The changes at Greensboro National Golf Club are noticeable from the moment players enter the parking lot.
Pulling into the lot, players are directed to pull up to the bag drop, where an attendant will take their clubs out of their vehicle and place it on a cart. When players finish their round, their clubs are cleaned and returned to the bag drop. When they’re ready to leave, players pull up to the drop and their clubs are placed inside their vehicle.
The new rule at the Summerfield course is that players don’t have to touch their clubs when not playing the course or practicing on the range or putting green. And the service is complimentary.
That may be business as usual at public and resort courses in Florida, where Greensboro National general manager Bruce Mohler spent decades in the industry. But it’s not the standard in the Triad. And as Mohler noted, it’s not always the standard at well-known regional resorts such as Pinehurst.
“This are was very far behind,” said Mohler. “I don’t know why — I’m not inventing the wheel here.”
Greensboro National has brought a new level of service to public golf in the Triad through technology as well as good old-fashioned manpower.
The more tech changes are also ground-breaking. A new point-of-sale system allows the course to better know its customers. Not only does the club know names, it knows their equipment and clothes preferences, allowing them to sent push notifications when those brands are on sale in the pro shop or when a favorite club maker is coming for a demo day. Customers can also expect to receive a push notification to remind them of their tee time the next day, as well as an annual birthday greeting.
“It’s set up so a public customer can feel like they’re at a private course,” Mohler said.
The GM said providing the upscale service begins with hiring the proper staff.
“I’m a big believer in having people running an operation that feel that this is their livelihood,” he said. “I want people who want to be here.”
What I want hey these guys are here for us.
With the personal information stored in the EZ-GO Pace technology, the pro shop and beverage cart personal know the location of every cart and the players’ names. So beverage cart servers can call their customers by name when greeting them throughout the course.
When players reach the eighth tee, a QSR code appears on the cart’s GPS message board, allowing players to view the grill menu, order food and pay on their phone. The food is placed for pickup on a table just inside the grill on the way to the 10th tee.
There are no long food breaks that so often cause backups on not only the 10th tee, but throughout the course.
While many of the new tech changes benefit the course, they also make rounds much more enjoyable for most of the players. They eliminate annoying waits on the tees and keep rounds moving smoothly. For example, Mohler said that despite a filled tee sheet with 260 players — the overwhelming majority playing in foursomes — on Labor Day, the average round finished in 4 hours, 16 minutes, a real accomplishment on a busy holiday when players of varying skill levels and experience hit the course.
With the PACE system, Mohler said at least half a dozen staffers at any time can pinpoint every group on the course and ensure pace of play is maintained without logjams.
“It’s gone very well,” Mohler said of customer response. “They like the high service of it.”
But Mohler said the changes weren’t made solely to raise revenues by playing more rounds each day. In fact, Mohler said tee times, which had previously been as little as seven minutes apart, are now separated by either 9 or 10 minutes to give players less waiting time and a more relaxed atmosphere.
As another example of new benefits given to players, Greensboro National supplied free water bottles in their carts’ mini coolers during summer months.
