Adding Efficiency, Not More Work
As a longtime PGA of America Golf Professional, Del Ratcliffe has seen technology’s role in the golf business grow dramatically over the course of his career. He’s also playing an active role in helping himself and other golf professionals help themselves and their businesses with new technologies.
Ratcliffe Golf Services manages five courses in North Carolina, giving Ratcliffe a daily look at the types of technology that can help professionals make the most of their businesses. He’s quick to offer some sage advice to his peers.
“To be honest with you, a lot of technologies can actually add to your workload instead of reducing it,” Ratcliffe says. “You want to look for solutions that are allowing you to do the things that PGA of America Golf Professionals are good at, not putting you in a position where you have to manage even more things that keep you behind your desk.”
Ratcliffe’s tech companies, like Kodology and PitchCRM, are geared toward making business more simple and productive for golf facilities, and they are leaning into new AI capabilities to reach that goal.
For example, PitchCRM – a marketing solution that integrates with point-of-sale systems – is adding AI abilities that go beyond writing copy to actually suggesting strategies.
“A lot of AI today is used for generating copy, but that is just a start,” Ratcliffe explains. “What if you could ask, ‘What kind of campaign should I be running to drive more revenue to a public course?’ Or what if it suggested a new way to divide your database into different customer types, then do it for you? That’s the kind of AI use that’s going to get rolled into a lot of things very soon, and we’re working hard on it.”
AI is also part of Ratcliffe’s CourseRev.AI product, which is being used by more than 30 golf courses. As an automated AI tee time system, CourseRev.AI can answer phones and make tee times – and a lot more. The system answers questions in real time with a conversational voice, allowing callers to get directions, find out about food and beverage or range options at the facility, or even ask more complex questions.
“I’m using it at my five courses around Charlotte, North Carolina, and someone can say ‘I want to play golf on Wednesday and I have to make a 4 p.m. flight, what are my best choices?’” says Ratcliffe, a two-time Carolinas PGA Player Development Award recipient. “It’ll come back with a list of the best options, knowing how far they are from the airport and what the traffic’s like. That’s a lot for a human to do in some cases, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. It astounds me every day with the stuff this system can do.”
The key element in all the technology Ratcliffe is helping create – as well as other technologies in use at his golf facilities – is freeing PGA of America Golf Professionals to focus on the game and the people who play it.
“A lot of times as a golf professional you can find yourself stuck as an order taker – you’re on the phone booking tee times, answering questions, working on emails and marketing, all things that take you away from golfers and the golf experience,” Ratcliffe says. “We need to be able to come out from behind the counter and talk with people, get out on the course with them and do the things that make PGA of America Golf Professionals valuable. Answering the phone shouldn’t be one of those things, to be honest.
“It’s tough to keep up with the technology because it’s changing so fast, but you need to go to the PGA Show and talk with the companies and commit the resources to bringing it in. It’s an investment in time and money, but it’s worth it, and it’s really exciting to think about how much this is going to help so many PGA of America Golf Professionals enjoy their jobs more.”
Improving Pace of Play
GPS technology is hardly new, but novel applications of it have helped many golf facilities solve an enduring problem in the game: pace of play. Companies like Tagmarshal and FairwayIQ have helped improve the flow of traffic around many courses, and most golf car fleets now come with GPS capabilities that help monitor pace of play, keep golfers in designated areas through geofencing and help keep rounds going smoothly through two-way communications with food & beverage outlets and the golf shop.
As PGA of America General Manager at Santa Ana Golf Club and Twin Warriors Golf Club in Santa Ana Pueblo, New Mexico, Derek Gutierrez oversees 36 holes of public golf and a busy restaurant. When pace of play lags, that leads to customer dissatisfaction and often lost business. Using the GPS capabilities of his two golf car fleets has helped Gutierrez keep play moving while improving the golf experience and restaurant sales.
“It isn’t new, but it remains relevant to use GPS to improve pace of play,” says Gutierrez, the 2023 Sun Country PGA Golf Professional of the Year. “PGA of America Golf Professionals in both of our golf shops can see which groups are ahead or behind, and we can quickly send someone out to give them a gentle nudge before they slow down the entire course. Golfers are also prompted to order food from the screens in their golf cars on hole 8 so their order is ready as a grab-and-go after No. 9 instead of waiting between five and seven minutes for an order placed in person at the halfway house.”
The result is rounds played in under 4:30 on average at Santa Ana and Twin Warriors, and a valuable tool for PGA of America Golf Professionals at each course in the case of a medical emergency on course or when a golf car needs to be replaced during a round.
Like the GPS system on golf cars, Gutierrez and his team are also using tools to help cross-department communications for better pace off the course, as well. Employees now clock in and out using their phones, and can also request time off or schedule changes remotely.
“Our HR and accounting department is so much more efficient now that everyone has this technology in the palm of their hand,” Gutierrez says. “To run payroll used to be almost a two-day process to track everyone’s time cards and make schedules, and now it’s almost an instantaneous process. So, we’re saving time and streamlining things on the business side, as well, which helps us get things done more quickly and with less stress for our employees.”
