5 questions with Kristoff Both – Alcanada

Get to know Kristoff Both, Director of Golf at Club de Golf Alcanada, one of Spain’s finest, and Robert Trent Jones Jr. who designed the course located in the northern part of the Mediterranean island of Mallorca.

If you could be a caddie on Tour, whose caddie would you like to be and why?

No doubt, from the legendary golf professionals still alive it must be Tiger Woods. Having seen him live, he plays the atmosphere and the energy he transmits is incredible.

Has golf always been your first love and who was your hero growing up? What other sports / teams are you a fan of?

I started playing tennis as a little boy but have been playing golf since I was 10 years old, so yes, you could say golf is my first love in sports. I do like soccer but my team, Werder Bremen, has not been doing too well the last couple of years and therefore I’ve lost a little bit of interest.

I don’t recall who was my golf hero growing up but it must have been Bernhard Langer. Now for many years it has been Phil Mickelson – I am a left handed player as well and I do love short game. I even play with the Odyssey 82 ProType putter he uses or used for some time.

Where does Pace of Play rank as an industry priority and why has your course decided to invest in Pace of Play? 

It is one of the key factors that we haven´t been able to control a hundred percent until now even though we have a starter, a marshal and 12 minute tee time intervals. The course can be at its best but if you have a couple of slow groups on the course the experience for a lot of other players is ruined. We are, however, in a place with beautiful weather and so a lot of players seem to not mind too much if the round is a couple of minutes slower than expected as they are on holiday, enjoying the good weather and the good company at our place.

As laid out before, happy customers are more likely to return and pace of play is one of the key factors to the overall experience when playing golf.

What are the top benefits about having Tagmarshal technology to manage the field, efficiencies and the Pace of Play?

I think first of all the rangers/ marshals have it a lot easier as they can identify slow groups from the very beginning and can approach them basically before the problems start on the course and even the team at the pro-shop and myself know always what is going on, on the course. We know that a lot of players are under the impression that they are not playing slow because the group playing behind might not “push” them (especially in a case where you have groups on the course that know each other). So with the new Tagmarshal system it has become a lot easier to address slow play. We can also see as a result a financial benefit due to better control of slow play we are able to add one or two tee times a day instead of having to offer twilight fees for not being able to guarantee full 18 hole rounds.

How would your Marshals / Player Assistants answer this question?

The job of the course marshals can often be difficult as they have to tell people who spend a good amount of money what they have to do. We think that the overall experience of the players has become better due to the more precise control and the marshals/ rangers have a great tool now at their hands, not having to drive around the course all the time taking notes of times to identify potential slow groups – the marshals have arrived in the 21^st century! The tablet on board the marshal buggy with the figures can be shown in worst case to a customer not understanding their position on the course and thus help to have less confrontations between staff and players.