Caution: Slow Moving Vehicle Ahead Sometimes golf is like being stuck in traffic. As painful as that may seem, playing a round of golf can be like being stuck behind a motor home on a windy road, with the golf course being that windy road and the motor home that slow foursome that backs up the entire course for the day. By: Aaron Artman  Posted on: Friday February 11, 2000  Golf: This isn't your Grandfather's Game Anymore During the past thirty years, golf has changed dramatically. While more people are enjoying the sport, and the equipment and technology keep getting better, the sport has become increasingly slower—much to the chagrin of golf facility owners and directors.  Golf is played slower today than the days of past, when a caddie was the only tool golfers' had to make their round more efficient. On the verge of the next century, golfers use Global Positioning Systems, motorized carts, sprinkler heads, pin sheets, and lighter, better-engineered equipment.  But the average time it takes to complete a round of 18 continues to increase. This slow pace results in less golfers per day on the course, which results in enough lost revenue worldwide to fill the deepest bunker with thousand dollar bills. "Slow play is the biggest problem because we're at a time when golf courses are costing more and more to maintain," said Craig Williamson, a two-time PGA Merchandiser of the Year and former Director of Golf at Ko Olina, Kapalua, Chardonnay and Broken Top Golf Clubs. "Salaries are escalating. New courses are costing more to build. Therefore it's important to get the most people on to the golf course."  The math is simple. Take an upper-end daily fee golf course, for example, and factor in the annual revenue generated by squeezing just one more foursome on to the course each day.  In year-round golf destinations, such as Hawaii, the American Southwest, the Carolina's and Florida, where upper-end daily fee courses cost more than $100.00 per round, the potential for revenue growth is staggering. If each round at a particular course cost one hundred dollars, and one more foursome could play each day of the year, that golf course could increase their gross revenue by $146,000.  That is more than enough money to build the necessary infrastructure and hire the employees to increase the pace of play, but many in the golf industry are apprehensive about telling a foursome that threw down major cash how to play their round. Ken Morton Sr., the PGA Professional of the Year who hails from Hagen Oaks Golf Complex in Sacramento, doesn't necessarily see it that way.  "Maybe it's the reverse," Hagen said. "Maybe the game is so slow, and takes so much time, that if we don't get the game down to four and five-hour rounds, then we're going to lose more people than if we push them a little bit."  The benefits of faster play to the golfer are many. First, the quicker the rounds are played, the more availability a golf course will have. If every course was able to squeeze one or two more foursomes on to their course each day, the increase in course availability would mean more tee times for the golfer. Not to mention that golfers could complete a round in four to four-and-a-half hours, leaving more time for other activities during the day.  An Affordable, Compact, and Easy-to-Use Technology Solution On-Course Technologies, the brainchild of Chicago businessmen Scott Grundberg and John Lynch, invented a simple technology that keeps the responsibility for faster play in the hands of the golfer.  The Personal Ranger  (http://www.personalranger.com/), hailed as "Golf's New Pacesetter", keeps the golfer aware of their elapsed time and where they should be on the course—per hole—based on the pace of play goals for each course. The benefits, according to On-Course Technologies, consist of a raised pace awareness; reduced ranger/golfer conflict; increased revenue and greater enjoyment thanks to faster play.  "We were kind of the pilot program," Chalet Hills Golf Club head professional Matt Godden. "And we had great results. I'd say 90 percent of the golfers really like it. We eliminated conflict in a lot of situations where you have the old crusty ranger telling the young guys that they're playing too slow."  Chalet Hills, a daily-fee course in Cary, Illinois, and a two other courses—Brookhaven Country Club in Farmers Branch, Texas; and Jackson Hole Golf and Tennis Club in Jackson, Wyoming—were the first three courses to use the Personal Ranger during the summer of 1999. Grundberg and Lynch wanted accurate testing grounds where the different golf course styles and philosophies could truly test the Personal Ranger's effectiveness.  "Pace of play is the toughest part of my job," Godden said. "During the weekends, I've had to drop everything and put a radio in my pocket and make sure people are keeping pace. Now, all the golfer has to do is view where he is (on the course) and how long he's played."  "For the golf course that can't afford the big satellite technology, this is a great solution. It really is a good product."  The Personal Ranger also captures data for each round completed, and sends the data to a PC that provides graphs and charts, enabling the course to maximize efficiency. The Personal Ranger can also be attached to a golf bag, or held in one's pocket or hand. Most courses, however, opt for installation in a highly visible location such as the steering wheel of the golf cart.  Golf Course Strategies At many golf destinations across the country, an increase is pace of play is a matter of policy. Some golf courses are designed to increase the pace of play.  One such destination is Club West; an upper-end, daily fee golf course located in Phoenix, Arizona. Club West was designed with fairly wide-open driving areas and strategically placed bunkers, built farther away from the greens than many courses to help golfers avoid getting stuck in one area of the course for too long. In addition, Club West has added a variety of tee boxes to increase the success rates for various players' skill levels.  Combine the physical characteristics with an up-front philosophy about slow play, and Club West has eliminated many of the problems associated with the pace of play.  "From my experience, the best thing that can happen is communicating the pace of play parameters before anybody plays," Club West Director of Golf Doug Hoskins said. "If you set a realistic time frame, and people know going out what the expected pace of play is, then you can monitor and do some things that show you are monitoring that expected pace of play."  A larger problem with pace of play occurs with municipal golf courses, where course affordability and volume create a large demand. One such community was Sacramento, California, where pace of play issues were hurting area courses.  The Sacramento golfing community decided to take a stand against slow play. The Golf Division of Sacramento, led by Ann Weaver, instituted training and reporting programs for area marshals to learn how to combat slow play.  The program consists of: three seminars a year with Sacramento-area marshals; an in-depth pace of play manual; incident reports; daily pace of play analysis; a reward/incentive program for special achievements; and a system for reviewing every registered complaint, from golfers, by the Sacramento Golf Division.  The staff of marshals, or player assistants as they are sometimes called, are employees of the Sacramento Golf Division and are sent to golf courses in the region to assist with the pace of play. The program stresses accountability, from the golfer on up, and is experiencing success according to area golf professionals.  Then, of course, there is always the method used by the top professional and amateur tournaments in the world. At these tournaments, there are clocks strategically placed throughout the course—limiting the best players in the world to average rounds of three hours and 45 minutes.  "I don't think we need to have a significant number of these clocks out on the course," Williamson said. "But there's a reason why the professional tours have them on the first and tenth tee. And these players are the best in the world, playing for the most amount of money. Yet, they have a responsibility to the rest of the field to be on time and to meet certain criteria pertaining to the length of time it takes to play a round."