The Pellucid Perspective - May 2012 - (Page 11)

PACE OF PLAY Pace yourself! By Jim Dunlap Slow play can cripple your course, but it can also be cured irtually every study of golfers and potential golfers conducted in recent years has identified time as the number one reason why people don’t play, or don’t play more. While there are corollary elements that the golf course operator can’t control, such as drive time to the course, warm-up and perhaps a post-round cocktail and settling of bets, the core of the problem is the time it takes to play the round, and to some degree, the perception of how long that’s actually taking. Given that, it is perplexing that more courses don’t take serious steps to correct the problem, or the perception. Some courses have turned to Bill Yates, the acknowledged industry guru of pace of play, and his Pace Management Systems company (www.pacemanager.com) to implement his comprehensive top-down training program, which is designed to produce a proactive solution to pace problems and a consistent golf experience that will not only free up additional tee times but also bring customers back time and again. Others, like Ron Lambert, general manager and head professional at The Club at Mill Creek in Mebane, N.C., found through his own customer surveys that pace of play was concern #1 (ahead of course conditioning and price/tee time availability), and put together an aggressive pace of play program that has teeth in it. It should be noted that Mill Creek is a semiprivate club in a small Piedmont North Carolina town which relies heavily on golfers traveling from the Raleigh-DurhamChapel Hill Research Triangle area to play the Rick Robbins/ Gary Cook-designed course. Given the drive time for many of those customers, Lambert decided that providing a consistent pace of play that his customers could count on (along with good conditioning and service) would enhance his chances of attracting those players. “We were committed to coming up with a policy that was fair and that we could sell to the customers,” Lambert said. “We tied it all together from the first tee to the carts to the ranger, and the bottom line is that we’ll give them their money back if they take 15 minutes longer than the 4 1/2 hours we give them to finish.” That 4 1/2 hour figure seems to be a common goal, at least during peak periods, but Lambert and his staff didn’t just pick it out of the air. (I’ve heard players and courses brag of 4 hour rounds, but I defy a regulation length course with public play to show me that rate consistently during busy periods). Lambert’s team played numerous test rounds, came up with a time allotment of 2 hours, 10 minutes on each nine, and allowed 10 minutes at the turn for the 4 1/2 hour total. To help players meet that goal, Mill Creek uses both manpower and technology. The first tee starter announces the pace www.PellucidcorP.com V of play policy, and on-course rangers not only monitor play, but are also trained to serve as quasi fore-caddies, providing strategy tips, finding errant shots and providing yardage for the next shot, or providing another ball if the player’s is lost. More significantly, Mill Creek uses the Personal Ranger technology in its carts, so players know exactly where they should be on the course at any given time in order to meet the 4 1/2 hour target. The system works regardless of whether the group is a twosome, foursome or fivesome, all of which Mill Creek allows. “It’s the same time policy for all,” Lambert said. “We tell them it’s their spot on the course, and they’ll finish in 4 1/2 hours. They can’t play through anyone, but all our visitors know they’ll play in 4 1/2 hours” While all courses advocate fast play, many operators in these trying times are leery of offending paying customers by hurrying them along. Lambert is among those who opt for the greater good. “We’ve given people their money back, although we do it nicely, offer them free range balls, and tell them we hope they’ll come back,” Lambert said. “My job is to make sure the masses are happy. If we have 160 golfers on the course, we might end up with 156 who are happy but four who are not, but we take the blame and people usually understand.” Quality of experience is an attainable goal In analyzing Mill Creek’s competitive situation, Lambert concluded that the course couldn’t do anything about its location, and he and the course’s owner decided that price discounting was not the answer. The one element they could control was the quality of the golfing experience from a time standpoint, along with conditioning and attitude. That quality is the key to Yates’ pace program teaching as well. The full Pace Manager Systems treatment involves a fourday training program, starting with upper management and expanding to staff in every facet of course operations. The key, Yates said, is understanding the true causes of slow play, and controlling the process from the parking lot to the first tee and throughout the round. “The roots of slow play are wider than just golfers,” Yates said. “It’s the whole community of the facility – you have to cure the problem before it exists. The key is, how can we manage it so [the golfers] are graciously escorted to follow the process?” Yates is the author of the Pace of Play Manual for the National Golf Course Owners Association, contributed to the USGA Pace Rating Systems Manual and recently completed Phase I of the “Pace of Play Improvement Campaign” for the PGA of America, Club Managers Association of America and the Golf Course The Pellucid PersPecTive 11 http://www.pacemanager.com http://WWW.PELLUCIDCORP.COM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Pellucid Perspective - May 2012

The Pellucid Perspective - May 2012
Table of Contents
New wave of third-party tee time providers surfacing
The Great Contrarian
Endangered species on your course? En garde!
Pace yourself!
Major golf communities changing hands
April weather impact: Yeah baby!
Petroleum industry keeping Houston golf up to speed
KemperSports launches new private club division
Tough times lead Tucson muni’s to consider privatization
Hits and misses for Get Golf Ready special on CBS

The Pellucid Perspective - May 2012