Your place on the golf course is immediately behind the group in front of you, not immediately in front of the group behind you.  If there is more than half a hole between your group and the foursome in front of you, you're playing to slow...please speed up your pace of play.  A slow group affects every group that tees up after them:  this means that if your group is a full hole behind when you tee off on #18, you and yours are personally responsible for delaying 140 golfers that were unfortunate enough to start behind you.

The following are some suggestions on proper course etiquette, some are provided for under the Rules of Golf and some are just plain common sense.

1.  Play ready golf from the tees, fairways and on and around the green.  "Honors" golf is appropriate for tournament play, but not for the average golfer.  One way to speed up putting is to watch what happens to balls once they land on the green after a chip or pitch shot.  Watching which way a ball breaks once its been putted is also an excellent way to determine what's going to happen to your ball.

One misconception that can sometimes slow down play is that all of the group must be on the green before anyone puts.  This is not true: under the Rules of Golf, the person who is farthest from the hole is considered away.  This means that your 30 foot put has "honors" over the guy whose ball is two foot off the green but only a total of 10 feet from the cup.

Continuous putting, as long as you don't step on anyone's line, is also a great way to speed up play.

2.  When golf carts are restricted to cart path only, don't wait until you walk out to your ball to decide which club you need.  Make your best guess before you leave the cart and take not only the club you believe you need, but also the one above it and the one below it.

3.  Cart partners don't have to wait for one to hit before moving on to the other's ball.  Drive to the first ball, let the golfer select their club,  then drive to your ball.  The first golfer can either walk to the cart after they've hit or you can drive back to pick them up.

4.  The Rules of Golf provide for "provisional balls" when there is cause to believe the original ball might be lost or was hit "out of bounds".  If you believe this may be the case, announce your intention to hit a "provisional ball."  This ball doesn't count if you find your original ball...in fact many golfers believe that this is the best way to ensure that you'll find your original ball, as a good provisional shot normally goes hand-in-hand with finding a bad first shot.

5.  The Rules of Golf allow a maximum of 5 minutes to search for a lost ball.

6.  Park your cart behind the green or between the green and the next tee-box.  The first person to finish putting should tend the pin or, if your group is falling behind, walk to the next tee-box and hit their tee shot.

7.  Don't fill out your score card on the putting green, do it on the next tee box.

8.  Observe "Equitable Stroke Control" rules.  This means that golfers not involved in tournament play can pick-up their balls as follows:

Course Handicap                Maximum Score on a Hole

  9 or less                                      Double Bogey
                        10-19                                                            7
                        20-29                                                            8
                        30-39                                                            9
                        40 and above                                          10

9.  The "rule of thumb" on speed of play is that each hole should take no longer than 14 minutes.  This means that if it takes you over 4 and 1/2 hours to play a round of golf you should review your playing habits and those of your partners to look for ways to improve your pace of play.

10.  DON'T EVEN ASK ME ABOUT CELL PHONES AND/OR PAGERS THAT AREN'T SET ON VIBRATE!!!!!!!!!!