Page 16 - GBC English Winter 2022

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make a few extra dollars recording times. If you have a cart-based GPS system, you already have access to the data.
If those options do not work for your course, consider using the USGA’s GPS Service. We will ship you a case of around 200 GPS loggers. Each one, about the size of a USB thumb drive, is handed out on the first tee, carried by the golfer in their pocket or clipped to their belt, and then retrieved coming off the home hole. Simply ship the case and loggers back to us and we will analyze the data to provide measured times between groups, early round times, and identify the holes that tend to have bottlenecks. As a bonus, you will also receive a map of golfer traffic that you and your superintendent can use to
Helping customers navigate the
identify lightly and heavily trafficked areas of the course where you can optimize maintenance resources.
No matter where you get the measurements, the objective is to create (and then enforce) a data-driven pace policy that optimizes the golfer experience and revenue.
KEYS TO BE SUCCESSFUL
We are frequently asked what steps can be taken beyond these fundamentals to further improve pace. Again, I rely on the math. Returning to the very first scenario, where you are playing out the final hole after the group in front of you clears. The time it takes to finish out depends on many factors within our control as golf course operators.
The farther from the green you are, the longer it is likely to take. We can encourage golfers to play from tees that are going to give them the best experience and that will get them closer to the green and an easier time keeping in position. Do we have long rough around the green where it takes a long time to find the ball and makes for difficult chipping? Is the hole in the middle of the green or tucked behind a bunker that golfers might take more than one shot to get out? Are the cart paths close enough to the green to make walking to and from the green efficient? All these factors and more contribute to time spent clearing the hole and they are in our control as course operators to improve.
Whenever I talk to operators about pace of play, the one key message I hope to leave with them, and with you, is that the responsibility and accountability for pace of play is first on us, not on the golfer. If you are serious about wanting to tackle pace at your course, here are a few of the first steps we recommend:
• Set an aggressive round time expectation for early groups. If you hope
to average four hours and thirty minutes on a busy Saturday, you energy market need to start early groups faster than that.
and grow their
bottom line
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• Start measuring pace. This can be as simple as recording the true start and finish times of groups, or as sophisticated as GPS cart reports or the USGA’s GPS Service.
• Set tee time intervals that are close, but slightly shorter than the average finishing interval for groups. This drives the best balance between good pace and maximizing throughput.
• Monitor and manage the interval between groups. Remember that a difficult conversation with one group will avoid multiple difficult conversations with all the groups that follow.
• Look to course setup and golfer tee selection for opportunities to improve the flow of golfers. Especially important are avoiding holes with excessively long approach shots like long par 3’s and 4’s and reachable par 5’s.
Lastly, do not forget that the USGA’s Green Section can be a valuable partner in assessing your data, pace policy, and course setup. I hope that you can now agree that the pace of play myth has been easily debunked. All it takes is some simple math and the practical application of the 3 truths at your facility to improve your pace of play, golfer satisfaction, and ultimately your bottom line. Remember, it starts with you.
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