This post is the second in a series on the science of pace of play management. Through his extensive research, Dr. Lou Riccio, FAIRWAYiQ's chief analytics officer, has developed actionable pace of play management techniques that are outlined in his "Pace of Play Bible." These proven techniques are based upon science and are the results of years of research - they are not hunches or guesses.
This post is the first in a series on the science of pace of play management. Through his extensive research, Dr. Lou Riccio, FAIRWAYiQ's chief analytics officer, has developed actionable pace of play management techniques that are outlined in his "Pace of Play Bible." These proven techniques are based upon science and are the results of years of research - they are not hunches or guesses.
Some of the techniques that will be discussed in future posts can be implemented immediately and others will require more work.
Our introductory topic in this series on pace of play management is "The Problem Defined".
Our Objective – Solve the No.1 problem Superintendents face every day. Managing the productivity of staff & equipment. For grounds departments, staff & equipment costs account for 40-60% of their overall budget. We repeatedly hear Superintendents tell us it’s impossible to oversee all their staff, as they just can’t be ‘everywhere at once’. When Super’s tried to find solutions, and even implement systems, to help make their staff & equipment more efficient, their assistants ended-up spending dozens of hours each week entering information into software programs, that didn’t work properly. It’s a huge problem. No one had created a task tracker system to efficiently track the productivity of staff & equipment.
The data captured from the Smart-Tag is run through the FAIRWAYiQ proprietary algorithms, which then surface live & predictive efficiency driving insights to course operators. This industry changing information enables operators to better understand their course, and where necessary make data driven decisions to improve utilization.
Data is collected from the Smart-Tags and run through our proprietary algorithms, which then surfaces efficiency driving insights to the course operators. All this is done in real-time, and presented as analytics through our application, that’s based on an air-traffic-control view of the course. When there’s an issue that needs to be dealt with, operations staff are automatically alerted, and given recommended actions to solve the problem. One example here is pace of play management.
A staff member can then be automatically dispatched, through our task tracker system, to complete the task and be made aware of the time remaining before the next group of golfers, encroaches on the area where they’re working. Our golf course management solution automatically benchmarks the time it takes to complete activities, like mowing fairways, rolling greens or cutting the rough, and compare those benchmarks against actual staff performance.
Currently course operators have a limited understanding of what is happening beyond line-of-sight, and resort to driving around the golf course, hoping to correctly discover course flow issues. Very little data is being used to manage operations, and even that data is often inaccurate. Golf course operators don’t want to be reactive when it comes to servicing customers, because players naturally expect an enjoyable experience. This has all led to years of unsuccessful industry focus on pace of play management, which unfortunately has only had a detrimental impact on the game.
