How Long Does 9 Holes Take With a Child?

Long enough that you should plan the afternoon around it. Here is a realistic guide to timing nine holes with a junior, and how to make it quicker.

A parent planning a first round wants a number, and everybody they ask gives a different one. That is because the honest answer depends on three things: what kind of nine you are playing, how well your child hits the ball, and how busy the course is. Get those three right and the outing works. Get them wrong and you are dragging a tired child up the eighth fairway wondering why this seemed like a good idea.

What follows is planning guidance, not measurement. Use it to decide what to book and how much of the day to set aside.

The three things that decide the time

Course length is the biggest factor by a distance. A par-three nine, where every hole is short enough to reach from the tee, is a fundamentally different outing from a full-length nine with par fours and fives. There is less walking between shots, fewer shots per hole, and no long searches down the sides of 350-metre fairways.

Ability is the second. A beginner takes more shots, and each extra shot costs time in walking, deciding, addressing and often looking for the ball afterwards. A child who is comfortably making contact moves at close to adult pace; a child in their first month does not.

Traffic is the third and the most controllable. The same nine holes that takes two hours on a quiet weekday twilight can take three on a busy Saturday morning, entirely because of the group in front. Booking into a quiet window is the single easiest way to shorten a round without asking anyone to hurry.

Course type, realistic time, and who it suits

What makes it slower

• Lost balls. Beginners hit into trouble more, and every search costs time. The rules allow three minutes to search, and honouring that limit rather than combing the scrub is the biggest single time saving available
• Long walks from tee to ball. A child hitting it 80 metres off a tee laid out for a 200-metre drive walks the same distance as everyone else but plays more shots doing it
• Playing from tees that are too long. This is the most common and most fixable cause of a slow, dispiriting round
• Tiredness. Pace falls away sharply once a child is flat, and the last few holes can take as long as the first five
• Full sets and heavy bags. A child carrying too much walks slower and stops more often
• Waiting on the group in front. Nothing you do speeds this up, which is why tee time choice matters so much

How to speed it up without rushing anybody

The aim is never to hurry a child. Hurrying produces bad swings and a bad mood, and a junior who has been told to get a move on for two hours does not ask to come back. The aim is to remove the things that waste time between shots, so the child can take as long as they like over the shot itself and still finish comfortably.

• Play ready golf: whoever is ready plays, rather than waiting for whoever is furthest from the hole. It is standard practice in Australian club golf and it saves a surprising amount of time
• Set a maximum score. Agree before you start that after, say, eight shots on a hole, the ball goes in the pocket and you move on. This protects both the pace and the child's morale
• Use the right tees. A junior playing from a tee they can actually reach the green from plays fewer shots and enjoys it more
• Carry fewer clubs. A half set is lighter, faster to choose from, and entirely sufficient
• Take a spare ball in a pocket. If a ball is clearly gone, drop another and play on rather than searching to the last second
• Walk to your own ball while the other player is deciding, rather than walking the course as a pair

Which tee a junior should be playing from is worth deciding before you get there - see the junior tee yardages guide.

Ready golf, keeping up, and letting groups through are all part of the same skill - our guide to junior golf etiquette covers what to teach first.

Planning the outing around a child's stamina

The round itself is not the whole commitment. Add travel, arriving early enough to check in, a few putts before the first tee, and a stop afterwards, and a two-hour nine becomes a three-and-a-half-hour afternoon. Plan the whole block, not just the golf.

Some things that make the difference between a good outing and an abandoned one:

• Go late in the day in summer. Twilight is cooler, quieter and cheaper at many courses
• Eat before you go and carry a snack. Energy failure and mood failure arrive together in children
• Carry more water than you think you need, and drink on the course rather than at the turn
• Be genuinely willing to stop at six holes. Finishing while a child still wants more is how you get asked to come back
• Book the tee time rather than turning up. Waiting around before the round burns the same enthusiasm as waiting during it

If this will be your child's first time on a course after practising at a range, the transition has its own considerations - see from the range to the course.

When is a child ready for eighteen?

The useful test is not age. It is whether they can finish nine holes still wanting to play more. A child who reaches the ninth green cheerful and asking about next time is close to ready for eighteen. A child who is flat by the sixth is telling you that nine is the right distance for now, and there is no hurry at all.

Knowing the basic rules removes another source of delay and uncertainty on the course - see golf rules every junior golfer should know.

To find a par-three or nine-hole course near you, browse the course directory and look for shorter layouts before booking a full-length round.