Pace of play: keeping the round moving.

What Rule 5.6 says

Rule 5.6 has two parts: a ban on unreasonable delay, and a standard for prompt pace.

• Unreasonable delay (Rule 5.6a): you must not unreasonably delay play. The penalty climbs with each breach: one stroke for the first, the general penalty for the second (loss of hole in match play, two strokes in stroke play) and disqualification for the third. Short delays for good reasons, such as asking a referee or the Committee for help, or a sudden illness or injury, are allowed.
• Prompt pace (Rule 5.6b): you should play promptly throughout the round. That covers the time you take to prepare for and play each stroke, to move between strokes and to walk to the next teeing area.

Pace also appears in Rule 1.2a, which lists playing at a prompt pace as part of showing consideration to other players. The etiquette page covers the rest of that Rule.

The 40-second recommendation

Rule 5.6b says you should be ready when it is your turn, and recommends making each stroke in no more than 40 seconds once you are able to play without interference or distraction, and usually more quickly than that. According to the USGA's summary of the 2019 changes, this recommendation was new in the modernised Rules that took effect on 1 January 2019; before then the Rules gave no such figure. It is a recommendation, not a timed limit, unless a Committee's pace policy says otherwise.

Ready golf

The Rules give a set order of play, but Rule 5.6b allows exceptions to save time:

• Stroke play: players may play out of turn in a safe and responsible way, which is known as ready golf.
• Match play: you and your opponent may agree that one of you plays out of turn to save time.

The USGA's summary of the 2019 changes says the Rules encourage ready golf in stroke play when it is safe. The condition in the Rule is that it is done safely and responsibly.

Pace of Play Policies

Rule 5.6b says a Committee should adopt a Pace of Play Policy as a Local Rule. Such a policy can set maximum times for a whole round, a hole, a series of holes or a single stroke, along with penalties for breaking them. A policy like this applies only where the Committee has adopted one, so check the Terms of the Competition for the event you are playing.

Rules that save time

The USGA's summary of the 2019 changes lists several of them as helping pace: the shorter three-minute search for a lost ball, more areas allowed to be marked as penalty areas, wider use of red penalty areas, a simpler dropping procedure, and being able to putt with the flagstick in. Other Rules work the same way:

• The three-minute search (Rule 18.2a): a ball is lost if it is not found within three minutes of you or your caddie starting to look for it.
• The provisional ball (Rule 18.3): if your ball might be lost outside a penalty area or out of bounds, you may play a provisional ball to save time. You must announce it clearly, using the word "provisional" or otherwise making it plain; saying you will play "another ball" is not enough (Rule 18.3b).
• Stopping in Stableford (Rule 21.1): players are encouraged to stop playing a hole once their score cannot earn any points.
• Maximum Score (Rule 21.2): the Committee caps the score on each hole, and a player who does not hole out simply takes the maximum.
• Overhanging balls (Rule 13.3a): you may wait only a reasonable time to reach the hole plus ten seconds for a ball on the lip to drop.

Model Local Rule E-5: an alternative to going back

Returning to where you last played after a lost ball or a ball out of bounds is slow, especially when no provisional was played. Model Local Rule E-5 gives Committees another option, but it applies only where a Committee adopts it. The Virginia State Golf Association describes it as optional. Under the text read for this site (a club-hosted copy of the Committee Procedures, with no edition date printed):

• For two penalty strokes, you drop in a large area between where your ball is estimated to have come to rest or gone out of bounds and the edge of the fairway of the hole, not nearer the hole.
• The relief area extends two club-lengths outside the lines from the hole to the two reference points, and must be in the general area.
• It cannot be used for an unplayable ball, for a ball known or virtually certain to be in a penalty area, or for the original ball when you have already played a provisional.
• It is meant for general play and players' own competitions, and is not appropriate for competitions limited to highly skilled players, such as professional and elite amateur events.

The text says the two-stroke penalty gives a result comparable to what stroke and distance would have produced.

What the governing bodies have done

The R&A published a Pace of Play guidance manual on 18 May 2016, free to download, covering management, course set-up and player behaviour. Golf Business News reported that it drew on an international R&A survey in 2014 and 2015 with more than 56,000 responses from golfers in 122 countries, in which 60 percent said they would enjoy golf more if a round took less time. The R&A's then chief executive, Martin Slumbers, called pace of play a key issue for golf at the launch.

The professional tours have experimented too. On 15 April 2025 the PGA Tour announced that distance-measuring devices would be allowed at six PGA Tour events over four weeks that spring as a pace-of-play test, with the Korn Ferry Tour testing them at three events. For everyday golf, the USGA's guide to distance-measuring devices says they have been allowed under the Rules since 1 January 2019, as long as the player does not use prohibited functions, and the 2023 Rules of Golf (Rule 4.3) still let a Committee restrict them by Local Rule.

The next edition

All of the above reflects the 2023 Rules of Golf. The R&A has said the next edition of the Rules is due on 1 January 2028. Its contents had not been announced in any source found for this site.