Royal & Ancient Manual
The recently released slow play manual by the R&A is attached here for Members and Visitors to familiarize themselves with.
One particular point of interest is the study on course routing and alternate tee use;
Points 3.2 and 3.7 suggest Clubs should alter the tee position, or change the routing of the golf course if in fact it might assist with the flow of play.
3.7 Course Routing
While there may be a traditional sequence of holes at a course, this may not in fact be the optimum routing
from a pace of play point of view. If that is the case, it may be worth considering using an alternative
routing for general play, or reconsidering the routing for all play.
(40 R&A Pace of Play Manual) As referenced above, a difficult hole may create a bottleneck on the course, which
may have a lasting and detrimental impact on pace of play.
If it is impractical to alter the bottleneck hole or there is no desire to do so, having a bottleneck
hole early in the round is often preferable to having it later in the round as play will flow for groups after they have played that hole.
This can be achieved through altering the routing of the holes or simply by reversing the nines.
If the course has considerable walks from greens to tees, it is worth considering whether the sequence the holes are
played in is contributing to pace of play issues.
Altering course routing may provide shorter walking distances from greens to tees, which in turn may reduce round times.