I never really thought about how the Rhythm of the Game of golf could affect my score until I read an article about Skeet and Trap Shooting that involves the rhythm of the match.

When I talk about rhythm I am not talking about waiting, we wait for everything.  Think about waiting for a moment.  If you come to a four-way intersection and you are 20 cars back, you have to wait your turn.  If all goes the way it should, one car at a time from each road goes in turn, you have rhythm.  When this occurs you do not feel the wait, but let one person jump the gun and throw off the rhythm of traffic and you are now frustrated.  These waiting/rhythm situations occur time and time again in daily life.

What about the rhythm in a game of golf.  Here is an example.  I was playing a round with some friends.  We were waiting to tee off.  Groups were teeing off at regular intervals,  we were all behind schedule a few minutes but it did not matter as there was a steady flow, there was rhythm.  Then behind us came a group, and one woman was complaining so much we let them tee off ahead of us, the first miss-beat in our rhythm.  Then, this same woman on the second hole, parked the cart on the cart path, walked across the fairway to her ball walked back to the cart to get her golf club, then walked back across the fairway to play her ball.  This totally threw off the rhythm of the game and our scores were not for the record books.

So remember, it is not the waiting, it is the rhythm.  As long as you keep a steady rhythm to your game your scores will reflect it.  Rhythm is not a fast game or a slow game, it is a steady flowing game of golf.