PRACTICAL INSIGHTS BASED ON HANDS-ON LEARNING FROM PARTNERING WITH HUNDREDS OF GOLF OPERATIONS, INCLUDING 8 OUT OF THE 10 TOP RANKED US PUBLIC COURSES

Bodo Sieber, CEO of Tagmarshal, provided an entertaining and practical, yet very data-backed outlook based on 900 million tracked data points, on experience and time and their importance to the modern golfer and golf operation, with case studies and practical insights for you to use in your operation.

TRAGIC PASSING OF BILL YATES, WHO LAID THE FOUNDATION FOR PACE OF PLAY MANAGEMENT WITHIN THE GOLF INDUSTRY. 

Tagmarshal would like to express our shock and sadness over the news of the tragic passing of Bill Yates.

“In this time of unbelievable loss to the world of golf, we would like to express our heartfelt condolences to Bill’s wife, his family, friends, and colleagues. We sincerely share in your pain, and pray that your memories of Bill will provide you with some measure of comfort,” says Craig Kleu, COO of Tagmarshal.

As a thought leader in pace of play management, Bill transformed the game in many aspects, dedicating over 25 years of his life to the improvement of the game. Bill’s commitment to helping golf courses deliver quality play to every player was echoed throughout the world and will continue to resonate in the golf fraternity for years to come.

His invaluable impact, through countless hours of perseverance and his relentless passion, spearheaded the way in which golf course operators view pace management today. Throughout the years, Bill worked with hundreds of public, private, municipal and resort courses around the world demonstrating that any course could eliminate the problems associated with slow play providing golfers with a smooth, high value playing experience.

With immeasurable achievements throughout his career, Bill featured in every major golf publication and was a keynote presenter at premiere golf conferences throughout the US and in Europe. He consulted with world-class courses such as St. Andrews in Scotland and on professionals tournaments such as the British Open, the US Open, and the US Women’s Open. Bill’s landmark study for the PGA was featured in the February 2012 issue of PGA Magazine and he was recognized as one of nine ground-breaking innovators in golf by Private Clubs Magazine.

Bill will be remembered for his endless knowledge and progressive pace of play theories. Generations of golfers will have fond memories of his passion for golf operations and his thought provoking, insightful conversations.

“Bill had a significant impact on golf, but more so, on our company. The time my team and I spent with him gave us an incredible amount of invaluable knowledge and insight into pace management and we were honored to have Bill join us as an advisor and for an expert talk at the PGA Show 2018. He was truly the guru of pace of play, a legend in the golfing world and we will miss him dearly as a friend and partner,” said Bodo Sieber, CEO of Tagmarshal.

GOLF TECH INNOVATOR MAKES SHOT CLOCK GOLF A REALITY FOR REGULAR COURSES. 

In a positive move towards addressing slow play, the European Tour will take a major step forward in combating this age-old problem when it implements a shot clock during the 2018 Austrian Open.

But will this new format be the actual cause of improvement to the game or is it because of the additional media attention and greater awareness being placed on professional tournaments to manage pace, and, of course, the added accountability being forced onto professional golfers.

The new format also brings significant hurdles to professional tournaments, when one takes into account the exhaustive manpower and resources required to succeed with shot clock play, with the referee having to follow each group to keep time and enforce penalties.

Considering that golf is played by millions of people, on thousands of courses around the world, it is worth understanding the practicality of how this new format will be adopted by regular golf courses? Without expensive management controls, strict penalty rules, and a massive staff requirement, regular courses simply would not be able to consider implementing this format of the game.

But that is not the case as golf tech innovator, Tagmarshal, has the solution for tournaments and courses alike, with their revolutionary pace of play and golf course intelligence solution, which can seamlessly manage the shot clock format.

As a pioneer in golf course intelligence, the easy to use, affordable, Tagmarshal system optimizes field efficiencies and streamlines pace management by automatically checking time played per hole, or per section, against pre-set goal times, effectively making this an intelligent, automated shot clock platform.

The system uses a series of GPS tags or devices and as a playing group progresses, their location and time of play are continuously logged and measured against various parameters. The industry-leading algorithms automatically identify risk groups and empower courses to provide accurate, objective support to untangle bottlenecks before they arise, to monitor anticipated shot or hole times and to significantly reducing round times while improving the player experience.

“The Tagmarshal management system has enabled us to effectively implement our pace of play policy, assisting us in reducing playtime,” says Jim Lombardo, Head Golf Professional at Erin Hills. “This allowed us to add an additional tee time for extra capacity.”

By creating a similar, if not improved, awareness and pace mindfulness with players, Tagmarshal has the same effect that the shot clock format does, without the need for added marshals or referees or even any additional resources.

The functionalities give oversight, through best in class analytics, giving invaluable intelligence to make informed decisions on performance and efficiency improvements and to proactively plan pace management, adding value to all types of courses, including cart, walking, and courses that offer both options.

Successfully implemented and making pace management inroads in some of the World’s most formidable golf courses such as Erin Hills, US Open hosts 2017, Whistling Straits, host of the 2015 PGA Championship, and Carnoustie Golf Links, the venue for The Open Championship since 1931.

“We cannot imagine operating without Tagmarshal next season,” says Colin Sinclair Head Golf Professional at Carnoustie Golf Links. “The system has proved to be invaluable. It has enabled us to make savings, improve service delivery, improve pace of play and enhance the whole golfing experience at Carnoustie. It is very much at the front and center of how we will manage our Golf Operations in the future.”

Partnering with Tagmarshal has allowed courses to become pacesetters with improved operational efficiencies, saving costs and adding prime tee times that routinely realize incremental revenue. Superintendents also use Tagmarshal data to better manage pin placements, wear patterns, hole formats, and operational efficiencies.

NEW FEATURE RELEASE: USER MANAGEMENT AND NOTIFICATION PORTAL.

Golf course optimization, operational efficiencies and continued solution improvements to Tagmarshal’s on-course experience, and the pace-of-play start with accessible, articulate and actionable data.

The Tagmarshal User and Staff Management module allows for the customization and prioritizing of notifications and alerts. These additional alerts include geofence alerts, pace alerts and critical zone alerts and can be set to display system pop-ups, send alert emails, text messages or even an automated phone call for high priority warnings.

These added features ensure users get real-time, relevant information, in the best-suited format, for both information purposes and to respond proactively.

It also allows for improved task and efficiencies management, as each user can be tracked individually. This feature improves, for example, marshal interventions, course effectiveness, and starter accuracy.

How does this feature work?

• Tagmarshal’s Customer Success team will set up and assign an Administrator or Key Account Representative per course. This is often the course’s Golf Manager or Director
• This Administrator will then set up individual user profiles for all of the relevant stakeholders at the course, which would include golf pros, golf assistants, marshals, starters, course superintendent and the like
• Individual information that is required, per user profile, is the user’s name, designation or role at the course, email address and phone number
• Each user will then have access to customize alert priorities and the preferred method of delivery, which can be in-system pop-ups, alert emails, text messages or even an automated phone call

Feature Benefits:

• Relevant information and real-time messages to the key staff members, delivered via preferred method of communications, ensuring the required response or action is affected
• Personalized notifications in line with alert or information priorities
• Individual staff member tracking
• Improved task management and effectiveness tracking
• Authorization and level-based access to limit specific system sections, such as member and player profiles

What is Tagmarshal?

Tagmarshal, the industry trusted Golf Course Intelligence system achieves results across daily fee, private and resort facilities that offer cart, walking or dual mobility. Improved operational efficiencies, improved and consistent pace of play, additional revenue, and a better golf experience are the objective of course owners and managers successfully target with the system.

NEW FEATURE RELEASE: VARIABLE GOAL TIMES.

Through Tagmarshal’s propriety analytics, the new Variable Goal Time feature provides courses with pace-related information, which enables context-appropriate Variable Goal Time settings.

Real-time, pace-related data, such as time tracking by day, by period or even by on-course experience, provides courses with the intelligence to make an informed decision on how to optimize flows and proactively plan pace management according to low and high peak periods on the course.

It also provides an in-depth understanding of the course’s busy periods, actionable on the day, for selected days of the week, times of the day or even a range of hours.

By offering more data-driven performance measures and real-time trends to make informed, effective decisions further enriches a course’s player experience and allows for more consistent play management, while maintaining accurate, non-confrontational player assistance.

How does this feature work?

• Pace tracking analytics reveals pace trends at specific days of the week, times of the day or on isolated days during the week, such as low and high peak periods.
• High capacity days, members-only days, corporate events and tournaments are also highlighted, which can be taken into account, to predict expected player volume and the potential quality of the round.
• This allows courses to schedule fields and set variable goal times according to the period of play. For example, a stricter time allocation for optimal pace-of-play to accommodate the busy morning field versus the afternoon field, where a slightly upward adjusted goal time might be more appropriate.

Feature Benefits:

• Relevant data at a glance, with flexibility for handling the variations that inevitably come up
• Data sets, seen in context with selected variables, allow for informed decisions
• Real-time analytics presents the user with optimized field management
• Vital trend analysis taken into account to ensure smart field scheduling

What is Tagmarshal?

Tagmarshal, the industry trusted Golf Course Intelligence system achieves results across daily fee, private and resort facilities that offer cart, walking or dual mobility. Improved operational efficiencies, improved and consistent pace of play, additional revenue, and a better golf experiences are the objectives course owners and managers successfully target with the system.

NEW FEATURE RELEASE: UPGRADED SHOTGUN START MODULE.

A Shotgun Start can be an effective time management tool for all types of golf courses, but if managed poorly can have a damaging effect on both the pace performance of the field as well as player experiences.

This is why creating efficient, data-driven features continue to remain a top priority for Tagmarshal. By integrating and automating processes, courses stand to save significant time, eliminate errors and ensure a smooth start.

With auto-starting on shotgun rounds already available, the upgraded Shotgun Start feature now includes Shotgun Round Tracking, which is automatically aligned to the course’s ‘set goal times. This feature also now provides template-based start setups and assignments, with pre-determined set criteria.

The upgrade also provides real-time visuals of group’s finishing their rounds together with their location, so course staff can be proactive in collecting players on outlying holes. 

How does this feature work?

• Via Tagmarshal’s tee sheets, users will have the option to select a Shotgun Start. This feature is an easy way to schedule or execute Shotgun rounds
• Following the step-by-step prompts, users will have the option to pre-define tee-off times, desired holes to be used and schedule and assign players
• Once saved and scheduled, Tagmarshal automatically starts at the desired time and initiates pace tracking functionalities to ensure the playing field is effectively optimized.
• A manual delay option has been built into the feature, as we know sometimes players are ‘nearly there’ and the field needs an extra minute or two to be ready

Feature Benefits:

• Step-by-step setups with interactive timesheet templates and easy to use checklists
• Immediate notifications, updates and pace alerts for proactively managing pace-of-play
• Free flowing tee starts and effective on-course tracking
• Auto-starting default combined with a manual delay option for delayed starts

What is Tagmarshal?

Tagmarshal, the industry trusted Golf Course Intelligence system achieves results across daily fee, private and resort facilities that offer cart, walking or dual mobility. Improved operational efficiencies, improved and consistent pace of play, additional revenue, and a better golf experience are the objectives of course owners and managers successfully target with the system.