Double teeing can create bottlenecks and slow play on a Myrtle Beach golf vacation.

Few golf course policies get our hackles up like double teeing. The practice of starting groups simultaneously on the front and back nines is prevalent on popular courses, which means it's especially common on Myrtle Beach golf vacations.

Golf facilities can drive up revenues by getting as many groups onto the course as possible, and double teeing maximizes the number of golfers who can tee off at the most popular times of day.

On Golf Odyssey's last Myrtle Beach golf vacation, about seven out of ten courses we played double teed. Oftentimes, what started out as a smooth, well-paced round nearly ground to a halt at the turn, as our foursome came upon a logjam of groups waiting at the 10th tee. Alas, when it comes to double teeing, the rhythms of the front side mean nothing on the back. In fact, it's often the case that the faster a group plays on the front side, the longer it must wait to start the back.

Thankfully, golfers are not totally at the mercy of the golf courses. When we book tee times, we ask about the teeing policy. At the very least, we can be prepared for a possible delay between nines. However, we sometimes find that golf courses only use double tees when it expects a big crowd, and we avoid those days. Also, if we find out that a course is double teeing, we ask how the tee sheet looks at the back end of the block. We tend to feel a lot more confident in the pace of the round if the later part of the block is almost empty.

Unfortunately, much depends on the practices of each particular golf operation. Some facilities are notorious for squeezing in groups just before the crossover. This was apparently the case during our round at Legends, when we found three groups ahead of us at the turn, even though at the onset of the round our starter told us things looked good for a seamless crossover.

During conversations with playing partners at other courses in the area, we were told about their frustrations at Legends, and a few even said they would skip playing there on their next Myrtle Beach golf vacation because of excessively long rounds. Ultimately, that may be the golfer's last recourse-to voice disapproval for bad scheduling and to seek out other golf course options. Certainly, there are plenty of those on a Myrtle Beach golf vacation.

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