smokingrooves wrote:Well its a starting point; I average 30 to 40 seconds so not too bad with the 40 seconds coming from the sand or rough taking an extra 5 or 10 to
figure things out.
thx
I know for certain I'm not the fastest player, either. But, when the 60 second timer is on, I usually take the shot somewhere just before the 30 second mark hits. So, I know I could play a 30 second timer.
The issue is on the wacky shots, like being directly inside a tree or a bush, or even just in any old hazard, with no line of sight to safety. Stuff that in real life no one is going to actually put a player on the clock for.
In a game, the cameras are harder to navigate timely - than just getting out of a hazard in real life, and walking up to a safe landing area. Using the free cam in game could take an inordinate amount of time, due to losing your orientation. - That is, if the cameras are even working as intended. There have been many an occasion where the game cameras go on the fritz, and the player can literally see nothing but inverted colors, as if they're somehow stuck just outside of the game construct. By the way, this is usually caused by the previous player's bad shot confusing the game. So, in fairness... we have to take all of these bugs and game quirks into consideration.
Interesting incident: Dustin Johnson took 10 minutes to find his ball during the 2018 US Open, and wasn't penalized. I think that's an excessive abuse of pace of play. But, DJ has been on the other end of excessive penalties, too. That said, I don't think that the application of rules should be based on how esteemed someone may be, or based on feeling sorry for anyone for being penalized in the past. Taking 10 minutes is slow play, no matter how you slice it. I mean, if a player cannot find their ball timely... than, take one or the other penalty; either for slow, "pace of play," or a, "lost ball." But, that's real Tour golf, with real big money involved. So, it would make more sense to not allow one guy to take 10 minutes just to look for their golf ball, lest everyone else in that situation doesn't start doing it, too.
Nevertheless, the way I would set it up, in a video golf environment, is to give everyone 40 seconds per shot, and 60 when teeing off with the honors. Those are the official, "on the clock," pace of play rules.
However, I would simply add up the strokes to par, on a given hole, and give all of the allotted time, at once. That way, guys can take only 15 seconds when they only need that, and 60 when they need that bit more to get out of a tricky situation. Kind of like keeping your carry-over time, to ensure that no one is unfairly penalized for their overall solid pace of play, just because they get totally out of position, and get a bit flustered.
So, on a par 3, this total time to finish the hole would be 140 seconds for the honors player, or 120 seconds for the following players. Par 4 would be 180 seconds for the honors player, or 160 seconds for each player in the group. Par 5 would be 220 seconds for the honors player, and 200 for each player in the group.
Finally, an additional 40 seconds per shot would be added, for each additional shot, over par, to properly reflect how many shots it actually takes the player to finish the hole.
Then, there would be an official "Timeout" procedure, where all players in a grouping could elect to take a 5 minute break, simultaneously. This would be allowed at least 1 time per every 9 holes, to simulate being, "at the turn."
I think if players were properly given all of their allotted time, at the start of each hole, then players would be better able to pace themselves, and not ever feel like they are playing too slowly. Again, some shots require less time, and some require more. But, it's much more equitable and fair... to just let everyone have the same amount of
total time. Then players that falsely think that some guys are slow, would realize the fallacy in that line of thinking, that say...
taking 6 fast shots, versus taking 3 seemingly slow shots, is necessarily any different.
Finally, the penalties would commence after 2 bad times, just like real golf. But, I don't think this would happen very often... unless a player just got up and left the game running.
