Does the course know how long your round takes?

[ZappyAd]

Played another slow round at my local course yesterday.  It got me thinking that the nobody in the clubhouse really has a clue how long rounds are taking.  They sign people in (although some groups don't even bother with this) and then probably don't see the group again that day.  I guess if someone has hired a cart they might get the key returned but even then I don't think they record anything officially.  There is apparently sometimes a marshall on the course but never when I've played.

Does the course where you play know when you finish and if so how do they do it?  It seems like it is going to be impossible to address slow play if the course doesn't even know when it is happening so I'm interested to find out how most courses gather data.  For someone who is bothered about slow play I can see that they could feed back to the clubhouse after every round but for a group that don't care or don't know is there a way to capture timings?

 

 

 

[mcanadiens]

Out of the courses I play, only one seems to pay much attention to that and that's only when they are really busy.

When the big boss is in at Miami Shores in Troy, and that's usually in the mornings when the course is packed, he'll have a good idea where everyone is at a given moment. That gives him the ability to slip someone on the back nine when he knows he has a gap and he's never shy about sending out his top henchman to kick people into gear.

Aside from that, I haven't seen much evidence of it. God knows my City of Dayton courses wouldn't know if someone died out there. I once had them close the gate on me during a two-hour spin around the par-3 because some ass wanted to go home early. 

[CarlSpackler]

6 minutes ago, mcanadiens said:

Out of the courses I play, only one seems to pay much attention to that and that's only when they are really busy.

When the big boss is in at Miami Shores in Troy, and that's usually in the mornings when the course is packed, he'll have a good idea where everyone is at a given moment. That gives him the ability to slip someone on the back nine when he knows he has a gap and he's never shy about sending out his top henchman to kick people into gear.

Aside from that, I haven't seen much evidence of it. God knows my City of Dayton courses wouldn't know if someone died out there. I once had them close the gate on me during a two-hour spin around the par-3 because some ass wanted to go home early. 

Or if the cart girls are skinny dipping with the members in the ponds. 

[mcanadiens]

7 minutes ago, CarlSpackler said:

Or if the cart girls are skinny dipping with the members in the ponds. 

I miss out on all the fun and only hear about it latter.

[RayG]

Courses with GPS equipped carts sure do. Especially the ones that have a multimedia screen where you can order lunch, call pro shop, etc... 

[Vinny Cap]

My course is pretty tight.  You can't have the keys to the cart without giving up your ID.

You have to bring your slip to the starter or you wont get to the first tee.

They are pretty good and we usually play under 4 hrs but there is always the day when it does get slow and backed up.  A quick call to the club house has someone out to the hole in question and makes them pick up the pace.  Heck I don't want to be there all day!  Lets get rolling and be on the 19th in 4 hrs or less... less is always better.

[Jeremie Boop]

Typically I'll be told in advance if it's slow going on the course. They may not know the exact pace, but they have a good enough idea of whether to warn about it or not.

[Groucho Valentine]

I find that the pro shop typically has no idea about positioning of the groups out on the course unless somebody calls in and complains. Bethpage used to have a marshall that pro trolled the black and blue courses, but i dont see them out there anymore. 

[phillyk]

I'm pretty sure every course has a good idea about the pace for the day.  It's easy when your checking people in to see who will most likely be a slow group or a fast group, and you only need a glance at the turn to see who's coming around.  The real question is actually do courses care enough to do anything when they know there is a slow group or a slow pace for the day?

[Patch]

I have never, ever been timed by the club house counter help. Heck, it's only been a very few times when I saw a course marshal  actually have anything to say about slow play. 

They may know play is slower than faster, but the over riding priority for the course workers,  is generating revenue. 

[Pendragon]

1 hour ago, RayG said:

Courses with GPS equipped carts sure do. Especially the ones that have a multimedia screen where you can order lunch, call pro shop, etc... 

Our course has GPS carts, and we can monitor where the club's carts are throughout the round. If a group is lagging, we send someone out to politely tell them to either speed it up or start letting groups go through. 

[colin007]

around here, the answer is no, and they dont seem to care either.

[onthehunt526]

Its not an exact science @ Newman but we know if your group is slow. Its mostly college kids (Cornell and IC who are the 2:50 per nine culprits). The problem is because these kids are privileged, they play slow and don't let anyone through.

[Hardspoon]

At one of the courses I play regularly, which has three separate 9-hole "courses", they do track how long it is taking to play each 9. They will shuffle players around a bit to keep things moving.

There is no method of tracking time for a full 18-hole round, but they don't need that since enough people start on each 9.

[rehmwa]

Some do, some don't.  Pretty much the answer to most of these questions.

Last year I played late in the season at my favorite course - the carts have tracking and guidance - it's a nice track.  They have a full course screen and can see every cart.  They require carts here also.  and each cart can spy any other cart on whatever real estate is on display.  Nice when waiting to drive and need the next group out of range.

Completely empty course - it wasn't really drizzly, but the weather likely kept people off.  I was literally alone on the entire course for most of it.

So I took my time, hunted balls, had just a relaxing round (when alone, even dinking around a LOT, it's still around 3-1/2 to 4 hours.....go figure.....)

I got into the clubhouse and was chatting with the staff.  Commented on finding about 3 dozen balls or so.  The Counter guy noted, "I was wondering why you were stalled out on number 14 for so long"  (that hole I parked it on the path and walked to my ball - the fairways were wet.  Then I crossed the fairway and just took short walk in the woods, it was a great day and there were deer.)  They noted that the deer this time of year got thick in that part of the course.

I suspect my route that day was a tortured mess.

With the right system they know exactly where every cart is.  Without, they don't know at all.

[Hacker James]

I've wondered how courses monitor speed of play. Once while playing, I noticed a drone buzzing around. Maybe my over active imagination, but the thought of someone sitting back at the pro shop watching occurred to me as silly as that sounds, but maybe not?

[krupa]

They may notice if I play fast but not otherwise.  They simply don't have the technology or staff to keep track of that stuff unless someone calls the clubhouse to complain about a slow group.

 

[GolfLug]

I am thinking two ways to know if the course bothers at all to know:

1. Marshall actively driving around (or at least once every half hour or so) to note the bottlenecks and addressing BEFORE the back up affects the starting tee. The best kind.

2. After the bottleneck has backed up to starting tee. Then they send somebody to drive up the chain till they get to the open hole (again if they bother at all). The lazy kind, but at least they bother eventually.

Of course the courses with GPS have another venue to monitor.

In general if the course's majority clientele is typically over 4 hour rounds then they will not try to enforce speed and vice versa. They will most possibly cater to the type that fills the majority revenue.

Also, IMO courses hurting for business will be gun shy in enforcing speed. Of course, slow play might be the reason they lost clientele in the first place. Pretty much a slow bleeding death from then on.

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