While we all face the demands of less time for leisure activities in our life, there is a growing wave of support in the game of golf that pace is a priority and the overall time to play this wonderful game needs to be reduced.
The Golf Club at Bear Dance has hosted over a half million rounds of golf since 2003 and our GPS units record your location and pace of play. This data shows the average duration by hole on our property and have allowed us to set our goal of 4 hours and 20 minutes per round of golf.
For those who feel the need to fly around our course in a few hours is rarely achievable with the degree of difficulty of our course coupled with the amazing views you will encounter. As well as those guest who feel a round of golf is a leisurely stroll for 5+ hours, this is something that is not fair to your fellow golfers playing behind you. They paid their green fees as well to enjoy a great day of golf.
The starters at Bear Dance inform every guest on the 1st Tee that Pace of Play is crucial to the enjoyment levels for everyone playing today and it is imperative that you Maintain Your Position with the group playing directly in front of you at all times. Don’t worry about the group behind you; that is our job. Groups can only play as quick as the group ahead. It is a one lane highway and you must maintain your position or eventually, you will have to pull over and let quicker groups pass. If your group happens to lose contact with the group playing directly ahead of you, the GPS will send you a message concerning your lack of position on the course and a Player’s Assistant will be by shortly to help improve your position.
1st warning is a polite reminder about your time and position in relation to the group ahead and allowing you to improve your time and move back into position.
The 2nd conversation after a reasonable amount of time to improve will reinforce the need to improve your pace/position or it may result in allowing groups to play through or re-positioning your group back into its desired location (skipping a hole).
The 3rd conversation is to provide you the option to skip any open holes and reposition your group back in place, allow groups to play through, or provide you with a rain check for un-played holes.
If you do not see a Player’s Assistant on the course, do not despair, that means they are working with the groups ahead of you that may be causing some delays. Depending on the day of the week, our rounds average between 4 hours 20 minutes to 4 hours 40 minutes.
The last thing our staff wants to do on a daily basis is to inform you of slow play. We do not enjoy disrupting your round and would rather you have an amazing time enjoying Bear Dance for its challenges and beauty. But we must ensure that one group does not ruin the day for everyone.
