Top Causes of Slow Play in Golf—and How Tagmarshal’s Golf Cart GPS Tracking Will Help You Speed Things Up
Golf cart GPS tracking will certainly come in handy on your course, and in more ways than you might think. Of the many grievances that golfers may face while out on the course, slow play is the one that is often highlighted in post-round chatter on the clubhouse’s Chesterfield sofas. Few things in the golfing world can aggravate players as much as being out on the course for longer than necessary due to delayed play – and in players’ defense, it’s completely understandable. Slow play can be incredibly disruptive for everyone involved, but more importantly, it’s also completely avoidable!
Numerous causes lead to one of the game’s biggest sins and often, a combination of several factors throughout a golf game can add up to those dreaded four-hour-plus rounds. Fortunately, Tagmarshal’s pace technology tools and golf cart GPS systems can help address the biggest culprits and improve pace of play on your golf course. In this quick read, we will have a look at some of the major slow play behaviors and how Tagmarshal’s innovative technology and golf cart GPS tracking will help you combat them.
1. Poor Time Management on the Course
Poor time management on the golf course is one of the biggest reasons for prolonged golf rounds and normally has little to do with playing ability. It often stems from overall player behavior which consists of numerous aspects that cause delays and add up over the round, resulting in a longer time spent on the course. These include things like not playing “ready golf”, long and often unnecessary pre-shot routines, gauging distances, inefficient cart management, and not being prepared to hit when it’s your turn – amongst countless other reasons.
When it comes to good time management on the course, players need to be encouraged to make better use of their time. Ideally, this should have been done at a root level, but if it had, courses would not be battling with slow play as much as they are. It can be a case of players simply not knowing any better, or perhaps players unintentionally losing their ways over time – whatever the reasoning, Tagmarshal has countless innovative tools to help you coax players into picking the pace up.
While Tagmarshal’s golf cart GPS systems and 2Way devices can alert players that they’ve fallen behind and send unobtrusive alerts to increase their pace, the customizable messaging option can add value in reminding players of more efficient conduct. For instance, on certain holes, it may be more conducive to park the cart at a certain spot for heading to the next hole. Or if it’s cart-path-only, these pop-ups can prompt players to take several clubs to their ball instead of having to go back and forth between ball and cart to get the “right” club.
The other benefit of Tagmarshal 2Way golf cart GPS devices is that they automatically indicate how far out from the hole players are. This eliminates the need for players to try and locate distances from a rangefinder, sprinkler heads, or on a mobile app every time – which can lead to countless minutes saved over the course of a round.
2. Excessive Time Spent Searching for Lost Balls
No golfer likes losing a golf ball – it’s a distressing experience as it hurts their wallets as much as it hurts their scorecards. But most importantly, it slows down play. It is said that an average golfer loses two balls a round on average, which means that, over an entire field, a lot of time is spent searching instead of playing.
In recent years, the USGA decreased the time limit on searching for a potential lost ball from five minutes down to three minutes, stating that, in most cases, if a ball were to be found, it would be within this time. And while this change was implemented to speed up play, it’s only effective if it’s adhered to by players on the course.
If a group may have spent longer than they should have searching for a ball, Tagmarshal’s golf cart GPS tracking and automatic alerts can be triggered to gently remind a group that they are lagging and by how much. Tagmarshal insights can also help course managers identify areas where balls get lost most often and help them consider adjustments like trimming the heavy rough or relocating tees so that lost balls, and the excessive time spent searching for them, are minimized.
3. Waiting for the Green to Clear without Golf Cart GPS
Players waiting for a green to clear is another major cause of slow play, and one that is often overlooked as a problem in causing slow play. What it essentially comes down to is how the course is set up, and its layout. It’s often the case that the longer the course, the more difficult it plays and the more difficult it plays, the longer it can take to play it. So, it may seem counterintuitive, but setting certain holes up to be shorter can actually increase the time it takes to play them.
Par 4s and especially par 5s that are set up to be shorter in length can encourage players to try and reach them in a shot under regulation, i.e. driving for the green on a par 4 or trying to reach it with their second on a par 5. Instead of laying up in these instances and getting on with their game, players would need to wait for the green to clear before they can attempt these shots. This already adds unnecessary time to a round.
And because golfers of all skill levels are out playing, more often than not, these shots do not end up on the green, or even close to it, as intended. In fact, due to the difficulty of such attempts, balls end up in hazards or rough where more searching and more shots need to take place, resulting in more time spent on the hole. Having the holes longer eliminates the opportunity for these “glory shots” in the first place and ‘forces’ most players to take the safer, and less time-consuming route of laying up.
Tagmarshal’s tools can help course managers measure the time on a hole, fairway, or green, meaning that if excessive time is spent waiting for the green to clear, the data will showcase this and alterations to the hole can be made. Data from the Analytics Hub can show course managers where excessive bunching up takes place and the reason for it can then be investigated.
4. Lack of Awareness of the Group’s Pace
One of the biggest factors that contribute to slow play is the lack of awareness thereof. As we’ve shown, numerous reasons can lead, and often cumulate, to slow play. It’s not uncommon for golfers, who are caught in the moment, to not realize that they’ve fallen behind. In most cases, this lack of awareness does nothing to create a sense of urgency to make up for lost time, or to keep on track for the remainder of the round.
Traditionally, a course marshal would have to patrol the entire field, find the offenders, and try and encourage faster play in a non-confrontational manner. This is labor-intensive, time-consuming, and can even get a little awkward. Tagmarshal’s golf cart GPS and 2Way devices solve this pain point without any effort. With the Live Map feature, golf course managers can monitor the pace of play of all groups on the course, in real-time, at all times, and through the 2Way devices managers can communicate amongst slow players with gentle reminders to maintain the pace.
In instances where golf course managers may not be able to monitor the field constantly, the Pace Alerts feature has been introduced. This feature enables course managers to receive pop-ups, messages, emails, or even phone calls when a group has fallen out of position, allowing managers to manage pace remotely. This innovation helps manage the field flow effectively and effortlessly, enhancing operations and improving player experiences.
5. Overuse of Golf Carts or Walking Too Slowly Between Shots
There’s a misconception that golf carts are always faster than walking. The truth is that it all depends on how and who is making use of which mode around the course. Using a golf cart ineffectively can delay the speed of play just as much as walking too slowly between shots can.
In reality, it’s not uncommon for players who share the same cart to end up in the same region on a hole. In these instances, parking the cart between players’ golf balls means that both players can get ready at the same time. If balls are much farther apart, dropping off one player with a club and then going on to the second ball and meeting up with the other player after, can save copious amounts of time.
Implementing this conduct as a standard among hordes of players will be a strenuous and time-consuming task. However, with Tagmashal’s golf cart GPS systems that can send continuous reminders of the best conduct in this situation, a cumulative gain would ultimately be instilled among regular players that would eventually lead to quicker rounds overall.
6. Ignoring Ready Golf
In an effort to curb slow play, the adoption of “ready golf” has seen a rise in popularity at local courses across the globe. The rules of golf dictate that the player furthest from the hole should play first/next. Due to the nature of the game of golf, often the player who is meant to hit next is not ready to do so. Ready golf encourages whichever player is ready, to proceed with playing their shot, as long as it’s safe to do so, thereby not delaying anyone else in their group or anyone playing behind them.
Tagmarshal’s golf cart GPS and our 2Way devices can be prompted to remind and encourage players to implement Ready Golf as much as they can to maintain the flow and speed up play. If it saves time, everyone will have a more enjoyable experience. We value golf traditions and believe that etiquette should be adhered to, but not at the expense of any time being wasted on the course.
Improve Slow Play With Golf Cart GPS Tracking And More
At Tagmarshal, we don’t believe that slow play is an inevitable part of the game of golf. We understand the consequences and implications that slow play can have on players and subsequently on the golf course that may never see them again because of it. It’s because of this that we set out to build the most advanced pace management software and tools on the market.
By monitoring groups’ locations, pace, and patterns on the course through golf cart GPS technology, Tagmarshal will help eliminate most, if not all, of the top and highly preventable causes of slow play on golf. These insights and tools will help golf course managers make data-driven decisions to streamline the flow of play and operations for ground staff – ultimately leading to golfers staying on pace with smoother, more enjoyable rounds for everyone.
WATCH DEMO
