How To Manage Slow Play with Mike Orloff

Send a textDid you know surveys have shown that along with good greens, tees, fairways, and the quality of the hot dog – golfers rank pace of play among the very top features they look for when choosing a course to play?  While that may not be all that surprising (the hot dog part anyways :-)), we’re here to tell you that if slow play is plaguing the golf experience at your club, the good news is that the solution to all your problems might just be one podcast episode away. Utilizing the solutions discussed in this chat on slow play, many courses have successfully managed to meet the high expectations of their players, despite the length and difficulty of their layout, and these are now clubs that are thriving when it comes to pace of play when they once were not. Golf course owners and operators today are beginning to understand that slow play is a “quality” problem. Some courses that deliver smooth flowing rounds of golf for their early morning groups see their play dropping off for afternoon starting times because those times produce lower quality, slow play experiences. Golfers fight for earlier times for one reason: they know they will get a higher quality product for their money. Doesn’t it stand to reason that a course offering consistently high quality, free flowing rounds of golf at any starting time throughout the day will fill more starting times? Won’t their revenues increase? Won’t course managers have fewer complaints to deal with? Of course. When the pace of play is improved and becomes consistent for every player, everyone wins.  As the late great pace of play Guru Bill Yates would often say, “When you manage the pace of play, you manage the quality of golf”. On this episode of the GIG Podcast, we sit down with someone “down under” as Mike Orloff from Golf Industry Central joins us all the way from Australia to talk about slow play and how to manage it.  Since Mike had the opportunity to spend time and be mentored by Bill Yates on the topic of slow play, we get to talk about the two myths that golf course owners and operators have been mis-lead by when it comes to trying to solve slow play, and we also discuss some great tools and tactics that you can use to improve the pace of play at your club. Highlights of this episode that you won’t want to miss: 11:36 – Hear from Mike about how pace of play became something that he is now a subject matter expert on.16:01 – Learn what is the root cause of slow play at any club – and guess what it isn’t the players that are on your course!16:19 – Find out about Bill Yates from Pebble Beach, CA, the late great pace of play Guru who was a mentor of Mike’s and who also wrote the book ‘Out Of Time’ which is the definitive book on how to eliminate pace of play problems at any golf course and achieve smooth, uninterrupted rounds.19:18 – Learn about the core elements which must be known and that must be focused on by golf course owners & operators if you’re going to solve the slow play issues at your club.28:28 – Hear the discussion with Mike about ‘pace’ and ‘flow’ – learn what they mean, and how they relate to the experience your guests are having on the golf course.32:08 – What does Mike think owners & operators can do to effect the biggest change on improving the pace of play at their course. Please feel free to contact Mike directly to have him help your golf-related business with marketing, management, operational or recruitment advice and support.  For more information, visit Mike’s websiteTo learn more about Golf Industry Guru, and to gain access to online golf business education from the world's most successful business, golf, & hospitality industry leaders, visit us at www.golfindustryguru.com.