[winflop]

A big contributor is the number of players that are squeezed into tournaments.  Any little screw-up (which almost by definition occur) and the congestion compounds quickly, not unlike traffic congestion.  Plus, play is only as fast as the slowest group.  I actually am skeptical that there is any media conspiracy to milk ad revenues by intentionally slowing play.  Fortunately, they have not figured out a way to have a "TV timeout".

When I look to play on the weekend, I tend to only book at courses that have 10 mins between tee times, 9 at most.  Any course that has 8 min intervals between tee times means you need to tee off in the first hour or two after dawn to finish in less than 4 1/2 hours.

Even then...I just don't play weekends after about 10am, and unfortunately I haven't retired yet so weekday rounds are too few & far between.

[winflop]

A big contributor is the number of players that are squeezed into tournaments.  Any little screw-up (which almost by definition occur) and the congestion compounds quickly, not unlike traffic congestion.  Plus, play is only as fast as the slowest group.  I actually am skeptical that there is any media conspiracy to milk ad revenues by intentionally slowing play.  Fortunately, they have not figured out a way to have a "TV timeout".

When I look to play on the weekend, I tend to only book at courses that have 10 mins between tee times, 9 at most.  Any course that has 8 min intervals between tee times means you need to tee off in the first hour or two after dawn to finish in less than 4 1/2 hours.

Even then...I just don't play weekends after about 10am, and unfortunately I haven't retired yet so weekday rounds are too few & far between.