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With our first blog entry, we’ll tackle the hottest topic from the survey which was (as expected) Pace of Play versus Course Marshals. Without a doubt, this is one of our biggest struggles on a day-to-day basis (as it is with most golf courses). We strive to provide the best value for your golfing dollar in Metro Vancouver – pace of play and friendly staff are among the top priorities for us. For us to be successful in achieving those priorities, we require a certain level of patience, cooperation and understanding from both marshals and golfers. To give you some insight as to how complex the issue is, here is a selection of comments from our survey:
GROUP A:
“Marshalls[sp] ruin enjoyment”
“Once had a terrible experience with one marshall [sp]”
“It is a tough course and slow play can result”
“They expect a 4 some walking to keep up with a threesome on power carts”
“I had an encounter with a course marshal who was very unreasonable”
“I've stopped coming because of the rudeness of your starters and marshals.... they don't own the darn course.”
“Only real complaint is the overly officious marshaling[sp] at times”
"We are not holding anyone up"
"I've paid my green fee, leave us alone"
"You guys are trying to herd us through like cattle"
GROUP B:
“Rounds are too slow - speed up play please”
“Golf Course can get horribly congested before marshalls[sp] do anything”
“just like everywhere else, slow play is an issue especially after 11 am”
“pace of play are very frustrating”
“more emphasis on ‘ready-golf’”
“Anything that can be done to speed up play is a good thing”
“improve speed of play”
“The #1 issue to address is PACE OF PLAY!!”
“You need to set a time expectation--and then enforce it”
“Pace of play always seems to be an issue, difficult to improve given the different levels of golfers, etc., except that I often see lower-level players playing from the blues”
…so this is what we’re faced with on a daily basis. How do we effectively marshal “Group A” who are ‘doing the best we can’ or ‘have paid their money – leave us alone!’ to ensure “Group B” gets through their round as quickly as possible?
The 'old school' method of marshaling (driving around in circles) isn’t effective and it wasn’t working for us. In the past couple of years, we’ve invested a lot of time, energy and resources in to utilizing GPS technology and improving our training and methods. Our current system ‘stations’ marshals at #5 tee on the front 9 and #12 tee on the back 9. This way, good, bad, or indifferent, most golfers approach our marshals (rather than the marshals approaching them) which dramatically changes the dynamic of the conversation for the better.
Most golfers don't realize how complex managing "Slow Play" is. When a group falls 1/2 to a full hole behind - those are easy fixes. They are given a small window of opportunity to catch up before we move them in to proper position. Major issues stem from when several groups fall 2, 3 or 4 minutes behind. They're not far enough behind that they can be moved but when they are spoken to a number of times, they often feel 'rushed' or 'harassed'. If 10 groups on the course are 3 minutes behind the group in front of them, the pace of play goes from 4 hours 30 minutes to 5 hours. Most of those groups would feel the 3 minutes isn't a big deal but every minute counts!
The easiest way to play faster is fairly simple, no matter what your skill level is.
Play Ready Golf- While others are hitting, have your club selection in hand and limit your practice swings.
o you’ve played Northlands countless ti mes…have you ever thought to yourself “if I was in charge, I would do ‘this better’ or ‘that differently’”? We recently gave you a chance to play G.M. for a day in our survey sent out with our new & improved newsletter (sign up for it if you haven’t already!). We received some invaluable feedback about how we’re doing and what we can do to get better from close to 1,000 new and/or loyal customers – a big thank you to all that responded! A few of you pointed out some glitches and oversights with the survey questions themselves – we will get those fixed up for the next one. With our first blog entry, we’ll tackle the hottest topic from the survey which was (as expected) Pace of Play versus Course Marshals. Without a doubt, this is one of our biggest struggles on a day-to-day basis (as it is with most golf courses). We strive to provide the best value for your golfing dollar in Metro Vancouver – pace of play and friendly staff are among the top priorities for us. For us to be successful in achieving those priorities, we require a certain level of patience, cooperation and understanding from both marshals and golfers. To give you some insight as to how complex the issue is, here is a selection of comments from our survey:
GROUP A:
“Marshalls[sp] ruin enjoyment”
“Once had a terrible experience with one marshall [sp]”
“It is a tough course and slow play can result”
“They expect a 4 some walking to keep up with a threesome on power carts”
“I had an encounter with a course marshal who was very unreasonable”
“I've stopped coming because of the rudeness of your starters and marshals.... they don't own the darn course.”
“Only real complaint is the overly officious marshaling[sp] at times”
"We are not holding anyone up"
"I've paid my green fee, leave us alone"
"You guys are trying to herd us through like cattle"
GROUP B:
“Rounds are too slow - speed up play please”
“Golf Course can get horribly congested before marshalls[sp] do anything”
“just like everywhere else, slow play is an issue especially after 11 am”
“pace of play are very frustrating”
“more emphasis on ‘ready-golf’”
“Anything that can be done to speed up play is a good thing”
“improve speed of play”
“The #1 issue to address is PACE OF PLAY!!”
“You need to set a time expectation--and then enforce it”
“Pace of play always seems to be an issue, difficult to improve given the different levels of golfers, etc., except that I often see lower-level players playing from the blues”
…so this is what we’re faced with on a daily basis. How do we effectively marshal “Group A” who are ‘doing the best we can’ or ‘have paid their money – leave us alone!’ to ensure “Group B” gets through their round as quickly as possible?
The 'old school' method of marshaling (driving around in circles) isn’t effective and it wasn’t working for us. In the past couple of years, we’ve invested a lot of time, energy and resources in to utilizing GPS technology and improving our training and methods. Our current system ‘stations’ marshals at #5 tee on the front 9 and #12 tee on the back 9. This way, good, bad, or indifferent, most golfers approach our marshals (rather than the marshals approaching them) which dramatically changes the dynamic of the conversation for the better.
Most golfers don't realize how complex managing "Slow Play" is. When a group falls 1/2 to a full hole behind - those are easy fixes. They are given a small window of opportunity to catch up before we move them in to proper position. Major issues stem from when several groups fall 2, 3 or 4 minutes behind. They're not far enough behind that they can be moved but when they are spoken to a number of times, they often feel 'rushed' or 'harassed'. If 10 groups on the course are 3 minutes behind the group in front of them, the pace of play goes from 4 hours 30 minutes to 5 hours. Most of those groups would feel the 3 minutes isn't a big deal but every minute counts!
The easiest way to play faster is fairly simple, no matter what your skill level is.
Play Ready Golf- While others are hitting, have your club selection in hand and limit your practice swings.