High-tech pacemaker speeds play on course

By Tod Leonard

May 29, 2001

Joe Rahnis knows the frustration. As head professional of The Woodlands Golf Course near Baltimore, he had seen and heard all the excuses from golfers who couldn't manage to play a round in less than 51/2 hours on his busy county-owned facility.

We started late. We lost a ball. The guys in front of us are slow. Yada, yada, yada.

"I call it the scapegoat theory," Rahnis said. "People always want to blow the problem off on someone else."

Nagging by marshals rarely helped and neither did clocks placed at strategic positions. So Rahnis went for a high-tech solution, and the results have been so stunning that Torrey Pines and other pace-problem courses in our county should take notice.

Rahnis purchased the new Personal Ranger timing system from Chicago-based On-Course Technologies Inc., and after a month of use, he's convinced he's finally found an answer to slow play.

"It's made a huge difference," Rahnis said. "We had people regularly playing rounds in excess of 51/2 hours on busy days. Now, the longest round we have is about 4:55."

The beauty of the system is how simple it is. Each group is given one palm-size Personal Ranger before going off the first tee. With one push of a button, the timer begins, and the Ranger thereafter updates players on their pace of play through each tee, fairway and green.

At The Woodlands, Rahnis said he has 10 different time programs, tailored to the play for that day. His fastest program is 4:30 for carts off the paths on weekdays. His slowest is 4:55 for carts on the paths on weekends.

The 1-year-old system has made the marshals' job much easier, Rahnis said, because there are fewer confrontations with customers over who is at fault. The lines of communication are immediately opened when golfers are told what their expected pace is before teeing off. If the pace slows, a marshal can find the problem group by checking each Ranger. And the Ranger doesn't lie.

"It helps the customers become rangers," Rahnis said. "In the age of cell phones, we've had people call us from the fourth hole to say they're on pace, but the group in front is a hole behind. We can send somebody out there to check it out.

"It's really like having another employee out there -- battery-operated."

And a fairly cheap employee, considering its effectiveness. Scott Grundberg, the president of On-Course technologies, said the cost for each device is about $150, or about $12,000 for a typical order of 80 for one course.

Grundberg's company is still relatively small, and he said he's just beginning to get the word out about the system. Thirty-five courses are using it, including two in California -- the PGA West Norman Course and The Quarry at La Quinta.

But Grundberg believes there is a lasting place in golf for something like the Personal Ranger.

"Improving the experience is a critical component," he said. "Especially at a place like Torrey Pines, where you're offering up a PGA Tour course at a reasonable rate. There's no reason in the world why you shouldn't be able to transfer the accountability to folks, to get them behind it and and say, 'We're counting on you.'"

The feedback from courses, Grundberg said, has been extremely positive, with most experiencing between 15-and 30-minute improvements in their pace.

There also has been a humorous offshoot, Rahnis said, with golfers regularly returning to clubhouses to brag about beating the Personal Ranger. Whatever makes them happy.

"A lot of people," said Grundberg, "are looking for some kind of win on the course."