Yep, Carts are revenue for the course and they like it better when you ride,obviously. When we rode, if the above occurred, you go to the first guys ball, let him get a yardage, grab club(s) and you head over to your ball on the other side of the fairway. Let him hit and start walking towards green, second guy plays, swings over and picks him up. That's how you play quick with a cart!
That's exactly how we do it when riding. I'll grab my rangefinder and a few clubs, jump out, hit, and walk toward the green where the cart driver can intercept me after his shot. If I'm close enough in, I'll grab a wedge (usually - dammit) and a putter and just walk it up. You can really make some time doing that.
One of the courses around the rowland heights/walnut area had a decent length par 5 to start... we were waiting on the tee, over an hour late, and had 4 fricken stupid groups do exactly what I mentioned, waiting for the green to clear. There is a particular ethnicity that is HORRIBLE about this and the place was loaded primarily with those folks. Saw a friend coming off 18 asked him his round and how long... 6.5 hours. It was about 1pm. We went back, got a refund and played a different course about 20 minutes away, on and off in 3.75 hours driving!
Ugh, don't get me started. I know exactly what/who you are talking about. Also, the settling up of bets on EVERY HOLE while on the green slows things down. There are a bunch of courses in SoCal polluted with that kind of play(er) - I learned my lesson and stay away.
Course marshals are generally WORTHLESS for the most part.
They are either 1) lonely retired people with nothing to do so they are just happy hanging around, and 2) cheapos who just want their free rounds of golf and hunt for lost golf balls instead of managing the pace of play.
Anyway, it's nice out today, I might sneak in a round!
