HAVING undergone somewhat of a makeover in recent years, St Michaels golf club in Sydney’s east easily ranks alongside the best courses in all of NSW.
With its breathtaking ocean views, the conditioning and presentation of the course and the challenges of the links-style layout, it’s no wonder St Michaels is a popular choice for member play and corporate outings.
However, with its popularity, with St Michaels regularly teeing off 240 players on a members competition day, comes the task of getting everybody around the course in a reasonable time, which is where Verifeye’s On-Pin smart marshalling function, is set up to assist.
With On-Pin, staff or those assigned to tracking the pace of play, can identify exactly where any issues may be, with a live map displaying all groups on the course on a clubhouse monitor.
The smart marshalling function puts a focus on the time difference between groups, rather than relying on a marshal to relay any issues, and On-Pin shows no bias, providing data and timings to back up any necessary follow-up conversations with slow players or groups.
At St Michael’s six satellite boxes are positioned around the course, tracking player and group progress during a round to ensure what is deemed a fair and reasonable pace of player is being adhered to.
When particular players or groups regularly fail to meet the expected pace of play standards, armed with information provided by the smart marshalling timings, members will be reminded of their responsibilities.
A course map with an example of the On Pin smart marshalling, tracking each group as they move around the course.
“Now we get valid timings and nobody can complain,” St Michael’s General Manager Jeff Wagner, explained.
“We have a match meeting with staff every Tuesday where we look at the times and in about 10 minutes, I will have a good idea of who the slow groups were. And at least now we have accurate timings, an accurate reminder, even if some people don’t like it.
“After the Tuesday meeting, the players in those slow groups receive an email, and also a text letting them know they have been sent an email. In that email is a screen shot of their four ‘red’ times and that’s their first warning,’” Wagner added.
Members receive three warning text/emails before the penalty of booking privileges, which restricts them for two weeks where they cannot book to play until the day prior to play.
“This encourages members to consider who they play with regularly, who might be the slow player in their group and whether they change groups or have a word to the person they feel is the culprit,” Wagner said.
Since implementing the system, St Michael’s has cut back from two, to one, course ranger, who isn’t being relied on to inform staff, board and management as to who the slow groups might be.
Reasoning no system is perfect, and it takes member buy in for any pace of play system to succeed, Wagner does offer that there are certainly positives and benefits from having the On-Pin smart marshalling in place.
“It has definitely made a difference. The idea would be for this to encourage members to be self-policing, rather than to rely on a marshal or the club to tell them they aren’t keeping up with the pace of play.”
On-Pin and Verifeye, including the smart marshalling function, is being used at a number of courses and clubs around Australia and also internationally.
For more information or to book a demo, go to the website at www.on-pin.com
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