Setting the Pace

Back to the pace of play issue, here is a clock that has been placed on the first tee box. This is the "pace setter". Sending golfers exactly at their allotted tee times has proven that a near 4 hour round is achievable.

The best example of this I can give to you is driving your car onto a highway. Now when you learn to drive in the city of Boston, it's pretty much every vehicle for themselves. Some people even call it a game, but it is a cluster trying to get onto the highway during peak traffic hours. There is a lot of congestion and frankly you really don't get anywhere quickly.

Then we go to the Mile High City where there are traffic lights at the on-ramp prior to entering the high way. To make this possible you need a longer on-ramp to put the traffic somewhere and that is why it would never work in Boston. Anyway, every 20 seconds or so another car or two is allowed to merge into the steady stream of traffic, thus preventing a large pile up at each entrance to the high way.

In our case at the golf course the snack bar and driving range is our "on-ramp", the clock is the "stop light" and the first tee is the "beginning of the road".

According to Bill Yates (see post on August 22nd), if the golfers are spaced out appropriately, then you can begin to research other areas of the course that slow down play.

Since instituting this new process, for the most part play has been flowing smooth through the course. There remain a few holes out there that need attention with design and maintenance, but we are evaluating that at this point and will address them appropriately.