I played two rounds of golf recently that put the Bryson Dechambeau pace of play debate in perspective for me. One round I played in 4 ½ hours, the other in just under 4 hours. Ironically, the slower round was better for my golf game.
“How can that be?” I hear all the rabbits out there exclaiming. The answer is simple: It is about pace of play, not speed. (I was tempted to write “It’s the pace of play, stupid,” but I won’t). In my fast round, I played the first six holes with no one in front of me at an average speed per hole of less than 10 minutes. Extrapolate that over all 18 holes, and I would have been in the 19th hole in less than 3 hours. But on the 7th hole, I caught the twosome in front of me; they did not invite me to join them, and I started waiting a minute or two to make my approach shot to the next few greens.
Then, toward the end of the first nine, the twosome caught up to the foursome in front of them. Another single caught up to me as I waited at the 9th tee, and I invited him to join me to play the 9th and the back nine.
Overall, I wound up playing the 18 holes in 4 hours, certainly respectable speed for a mid-morning starting time in perfect weather. But I played at three separate paces – the fast pace of a single, the medium pace of a twosome, and then the slow pace of the foursome two groups ahead – and the erratic pace was not helpful for the pace of my swing which tends to be even more hurried when folks are waiting to hit behind me (which, of course they were because we were waiting for the twosome that was waiting for the foursome in front of them).
Yes, I know, that twosome could have invited us to join them and leavened out the pace of play. But the fact remains that the entire 18 holes would have been played at two or three different paces. Much better was the round I played a few days later on a crowded municipal golf course where everyone in front of us played at a steady 4 ½ hour pace. I never felt rushed to keep up with the group in front or put-upon by the group behind. And I played better shots than I did during my round a few days earlier.
Coincidence? Maybe, but if 4 hours is acceptable to all the rabbits out there who celebrate their speed of play as much as they do their scores, then consider that a 4 ½ hour round is less than 2 minutes per hole longer. And in those 2 minutes, you can contemplate your shot, change your mind about going for a sucker pin position, and otherwise stop and smell the flowers. It will be good for your game and your overall mental health.
I have been diagnosed with something called “trigger finger” in the middle digit of my right hand. I had never heard of it before, but when I started mentioning it to friends and fellow golfers, I discovered it is a fairly common malady. In fact, golfing friends in Scotland and here in the States have told me they had out-patient surgery to correct it.
I will probably join them this winter, since a cortisone injection has had no effect and my orthopod warned that if the pain persisted, surgery was the only remedy. The pain has persisted for a couple of months and, according to what I have read, diabetics with trigger finger almost always require surgery. I meet that criteria as well (Type 2).
Stenosing tenosynovitis is sometimes called “trigger thumb.” So-called "pulleys" in your fingers hold the tendons close to the bone and help the fingers slide when you bend them. Trigger finger occurs when the pulley becomes thick and prefents the tendon from gliding easily.
The only thing that partially relieves the pain and permits me to grip a golf club is ibuprofen, such as Advil. Both my cardio and gastro docs have given me permission to take Advil before a round of golf, but advise against using it at other times. The finger still hurts during the swing, but it is tolerable.
But here is the irony regarding the pain; it has actually helped my golf swing. I cannot grip the club with my right hand as firmly as I had before the problem, and I have discovered I was probably gripping it too tightly when my finger felt okay. Now, the only times I hit the ball to the right are when I stop the club before I get to a full follow through. I also sense that my takeaway is not quite as fast as my traditional lightning swing since I am conscious of putting too much stress on that middle finger.
I would rather be pain free, which I will be for next year’s golf season. But as pain goes, this event has added some gain to my golf game.
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