New Feature alert: Tagmarshal StartMaster to enhance Pace of Play

This functionality has been on the wish list of many of our partner courses and has recently been released. Tagmarshal is engineered in partnership with golf’s top facilities and feedback by some of the businesses best management teams and professionals actively contributes to the constant improvement of the system.

Starter Accuracy Module – What it’s for:

Starters play a critical role in getting groups off to a good, well ‘start’ – both from an experience and service levels point of view but also and crucially from a Pace of Play angle. If a course runs a 9 minute tee interval and the starter sends out group A two minutes late and the next group B one minute early, they reduce the interval to six minutes which increases the risk of a bottle neck at the next Par 3.

TIP: The starter is an important custodian of a course’s Pace of Play policy and is in a prime position to generate awareness of the pace rules and systems in place.

Starter Accuracy Module – How it works:

Starter Accuracy is a new feature on the Tagmarshal stats page. The module checks tee-times vs actual start times and visualises the accuracy of a starter during the day as well as in week or monthly analytics. The goal is obviously 100% accuracy – which is not always possible, but with tracking and line of sight goals can be set which lead to improvements and better results. The system also allows for further analysis of rounds going off the pace which can in turn be correlated and compared to the round’s starting accuracy.

Tagmarshal Pace Of Play Integrates To EZLinks Golf – The Industry’s Leading Tee Sheet Provider

by The Golf Wire

(Las Vegas, NV) – Tagmarshal – the pace of play and revenue-optimizing system used by Kiawah Island Golf Resort, Whistling Straits, Erin Hills and other top golf courses – is now integrated to EZLinks Golf. The integration to the EZTee Pro tee sheet allows EZLinks clients working with Tagmarshal to seamlessly review and access pace analytics and player data.
The programmatic integration of Tagmarshal to the EZTee Pro tee sheet allows mutual customers like Billy Casper Golf and Crystal Springs Resort to offer more personalized services. For example, routinely fast players, determined by Tagmarshal tracking, can be rewarded with incentives. Pace profiles are automatically accessible to course managers upon tee time reservation and at check-in, allowing for proactive service.”We empower our partners to achieve business goals around course flow and player management,” says Craig Kleu, Chief Operating Officer of Tagmarshal. “Tying our system into club technology creates further efficiencies and ROI value.”

EZLinks is the latest integration for the rapidly expanding Tagmarshal. Last month, Golf Weather started sharing forecast readings for robust pace of play measurement based on rain and daylight hours. Tagmarshal also works with other tee-sheet and booking providers.

“EZLinks regularly invests in integrations to bring additional value and insights to our clients,” says Gary Cohen, CEO of EZLinks Golf, a PGA TOUR affiliated company. “Pace of play is an important issue to many golf courses and the Tagmarshal software helps clients to tackle this issue with innovative insights and reward solutions.”

Utilized at premier golf destinations globally, including three of Golf Digest’s Top-10 U.S. courses, Tagmarshal’s unobtrusive GPS tags track walking and cart rounds. Course operators streamline pace to deliver more consistent round times, add tee time capacity and generate incremental revenue.

A recent USGA survey shows 74% of golfers believe pace is “critical” to their enjoyment of rounds. Fittingly, the Tagmarshal solution improves average round times, reduces slow play and enables courses to optimize revenue opportunities. Superintendents use Tagmarshal to better manage pin placements and hole set ups which lead to less golfer stress, better scores and repeat play.

About EZLinks Golf
EZLinks Golf, a PGA TOUR affiliated company, produces industry-leading software and services to power the operations and marketing needs of the golf industry. Founded in 2015 by a PGA TOUR affiliate and EZLinks Golf, Inc. (established 1995), EZLinks Golf software and service suite is tailored for golf and includes tee sheet, point of sale, 24/7 reservation center, online booking engines, marketing services, 24/7 support and TeeOff.com by PGA TOUR (teeoff.com), an online tee-time marketplace connecting millions of golfers with tee times at golf courses worldwide.

More information: ezlinksgolf.com.

Opinion: Pace of Play Penalties on Tour 

by Mike Todt

What a remarkable weekend for pace of play it was – almost a tug of war between the two leading professional Tours in the world. And as proponents of slow-poke punishments, we could hardly be more pleased. Although, as a twist in the tail, it made a mockery of another chief professional circuit by comparison come Sunday.

It all started on Thursday at the Zurich Classic, as duo Brian Campbell and Miguel Angel Carballo – perhaps not household names, but bona fide PGA Tour players nevertheless – were informed that they had been penalised a stroke on the 14th for slow play, having fallen behind on the 10th, and subsequently failed to play their shots within the 40-second statutory limit imposed on those on the clock.

It made them the first players on the PGA Tour since Glen Day in 1995 to suffer this particular fate. Let’s quickly put that into perspective: that’s 22 years ago. Clinton was still in his first term as president. OJ was on trial for murder. No one even knew who Tiger Woods was!

And in that time, we’ve had to watch as the likes of Ben Crane almost proudly stroll around the course at tortoise pace, with officials sitting on their hands as the game of golf slides slowly but surely towards irrelevance.

So what suddenly changed? What awoke them from this ignorant slumber?

Our friends across the pond are seldom credited with innovation, and the European Tour has plenty of problems. But they’ve led the way on the war against slow play with numerous penalties dished out in the last five or so years. And since chief executive Keith Pelley came into power in 2015, the crackdown has escalated with the announcement of a new “monitoring penalty” for those who exceed 50 seconds per shot (40 if not the first to play within the group). The threat for this also hits players where it hurts most: their pockets, with a $2,500 fine issued.

This, in conjunction with a determination to impose stroke penalties on those out of position, has rightfully struck a bit of fear into players, with Irishman Shane Lowry telling Golfweek recently: “American referees are not as intimidating as the European referees. When you see John Paramor or Andy McFee (the European Tour’s chief referees) coming along, you know you want to speed up, and you know they will be hard on you. That’s what I like about the European Tour: they are a lot harder than they are over in America.”

And so, even as the PGA Tour looked to be laying down a marker, their European counterparts stole their thunder within hours, as Korea’s Soomin Lee was docked a shot for slow play on Saturday at the Volvo China Open. Let’s once again put that into perspective: a weekend double of slow-play penalties on either side of the Atlantic. Who’d have thunk it?

But just as the positive momentum was building, the LPGA Tour ground it to a snail-paced halt. Fresh off the Lexi Thompson controversy, those watching the Volunteers of America Shootout on Sunday were forced to endure a two hour, six-hole playoff. Monotonous enough that it was on the same hole over and over again, but it descended into utter farce as Christie Kerr blatantly tried to slow play her opponent. Only analyst Judy Rankin had the guts to call her out: “I have great respect for Christie Kerr but she is really taking a long time here.”

She simply said what we were all thinking, but there were no actions from officials, no reprimand, no warnings. And even though justice prevailed with opponent Haru Nomura going on to win, the damage to both the LPGA’s brand – and the game of golf as a whole – will endure.

There has been some fallout since, and it is hard to have a great deal of sympathy for the LPGA. Slow play is a core problem the sport of golf currently faces, and is a significant contributor to its recent decline. Our globalised world is an increasingly faced-paced one, where instant gratification is the order of the day. In that respect, golf is becoming a square peg in a round hole.

And professionals carry the torch with profound responsibility in this respect. They are the standard bearers, and the consequences at amateur level are significant. It isn’t just that impressionable youngsters will follow their lead. It is also that outsiders or non-golfers look on with confusion and derision as they watch the grass grow quicker than the game’s best players finish a round.

It’s kryptonite for those trying to grow the sport, and this issue’s importance should not be underestimated. It is good to see the European Tour dragging its bigger American brother in its wake, but all circuits, officials and players around the world should sit up and take notice. And do more. Golf has a fight on its hands to keep up with the times, and “keeping up with the time” is central to that.

Mike fell in love with the game from a very early age – a passion that hasn’t diminished ever since. He earned provincial colors throughout his junior years, but by the time he reached Varsity, the realization set in (thanks largely to some cold ales) that it was time to favor the pen rather than his clubs. He now writes for Golf Assessor along with a few other sources.