5 questions with Matt Summers – Mountain Branch GC

Get to know Matt Summers, PGA Head Professional at Mountain Branch GC, in five quick questions.

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

Dustin Johnson – To watch him play in person, he seems like a pretty cool guy and he doesn’t get bad pairings.

Has golf always been your first love? Who was your golf hero growing up?

I have been swinging a golf club since I was 1 ½ years old, it was my first love but 3^rd best sport.  I am huge fan of The Ohio State Buckeyes

My golfing heroes were Jack Nicklaus being from Ohio and not far from Columbus but also Greg Norman and Tiger Woods.  They made me want to watch golf on TV.

What was your favorite Major to watch this year and why? Who is the Slowest / Fastest player on tour?

The Master’s is my favorite every year.  I remember watching it with my grandmother at an early age every year on the weekends that it was played!

I don’t know who is the slowest, they tend not to show how long it takes for guys to go through their entire shot routine but Brandt Snedeker seems to be the fastest when watching him play.

Where does Pace of Play rank as an industry priority?  

Pace is the top priority every day at our club.  Making sure our rounds get off to a good start pace of play wise pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the day.  Being a semi-private club, we are open to the public.  We don’t know what kind of golfer is going to walk through the door each day making it important to pay attention to right out of the gate.  We also have so many outings, leagues and tee times built around the daily play with timing being based off of what time folks will finish, get started and be able to play. Losing track of any pace, outing, league or regular play can really hurt us on the backend of the day.

Why has your course decided to invest in Pace of Play? 

Creating an environment where customers know they can come and play in a reasonable amount of time is very important to us.  This keeps members happy, customers happy and it helps create a reputation of a place that does care and wants everyone’s day more enjoyable.  Happy golfers make for happy people towards our staff and throughout our entire facility prompting repeat visits and or spending money in other areas of our facility.

Bonus Question: What are the top benefits about having Tagmarshal technology to manage the field, efficiencies and the pace of play?  

Accuracy is one of the most important aspects.  We have data with facts that allow us to properly manage how everyone plays the course not just relying on the better players, faster players or early risers that can scoot around the course.  This also helps us with managing “perception” vs. “reality” meaning some customers play faster than others.   When they catch a group the first thing they want to do is call the golf shop or for a marshal to speed the group ahead of them up and in reality the groups ahead of them are inside of our pace parameters.  This isn’t fair to the customers who are playing on time to be spoken too and I think that happens all too often at other clubs that fall into the semi-private category because members and regulars play at once pace and the outside customer plays on time or right around our set pace.  As much as we want to keep pace up, talking to groups on pace can really backfire and it’s not necessary.