Ready Golf

, by editor

Royal Montrose Mercantile Golf Club would like to promote this initiative

to the membership. 

  • “Ready golf” is a commonly used term which indicates that players should play when they are ready to do so, rather than adhering strictly to the “farthest from the hole plays first” stipulation in the Rules of Golf.

In stroke play formats, the club is actively encouraging members to agree on playing ‘ready golf’ to help improve the pace of play.

  • When “ready golf” is being encouraged, players have to act sensibly to ensure that playing out of turn does not endanger other players.
  • “Ready golf” should not be confused with being ready to play, which is covered in the Player Behaviour section of this Manual.
  • The term “ready golf” has been adopted by many as a catch-all phrase for a number of actions that separately and collectively can improve pace of play.

There is no official definition of the term, but examples of “ready golf” in action are:

  • Hitting a shot when safe to do so if a player farther away faces a challenging shot and is taking time to assess their options
  • Shorter hitters playing first from the tee or fairway if longer hitters have to wait
  • Hitting a tee shot if the person with the honour is delayed in being ready to play
  • Hitting a shot before helping someone to look for a lost ball
  • Putting out even if it means standing close to someone else’s line
  • Hitting a shot if a person who has just played from a greenside bunker is still farthest from the hole but is delayed due to raking the bunker
  • When a player’s ball has gone over the back of a green, any player closer to the hole but chipping from the front of the green should play while the other player is having to walk to their ball and assess their shot
  • Marking scores upon immediate arrival at the next tee, except that the first player to tee off marks their card immediately after teeing off

“Ready golf” is not appropriate in match play due to the strategy involved between opponents and the need to have a set method for determining which player plays first.

“Ready golf” DOES NOT mean RUSHING.

If you prepare in advance, you can take your time AND play ready golf.

If every person in a four-ball could play each hole 25 seconds quicker, then we will make up half an hour for each round.

 

Download READY GOLF Poster