Revealed! How Long Amateur Golfers Take To Play 18 Holes (By Handicap)

We know what you’re thinking - not another pace of play article. Well, we make no apologies - slow play on the golf course remains a scourge.

We’ve covered this topic a lot over the past 12 months. Recently, Golf Monthly’s Joe Ferguson suggested a plan to speed up play on tour: get rid of caddies (not quite literally - just no loopers in professional tournaments).

Ok, this radical solution is something we’re unlikely to ever see, but some kind of action is necessary, otherwise those five-hour rounds on tour will just continue.

We digress, slightly.

Is there a slow play problem at club level? This depends on where you play. You might find that your club has tackled the issue head on and that you can play a competition at the weekend in three-and-a-half hours, maybe even a little less if you play in two or three-balls.

However, just as we’re seeing on tour, you might be experiencing super slow rounds at your own club and when you visit other golf courses, especially during weekends.

We receive hundreds of emails and letters every month, and we still hear from a lot of disgruntled golfers who feel as though 18 holes of golf is taking far too long.

What The Data Says

In an attempt to find out how long amateur golfers take to play one round, we asked our official data partners, Shot Scope, to run some numbers - and the results might just surprise you.

The average round duration for Shot Scope users in the UK, which includes a mix of casual and competition rounds with varying group sizes, is three hours and 51 minutes.

Most golfers would probably be happy enough to get around in anything under four hours - it’s when you start nudging towards four and a quarter hours that your patience starts to get tested.

In the table below, we’ve broken down the average round durations by handicap.

Interestingly, there's not much difference across all handicaps, with 30-handicap golfers taking just 10 minutes longer than 15-handicap golfers.

As expected, scratch golfers get round the quickest, taking an average of three hours and 45 minutes, which is most likely due to the fact they tend to lose fewer golf balls and make smarter decisions.

This particular set of data would suggest that slow play is not caused by high handicap golfers.

In terms of age groups, the fastest is 41-50 (3hr 41m), followed by 31-40 (3hr 57m). The slowest, perhaps unsurprisingly, is 71-80 (3hr 57m), then 61-70 (3hr 56m). Those between the ages of 21 and 30 are also slower than average, too.

The Variables

There are, of course, lots of different factors that can affect how long it takes to play a round of golf, including weather conditions, group size, skill level, course difficulty, and course length.

The data provided above also includes a mix of casual and competition rounds. You would expect competition rounds, especially medal rounds where most players will putt out and not pick up, to take longer.

Social rounds of golf, where gimmes can speed up play and players tend to be less concerned about hitting provisionals and taking so much time over the ball, are likely to be quicker.

Although it might come as a surprise to see that there is little difference in round times across the handicap spectrum, we should state that a golfer is only as quick as the slowest person in their group.

In other words, a mix of golfers with different handicaps playing in the same group together will all record the same round time.

Although low handicap players often gravitate towards playing with better players, and high handicap players often feel more comfortable playing with those of a similar level, there are obviously times when golfers of all different abilities play together, both in social golf and in club competitions.

Therefore, it can make it difficult to get a truly accurate idea of how long it takes the average golfer to play 18 holes.

However, the data supplied here by Shot Scope does at least provide an interesting, and useful, guide.