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When playing a stipulated round of play, players are encouraged to play "ready golf" in a safe and responsible manner. However, it is not uncommon for players to take a little extra time to analyze shots and putts during competitive events. Because of this, it is also not unusual for groups to get out of position. When a group is out of place and cannot regain its position, the rules committee may invoke a penalty for unreasonable delay of play.
Today, most competitive golf tournaments rely on the pace of play printed on scorecards and Raguzzi charts to monitor a group's pace. With Pace of Play Stations, you can now track and monitor a group's pace of play through checkpoints around the course. When a group passes a checkpoint, a volunteer can record the moment a group's last ball is in the hole at that checkpoint, creating a timestamp denoting the completion time of the hole for the entire group. This timestamp can then be compared to their expected time to finish and the interval time in relation to the group in front of them.
In this article, we will discuss how to access the Pace of Play Center, set up pace of play stations, and allow volunteers to record observations.
Pace of Play Center:
The Pace of Play center allows you to manage all activity regarding Pace of Play for a particular round. It also includes a checklist to help you stay organized and aware of any additional tasks that may need to be completed. To access the Pace of Player Center, go to Rounds > Pace of Play (as shown below).
From the Pace of Play Center, you will have access to the following:
Pace of Play Settings
Pace of Play Checklist
Observations
Weather Delays
Pace of Play Setting:
You can configure the group interval, group margin, precision option, and checkpoint messages on the settings page (as shown below).
To avoid setting up the pace of play options in each round, default settings can be defined at the customer level. Updating the pace of play settings at the customer or round level will not affect existing events/leagues.
Default Pace of Play Settings: (Customer Center > Customer Settings > Pace of Play Settings) These are your customer-level settings. Any event or league you create will have these settings applied. Any changes to these settings will not apply to events and leagues already created.
Round Pace of Play Settings: (Rounds > Pace of Play > Edit Pace of Play Settings) These settings are accessed and applied to specific events and leagues. When creating a new event or league, the settings are cloned from your Customer Center's Default Settings.
You will have the following option when managing the pace of play settings:
Group Interval: You can specify the interval time, which is the allotted time that should be maintained between groups on the course. A group must finish within the interval time of the group ahead and the course pace of play to be considered "on time." For example, the group ahead finishes at 8:40 AM with an interval of 14 minutes; the current group should finish by 8:54 AM.
Group Margin: If using the "Within Allowance" message, you can specify the group margin in seconds. This determines if a warning to the pairing group should be communicated based on when they finish a hole compared to their expected or group interval time.
Precision: You can specify the timestamp to an accuracy of minutes or seconds. If minute precision is selected, timestamps are rounded down to the nearest minute (e.g., 11:50:42 AM becomes 11:50:00 AM).
Pace of Play Method: You can specify the method used to record finish times. Timestamps can be recorded based on when a score is entered using one of these two methods:
Active (Default): Timestamps are computed based on manually recorded times at Pace of Play Stations.
Passive: This method does not require pace of play stations, as timestamps are computed based on the time of the score entry when using Live Scoring with the mobile app. Notes:
Observation Messages are not available with Passive Pace of Play.
The managers can add and utilize pace of play stations. For holes having Pace of Play Stations, timestamps are recorded only from the station (not based on score entry).
**Golf Genius Note**
When using passive pace of play, do not turn off mobile scoring after enabling it. Mark scorecards as checked, disabling mobile score entry for the group when done. For more details on marking scorecards as checked, Click Here.
Checkpoint Messages: When a group finishes a hole, the pace of play volunteer will receive a message on the app that they can communicate back to the group. You can enable/disable and configure the message provided to the volunteers. The following messages are available:
Within Allowance - The group's recorded time should be smaller than the expected or interval time but within the group margin. When using minute precision, the group margin is rounded up to a full minute despite being expressed in seconds.
Group After - The last group which had finished before the current group at that checkpoint was not on time.
On Time - The groups recorded time, after rounding (if using minutes precision), is smaller than both expected and interval time.
First/Second/Third/Fourth Missed - The group has missed a checkpoint for the Xth time.
Last Only - The group missed only the previous checkpoint.
Propagating Pace of Play Setting to Future Rounds:
When Editing your pace of play setting, you can propagate those edits to future rounds. To propagate the setting, edit your pace of play setting for the first round they should be applied to. After making the edits, those changes can be propagated to future rounds after pressing "Save." A new popup will be displayed where you can click "Propagate" to confirm the setting should be applied to future rounds (as shown below).
Pace of Play Checklist:
The Pace of Play Checklist helps you stay organized and aware of any tasks that may need to be completed before observation can be recorded (as shown below). As you complete specific tasks, the checklist will update.
On the checklist, you will see the following items and a link to that feature to set it up if needed:
Course Pace of Play Set: When managing your course details, you can set the pace of play parameters (as shown below).
The pace of play parameter represents the amount of time a group has to complete each hole. When adding pace of play per hole, you should include transition time and shotgun offset interval, as these will be considered when expected times are calculated for the pairing groups.Pace of Play Stations Created: The Pace of Play Stations are checkpoints corresponding to a hole on the course. Each Station will be assigned a GGID that can be used to log into the mobile app and record when a group finishes a hole. Creating Pace of Play Stations will be discussed later in this article.
Setting Up Pace of Play Station:
To set up the pace of play station, follow these instructions (Note: If you are using passive pace of play, you do not need to set up pace of play stations):
Go to Rounds > Mobile App Stations.
Click "Add Pace of Play Station(s)."
If managing a multi-course event, select the course you would like to create a pace of play station.
Select the hole(s) where checkpoints will be positioned.
Select from the following Advanced Permissions:
Advanced Checkpoint Permissions: If selected, a volunteer running a station will be able to adjust a timestamp retroactively.
Click "Continue."
Once a pace of play station is set up, you can access the GGID by going to Rounds > Mobile App Stations (as shown below).
Note: If managing an event using multiple courses, you can set up both courses simultaneously. If they have pace of play stations at various holes, we suggest setting up one course at a time.
Observations:
Observations are recordings made when a group completes a checkpoint. As observations are recorded, managers can view and manage those observations in the pace of play center. There is two options when viewing the pace of play:
Checkpoint Summary Page: Detailed View of group intervals and recorded times.
Observation View Page: A list view of general observation information related to a group.
These views will be discussed in greater detail below.
Checkpoint Summary Page:
The Checkpoint Summary is a tabular display with rows represented by groups and columns defined by the foursome's group number, tee time, start hole, and time values for each available checkpoint (as shown below). The Checkpoint Summary allows managers to see, record, remove, and modify group tee times, observation times, expected times, and interval times. Go to Rounds > Pace of Play > Checkpoint Summary to access the CheckpointSummary view (as shown below).
Based on the setup, multiple options will be available above the pace of play table:
Course: If multiple courses are used, a separate table is created for each course, and a filter will be shown.
Starting Hole: If multiple starting holes exist, the order of the checkpoints will be sorted based on the starting hole of the first foursome for that course. You can also filter using this drop-down to only show groups that started on a specific hole.
Sort By: You can further sort the table by several options. The options will be available based on your setup:
Default: The default order on the pairings page.
Wave Ascending: If pairings are created using wave pairing, you can sort the table in ascending order based on the wave pairings.
Wave Descending: If pairings are created using wave pairing, you can sort the table in descending order based on the wave pairings.
AM/PM: If pairings have AM and PM times, they can be sorted in this manner.
Above the table, you will see several stats related to round status (e.g., Fastest Round, Slowest Round, Round Average, Round Median). These stats are averages based on groups that have completed their round (i.e., all checkpoints have been passed) (as shown below). No no groups have completed a round, no time will be shown.
The following additional options are available (as shown below):
Auto-Refresh: Enable or disable auto-refresh of the checkpoint summary.
Refresh: You can manually refresh if the round is in progress.
Export xlsx: Export the checkpoint summary to a spreadsheet.
In the tee time column, each cell displays the group's expected start time within the table. Clicking the start time allows you to edit the time (as shown below).
In the pace of play columns within the table, each cell initially displays the expected time as a grey button. Managers can create a timestamp for that record by clicking this grey button. Once a pace of play time is recorded, the cell is no longer gray, and the recorded time is printed on the first line in minutes or seconds precision, depending on the pace of play settings.
If the group is not on time, the recorded time is red. An info icon next to each observation specifies the corresponding message sent to the group. The second line contains the expected time (E) and the interval time (I) with minute precision displayed in parentheses as (E / I):
Expected Time - The expected time, represented in minutes, is the difference between when a group is supposed to complete a hole and the recorded time of completion for that hole.
Interval Time - The interval time, represented in minutes, is the difference between the recorded time when a checkpoint has been completed and when the group ahead has completed that respective checkpoint plus the group margin.
For example, if a group finished a hole at 12:51 PM, which was 3 minutes slower than their expected time, but on their interval time, the (E / I) would show as (+3 / 0).
Clicking the recorded time allows you to edit/delete the recorded time (as shown below).
Observation View Page:
The Observation View displays a list of observations sorted chronologically by recorded time (as shown below). Go to Rounds > Pace of Play > Observation View to access the Observation view.
This view includes several details related to the observation (e.g., recorded time, course, checkpoint, group details, resulting message). For convenience, filtering is possible by group and checkpoint(s).
Weather Delays:
Suppose your event/league is experiencing a weather delay. In that case, you can add that to the pace of play trackers to ensure that all expected times and group interval times falling after a weather delay will be offset by the duration of the delay (as shown below).
To set up a weather delay, follow these instructions:
Go to Rounds > Pace of Play.
Click "Add Weather Delay."
If managing a multi-course round, select the course you would like to add a weather delay. If adding a weather delay to multiple courses, they must be set separately.
Set the Interval of the weather delay. You can specify the start and end times of the weather delay. Leave the end time blank if you do not know when the delay ends. If the specified end time falls before the start time, it is assumed the play has been postponed to the next day.
Optionally add a description for the weather delay. If enabled, this message will show a weather delay flash message on the portal, TV display, and mobile app.
Click "Save."
Recording Pace of Play Observation on the Mobile App:
The pace of Play Observation is recorded using our mobile, iPad, or Android apps. To record observation, follow these instructions:
Enter a Pace of Play Station GGID into the app. These can be found by going to Round > Mobile App Stations. A summary page will be displayed to confirm that the correct GGID was entered.
Click "Continue".
Select a pairing group that reached the checkpoint and create an observation.
Click "Hole Completed."
The volunteer can provide the group with the message for the group.
Click "Next Group" and repeat steps 3-5.
The sequence below shows the process of recording an observation for the first and second groups to come to a pace of play station. In this sequence, the first group is recorded one minute before their expected time. The second group is recorded at 3 minutes after their expected time but only a moment after their interval time.
Download the Checkpoint Summary
You can download the checkpoint summary (as shown below) to a spreadsheet any time during the round if needed. To download the checkpoint summary, go to Round > Pace of Play > Checkpoint Summary > Export xlsx.
Mobile Pace of Play Station Details in Report Composer:
Mobile Pace of Play Stations can be added to Reports. Since stations are set up at the round level, and are specific to a course, they stations can be added when your report uses the following levels (as shown below):
Round
Course
Once you have added the Station Level, you will be able to design the level to include the dynamic fields available for the station type. For more details on creating reports, Click Here.
Mobile Pace of Play Station Details in Spreadsheet Composer:
Mobile Pace of Play Station details can be exported via the Spreadsheet Composer. When creating the spreadsheet you must set the "Display Data for" to "Station." Then when adding fields, you will be able to add dynamic fields related to the stations (as shown below).
For more details on creating spreadsheets,Click Here.
Mobile Pace of Play Station Details in Page Composer:
Mobile Pace of Play Station details can be added to the Page Composer. When creating the page, you must set the "Print for every" to "Station." Then, when adding fields, you will be able to add dynamic fields related to the stations (as shown below).
For more details on creating pages,Click Here.