Minnesota Golfer - Fall 2018 - 40

BACKSPIN
* BY MARK CRAIG *
Pick Up the Pace!
Making a case for fast play-with the help of
slow play's sworn enemy.
S
orry, Tiger, but my dream foursome would include
Jack, Arnie and Tom.
Tom Watson?
No. Tom Abts.
Abts hasn't won five British Opens, two green jackets or
a U.S. Open. But the 62-year-old general manager and head
golf pro at Victoria's Deer Run Golf Club is a major champion
of fast play.
Bless you, Tom.
And bless your blog ( " Tom's Rants " at deerrungolf.com),
which never sugarcoats the notion that four hours of golf is
a wonderful pace while five-plus hours is a wretched experience
akin to sitting behind four stalled cars
on I-494 at rush hour.
" It's definitely one of my favorite subjects, "
says the sworn enemy of slow play. " The
worst offenses are from the players who are
knowingly slow and insist that it's their right
to play at any pace they desire, even if it backs
up the whole course. "
Preach it, Tom.
" The offenders come in all forms, " he says.
" Young and old. Rookie and experienced.
Male and female. It's an attitude of entitlement
at the expense of everyone else. "
Like many, I've thought for years that pace
one hour, 55 minutes, they were kicked off the golf course.
When I started sending people packing, everyone realized that
I was serious, and they changed their ways or didn't come to
Deer Run anymore. "
As someone who's had a bad stretch of playing behind slow
golfers this year, bless you, Tom.
Abts has been at Deer Run since 1991. He was the 2017
Minnesota PGA Professional of the Year. And while he no
longer gives slow golfers the boot at the turn, he's not shy in
how he tries to educate them via his blog.
He gives the usual USGA-sounding tips. Play the right set
" The worst offenses
are from the
players who are
knowingly slow and
insist that it's their
right to play at any
pace they desire,
even if it backs up
the whole course. "
of play is the biggest problem facing golf. That's how I came to
meet Abts years ago after hearing that he had instituted " Fast
Play Fridays " at Deer Run.
We played a round of golf together. On a Fast Play Friday.
And it ... was ... awesome.
Everyone who came to the course that day was dedicated
to playing in four hours, which, as Abts explains, isn't fast but
rather " equivalent to driving 60 mph on the freeway. " In other
words: respectful-and not slow.
" Fast Play Fridays " don't exist anymore.
" But it accomplished what I had hoped for: It changed our
culture [at Deer Run], " Abts says.
" We demanded they play fast. We had rangers on every
three holes. And if the players didn't finish the front nine in
40
MINNESOTAGOLFER Fall 2018
of tees. Play " ready golf. " Write your scores down and put your
putters away at the next tee.
But Tom adds some color analysis you
won't find on a USGA website. Such as, " Save
your funny stories for waiting situations " or
" Don't use a long setup routine. It doesn't
help your game and is just annoying. "
Abts got more than 200 responses within
hours of posting a blog on slow play and
" road rage. "
" We had a golfer who decided to make a
phone call while playing, " Abts says. " I presumed
he quit playing and had his playing
partners continue without him. Wrong. "
The entire foursome stopped playing and
apparently wouldn't let the group behind pass through. So the
group behind hit into them.
Words were exchanged. Someone in the front group
claimed he was threatened with a gun. Next thing they knew,
three police cars were pulling into Deer Run's parking lot.
" I just don't get it, " Abts wrote. " A four-hour pace of play is
reasonable. Making your playing partners wait five minutes
while you talk on the phone is unreasonable. Calling the police
for an imaginary threat is unreasonable. Are people really
this selfish and self-absorbed? I'm not surprised at the rude
drivers I see on the road. But I expect more from golfers. "
Mark Craig is the NFL/Vikings columnist and a golf writer for
the Star Tribune.
mngolf.org
http://www.deerrungolf.com http://www.mngolf.org
Minnesota Golfer - Fall 2018

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