The pace of play official on the eighteenth hole just told you to add a stroke to your score for that hole and that may be the difference between staying home on the week-end or making the cut.
You did the best you could to stay in position with the group ahead of you. You cleared the greens promptly, walked quickly between shots, played as soon as it was your turn and tried to set a good example for your fellow-competitors. One of the guys in your group is usually more than a little deliberate in his play and today he was struggling. You believe that if it were not for him, you would have finished the round in plenty of time. You don’t think his slow play should cause you to miss the cut. You might be right. So what do you do?
Before you return your scorecard, tell a member of the Committee in charge of the tournament that you want to appeal the pace penalty on the grounds that your fellow-competitor’s slow play caused the penalty and that you don’t feel that the rest of the group should be penalized. The first thing the Committee member will ask you is “What did you do to get your fellow-competitor back on pace?” Did you ask him to move faster? Did other members of the group talk to the slow player about his pace?
Sometimes setting a good example is just not enough. Maybe you will have to say something like “John, I know you’re having a tough day, but you’re taking too much time and you might get the rest of us penalized if you don’t move faster.” No golfer wants to get the others in his group penalized and almost always the problem can be solved by a short conversation.
If, despite your efforts, your slow companion can’t or won’t speed it up, the next thing you need to do is grab the first rules official you see and tell him what the problem is and what you have tried to do about it. If you have already done the best you could, the Committee may assign someone to monitor your group for a while to see whether one person in the group is putting the whole group in danger of a penalty and to provide support for an appeal, if needed. The Committee is not going to take responsibility for getting your group back on pace. That’s still your job.
If you have initiated an appeal, the Committee will consider all of the circumstances and if it is satisfied that one player caused the problem and you did all you could to deal with the situation, it can penalize only the slow player and not the rest of the group.
The reason group pace policies work is because players can control their own pace and can influence other players to work harder on theirs. But, they are not intended to penalize players for things that are beyond their control. So, learn the policy and think about an appeal when things get out of control.
