May Tip for Course Managers: Are you missing the boat with your starting interval?

In April I suggested that rather than accepting your published starting interval as reality, you take the time to measure your actual starting interval, which is the interval from the time the firsts player in the group tees off until the first player in the next group tees off. You may be completely surprised at what you find out.

Now let's consider whether this actual interval is the one that's serving you best in terms of attracting and retaining players, and maintaining a strong bottom line. Believe me, I have heard all the arguments from course owners and managers about why they can't change their starting interval...usually they're afraid it will mean a loss of revenue. But the truth is that you're probably already losing players and money because you believe the more rounds you can stuff into a day, the more the cash register will ring.

That might be true if you filled your tee sheet from top to bottom every day, but most of you don't! The question is why aren't you filling your inventory of starting times? The answer is probably because your playing customers don't think those times will provide them with a quality experience. In other words, you're offering starting times that are perceived to have no value. So the obvious "fix" is to try to lure them back with discounted twilight rates that start in the early afternoon. This is a vicious cycle based on the wrong strategy, and it won't help you in the end. Here's what I mean:

When the financial strategy at your public, private, municipal or resort course is driven by using the number of rounds as your metric for success, you're missing the real opportunity to generate increased income. By taking control of what's happening on the course - and this begins with the proper starting interval - your metric becomes the quality of the playing experience, and you can achieve a smooth-flowing, consistent pace that you can count on to increase revenue and decrease operating costs. 

When I work with a course, I use my proprietary software to virtually experiment with various starting intervals to see what interval or combination of intervals will create the smoothest flow, and eliminate backups and waiting. But you can do your own experimenting until you see a better flow on your course and fewer backups. If you let your players know up front that your course is on a mission to provide the best playing experience and that it may take a day or two to determine the optimal interval that will make that happen, they'll get it. Once you determine the proper interval for your course, make sure your starter has a clock to maintain that interval. And make sure that the expectation that groups will tee off on time becomes part of all your communication to your own team and to every playing group that reserves a tee time. 

The benefit to you:   Remember that when you achieve a smooth flow on the course, be assured that you will create (and fill!) more high-value starting times, reduce round times, reduce backups and waiting, reduce the discounting of green fees and slow play refunds, and build course utilization and player loyalty as players realize they can count on a predictable round time and a positive playing experience.

Tip by Bill Yates, Pace Manager Systems