0 Traffic Jams Go From the Streets to the Green

The hot topic in Jakarta is the horrific traffic jams that cause major disruptions to businesses and the private lives of employees. Lack of infrastructure, more vehicles on the road and lack of discipline by road users are cited as the reasons. However, traffic jams are now looming as a major problem for golf courses during their peak times for much the same reasons. Like roads, golf courses have limited capacity, while user numbers continue to increase. Fortunately, however, there are some limited ways to accommodate overflow in demand. 

In an effort to avoid waiting in a long queue, players are able to book their tee times in advance, typically at intervals of eight minutes, which is the average time it takes for the group ahead to be safely out of range from the following players. To avoid congestion, the maximum number of players on the course should be 144, which is two groups (called flights) of four players for each of the 18 holes, ensuring all players will finish play after approximately four and a half hours. But if more players are piled in, bottlenecks quickly occur and the time taken for a game increases dramatically — sometimes up to eight hours. 

Like Jakarta’s roads, once the limit is reached the field can become hopelessly gridlocked, causing frustration and anger. The growing popularity of golf is already creating more golfers than popular courses can handle at peak times, and the problem is exacerbated by course staff too embarrassed to refuse bookings from longstanding members and guests. Compounding this is the common occurrence of VIPs or influential people who spontaneously arrive at a golf course with a large entourage and insist to be allowed to play, despite the fact that the course is fully booked. 

Given the local culture, it is difficult for local managers to refuse and as a result sometimes up to 200 players are on course at the same time. The result is a long and frustrating round spent standing and waiting — not playing golf. Slow rounds can also occur for reasons other than over-capacity. Nervous players can spend too much time taking practice swings and second guessing their shots. Even professional tournament players have been guilty of this. Sports writer Gene Wojciechowski made a humorous comment on the slow play of PGA Tour pro Kevin Nan “On No. 14, I counted 11 waggles, then a swing over the top of the ball, then five more waggles before he hit his drive. 

But I might have fallen asleep near the end, so don’t hold me to it.” This can be solved with a good pre-shot routine. This is a ritual performed before each shot and includes lining up, practice swing and then hitting the ball. Initiating the swing is just one step in a procession of moves. Other common causes for delay are players looking for lost balls who do not let faster players go past them on the course. One reason for this reticence is the lack of knowledge of how to go about it, while another is the false perception that letting another group through is embarrassing evidence that they are poor golfers. 

It seems to them that to “call through” following groups is a great inconvenience. They believe that they must pull to the side and wait, like a car parking off to the side of the road to let a following car pass them on a freeway. However, taking the freeway example, these players could continue their play and tell the following players to move past them as they continue to hit ahead. The only inconvenience may be a short wait for the passing group to finish putting on the green. Just as there are rules and conventions to deal with time-consuming conditions on the road, so there are ways to deal with slow play on course. And until infrastructure catches up with demand, the only other means of dealing with this is compliance and a thinking and considerate attitude.

John Russell is a leading innovator of corporate golf in Asia. He can be contacted at john@johnrussellgolf.com.
source : the jakarta globe