About slow play:

“. . . By shortening the time between player groups and by
requiring mandatory carts golf courses have built in slow play. 
As long as golfers continue to accept what the courses are doing
we will have slow play. . .
“CB” Maxwell

“Slow play is the result of . . . lack of education, lack of
courtesy, lack of enforcement. . . the quality of course
marshals is generally very poor. . . Usually these staff get '
free slow golf'. Not much of an incentive. . .” Karl M. Fischer

“. . . Speeding up play is simple if the golfing community has
the g . . .ds. I talk about this on my syndicated radio show all
the time:

No betting!......how many times have you seen someone lining up
a 1-foot put because $100 is riding on it? . . . Allow and
provide GPS, Laser Link, etc. on all carts and for all golfers. .
 . . Play Ready Golf.  Hit and putt when ready as long as it
doesn't interfere with another player. . . . Marshals enforce
pace-of-play. . . Don't sweat your score. Save that for when you'
re playing in the U.S. Open or the U.S. Amateur.” Michael
Stewart (Williams Bay, WI)

“Slow play is the plague that will destroy the game. Television,
the P.G.A. of America and the USGA. are the lobbies that
perpetuate this plague on behalf of the ‘business’ of golf. In
an effort to sell endless streams of garbage instructional
videos and other training products, these organizations
perpetuate the myth that they can turn every person that ever
picked up a club into a scratch player. Instead of promoting the
social aspects of the game to the masses responsibly, they
choose the low road. I have been playing this game for 37 years
and good round or bad, what I will take away from the game is
the experiences and friendships that will last a lifetime.”
Steve C.

“There is an answer to the slow play issue.  It is pure and
simple:  cooperation, and it starts with having a staff who are
willing to build a rapport with their customers, public or
private.  If the staff are ticket takers and dictators you'll
never have the chance to form good relationships with your
customers, or you'll simply alienate them.

I am very fortunate to be at a private golf club with a
cooperative and supportive group of members who, for the most
part, believe and practice etiquette of the game.  A number of
years ago I began an initiative of marshalling with colored
flags, displayed by the marshal as he drives by

a group.  White flag: everything’s good, but always let faster
groups through (this is the mantra I always (push). Yellow flag:
you have lost your original starting gap. Play ready golf and
putt out (no marking the ball) until you have regained your
position.  Red flag: you must do whatever the marshal instructs
and then report to my office to find out how long you're
suspended for. . .” Gary Betts (Betts is head professional at
Sleepy Hollow Country Club, north of Toronto, Ontario.

Gary Betts, cont.
“I know its tough talk.  First weekend, I suspended a member for
a week.The word travelled fast that we were serious, but fair,
and I seldom get challenged on this issue.  We actually don't
even use the flags anymore.

Our record is not perfect, perhaps we'll have a dozen days a
year when the average is over four and a half.  Seldom is it
ever five hours.  Not bad in the big picture.

There are two huge issues.  One is that the wealthy corporate
execs need to leave their egos in the parking lot.  A golf
course needs the cooperation of up to 300 individuals a day. 
There is no way that one person can be more important than the
whole.  They may be rich enough to buy me or the club I work at,
but they are not rich enough to buy golf, its etiquette and
history.

The other is the lack of caddy programs which was the formal
introduction of so many in bygone years.  They don't learn. 
Many pick up the game later in life, and do not embrace or
understand the nuances of proper conduct.  And with the increase
in price I'm not sure I'd watch a movie on fast forward so that
it can rented to someone else sooner.  Golf, when viewed as
entertainment, can develop this attitude.  Golf, when viewed as
a sport in conjunction with its history, would never have these
issues.

The solution: create golfers, which is not the same as people
who golf.

1. Make sure that all youth programs at their fundamental core
are in place to introduce everybody to golf and not to identify
the next great golfers.

2. Place the introduction efforts in the hands of the NGCOA, who
like it or not control the courses and establish policies that
make it difficult for youngsters in larger urban areas to have
good access to the courses.

3. Work with the NGCOA to encourage parents/aunts/uncles to
bring their kids to caddy.  Make the youngsters attend some
orientation classes and become certified.  (I'd pretty well
guarantee you that all club professionals would actively promote
and conduct this course with no fee).

4. Have the courage not to allow players who have established a
poor record to play in prime time, or give them their money back
and send them home. The concept of "the courses need the money"
when in the long term (short term really) golfers will come back
to the game in droves if and when the pace of play and etiquette
issues are enforced as they should be.

Best of luck,  Gary Betts