The tool USGA officials hope will help solve the problem of slow play

[Mr_Theoo]

By Ryan Herrington

USGA technical director Matt Pringle knows he can't wave a magic wand and make golf's slow-play problems disappear. But when he speaks during the Pace of Play Symposium the USGA is hosting this week at its headquarters in Far Hills, N.J., Pringle is looking forward to showing off a new device he hopes will some day help address the issue at the recreational level.

 

As part of the two-day gathering -- pro/amateur golf being the focus of discussion Wednesday, everyday golf up Thursday -- Pringle will unveil a prototype tool the USGA has been developing that attaches to a flagstick (see photo) and can be used to track the time between groups on a course. The device is triggered when the flagstick is placed into the cup (which has sensors in it along with the bottom of the flag stick) by a group walking off a green after players have putted out. It then tracks the time until the flagstick is removed from the cup by golfers approaching in the next group. These "cycle times," measured throughout a course, can then be monitored collectively to address issues in real time to try and get groups moving.

According to Pringle, the USGA began looking into developing the flagstick tool to give course operators an inexpensive but practical way to measure pace of play at their facilities. "It's our feeling that there are a lot of golf courses that are going blind," Pringle says. "They have no means of measuring, and therefore controlling, pace in any way, shape or form. The thing is, you really just can't leave it to chance."

Indeed, Pringle will show the USGA, which is hosting the symposium for a second straight year, is doing anything but leaving things to chance regarding slow play when he and colleague Scott Mingay present data the association gathered during the summer. At more than 130 public and private courses around the country, golfers were given GPS loggers to track them during their rounds, recording their location and the overall time to play as well as time spent waiting to play shots, among other metrics.

Pringle says more than 5,400 rounds were tracked, with the numbers being used to help the USGA offer recommendations, policies and solutions to deal with slow play, some of which will be discussion points this week.

In trying to broadly study the problem of slow play, Pringle and Mingay have looked to other industries that similarly rely on efficiently moving people or products through a defined system. Think Walt Disney World and its lines for rides and concessions, or UPS processing and delivering packages around the world.

"I feel a little bit sheepish when I talk about this project," Pringle says. "I think what we're doing is very advanced for golf, but if you were in a factory, Henry Ford would have done this [100 years ago]. . . . It's kind of cold to describe it like that, but this is a time and motion study on a very complex factory."

By extension, the prototype flagstick tool (see the cutaway above) is an attempt to allow any facility the opportunity to study their own unique assembly line.

"We're not trying to make any money on this," Pringle says, "but we see it as an opportunity to help a lot of courses improve pace."

Do you think this will help the slow play or will this just be another band-aid?

 

[hckymeyer]

Is this a fix? no.

 

Is it a step in the right direction? Maybe...

 

Yes I think it could help a lot of courses learn where their trouble spots are. Kind of like trying to identify where the worst parts of your game are. Unless you keep stats it's just an educated guess at best.

 

Where this falls short is that it does nothing to figure out why the play is slow, it can only identify if the play is slow and where it is slowest.

[markb]

This is a good find Theo.   Keep these kinds of posts coming.

[Kenny B]

Studies are nice and I have done a lot of them over the years (different subject, of course), but in most cases the trouble spots are known. Why the pace is slow is usually obvious. If you eliminate the occasional slow group for whatever reason, it usually comes down to the course trying to make as much money as it can by getting as many groups as possible on the course; 7-9 minute intervals. The other main reason is course design. Short par 5's mean groups will wait for the group ahead to clear the green before hitting their second shot, whether they should or not; long par 3's and par 4's mean more missed greens and more shots for most people; thick brush left or right and long Bermuda rough means more time looking for balls; and one of my favorites is the elevated green with a forced carry over deep bunkers with no bail out. The point is that the way a course is designed and maintained has a huge impact on the pace of play and the enjoyment of the game by both the beginner and the low capper. It doesn't take a study to identify 95% of the problems.

[WScott]

I agree it could be some help.  But the game relies on many of us old timers who just don't move as fast as we used to do.      So if you have a pro who specializes in public relation skills he or she may be able to diplomatically discuss slow play with the tardy groups without driving them to other golf courses!  If so it might help most if the feedback is available to the pro by the time the group leaves the course and arrives in the club house.  Sounds like it would be expensive.  But I know people at many courses do not take well to Marshals asking them to pick it up and a side discussion with the pro in private after the round might be accepted more easily.