other golfers and course managers.
- Never get angry with the group ahead. They may not be the problem even if they are not playing by the Principles ©. Always remain courteous.
- Never rush your swing. A bad shot does more to slow down play than the time you think you might save.
The Three/45 Golf Association is not about Speed Golf. Speed Golf may be a fun thing, but it is not for everyone. We want a quicker pace of play, but we don’t want people to rush or think everyone can play as quickly as everyone else. We also don’t believe that we can eliminate all waiting. Actually as we get quicker, we may create some inadvertent waiting because we caught up to the group ahead so quickly. Some waiting time may be more indicative of our good pace, not their bad pace. And although we love your passion for advocating for a quicker pace of play, let’s always keep in mind we are all here for the enjoyment of the game.
What we are trying to do is get the overall pace to a reasonable time, for most courses, under 4 hours, maybe even down to 3:45! But we want the experience of playing to be as pleasant and as enjoyable as possible for everyone.
Thanks for your interest in improving the pace of play in golf. We need your involvement. Here’s how you can help:
As a golfer:
Become a Three/45 Golfer. Join the Association, follow the Three/45 Principles, encourage others to do so as well, teach by example, form Three/45 Local clubs or encourage your club or course to become a Three/45 Course.
As a course manager/operator/maintainer:
Become a Three/45 Course. Encourage players to join the Association and play by the Principles, monitor pace conditions, set appropriate starting tee intervals, identify bottleneck holes and eliminate obstacles to faster play, encourage waving up on par threes, post the Three/45 Principles, provide priority tee times for Three/45 members, host Three/45 club meetings, and share your successes and failures with our web site.
As a Course Designer:
Become a Three/45 Course Designer. Plan your courses with pace of play considerations in mind, minimize walking between greens and tees, place obstacles to come into play more so for the lower handicap golfers than the higher handicap golfers, and provide enough hole placement options on greens for easy locations as often as hard locations.