Tagmarshal is proud to announce that Patrick (Pat) Parenti has been promoted to Director of Sales, US.

Since joining Tagmarshal 18 months ago as a Business Development Executive, Pat has closed an impressive amount of new business, including a pivotal partnership with PGA West, a Top 100 facility in California, and one of Century Golf Partners’ flagship operations.

Pat brings a wealth of experience to his new role, having held key leadership positions within the golf industry for the past 25 years. With a proven track record throughout his tenure, his strategic and leadership abilities are second to none, making him well-positioned to lead the US Sales team, working alongside David Hamilton, Vice President of New Business Development.

Parenti is a familiar face to many in the golf industry, with a strong network of relationships across the US, from his home in Arizona, and throughout the US client base. As a Class-A accredited PGA professional since 1996, he enjoys the game as much as the industry and has firsthand experience of the current challenges faced by operators.

His promotion is well-timed as Tagmarshal, the market leader in on-course optimization and pace management technology, continues to expand. As an innovator in golf technology, Tagmarshal draws on the full power of AI and machine learning, based on data from more than 75 million tracked golf rounds, to provide courses with real-time operational oversight and reporting. 

The industry-leading optimization technology gives golf operators the tools to enhance the player experience with proactive pace of play management, improve efficiency through automation, and generate material revenue.

This year, Tagmarshal launched WindTag, an industry-first innovation that provides hyperlocal wind speed, direction, and shot recommendations to players, allowing golfers to effectively ‘map the invisible hazard.’ 

Tagmarshal partners with over 40 of the Top 100 courses, including Bandon Dunes, Baltusrol, Erin Hills, Streamsong, Kiawah, St Andrews Old Course, Pinehurst, and 700+ other partners, including many $40 – $60 courses.

To contact Patrick Parenti, please email patrick.parenti@tagmarshal.com, or call 602-524-6376.

Read the full article here: The First Call

WindTag, the industry-first innovation from Tagmarshal, is changing how golfers and operators interact with the wind.

We’ve outlined how WindTag for Courses enhances and impacts on-course operations, so let’s take a closer look at what WindTag for Driving Ranges can do for your facility.

With each bay now able to show players what the wind is doing in real-time via mounted screens, WindTag answers two questions that face a golfer standing over every shot – what is the distance to the target and what is the wind doing?

In solving these questions by providing unrivaled wind intelligence, both the golfer and the operator benefit.

When a golfer looks at weather conditions while on the course or driving range, they’re likely being given information from weather instruments miles away, at the nearest airport or weather station, that could be hours old. 

Conditions, and especially wind, are constantly changing. WindTag allows you to look at a screen displaying real-time conditions for each target to gauge what the wind is doing when practicing on the range, enabling golfers to dial in and understand exactly how each shot is impacted.

Hitting towards a 150-yard marker to sharpen short iron play is useful, but working on specific distances by hitting to different targets is far more beneficial to golfers.

With a WindTag device on each target, the exact distance to each is visible on bay screens, allowing golfers to work through a range of shots and figure out which club works best for them.

Drawing on billions of data points from Tagmarshal’s tracked golf rounds, WindTag offers players AI-powered live shot recommendations in real-time. Visible on the screens in a simple-to-follow display, these account for distance, club, trajectory and target. 

Is the wind helping or hurting, and should the golfer consider reducing the shot trajectory to minimize wind impact? Now they’ll know exactly what to do and can take this deeper understanding with them next time they step onto the course.

Providing an enhanced practice experience by incorporating WindTag will not only keep golfers returning to your facility – it will also bring in new golfers who want to improve their game using technology and wind intelligence not available elsewhere.

Alongside attracting and retaining new golfers, longer and more enjoyable practice sessions result in ranges selling more balls. F&B orders can also be completed using the screens mounted at each bay.

An effective teaching professional uses every tool at their disposal to help golfers get better. Having WindTag data on hand to guide golfers in how to manage different wind conditions and distances enables a deeper level of teaching.

Alongside other tech solutions like launch monitors and on-body or on-club analyzers, teaching professionals can deliver novel, unique insights.

All of these experiential upgrades come without the huge capital investment associated with other popular driving range technologies.

WindTag setup is simple and hassle-free, with each target getting a WindTag device and each bay getting a Tagmarshal screen. No cellular, Bluetooth or WiFi is required to transfer real-time data, and the devices are rugged and waterproof, minimizing maintenance efforts.

Golfers have grown tired of throwing grass into the air to measure the wind. Now, with WindTag, the technology finally exists to make that a thing of the past and rely instead on actual data.

As a driving range tool that sets a facility apart by enhancing the quality of the practice experience, WindTag is “mapping the invisible hazard” and solving questions in a way that benefits golfers and operators.

To find out more about WindTag for Driving Ranges, complete this form and we will get in touch.

Whilst it’s not solely the responsibility of the head golf professional to ensure that revenue targets are met, it is a key aspect of the role and one in which they can have a significant impact.

The effective management of on-course pace and flow is critical to powering a course’s economic engine, underpinning many of the areas where significant revenue gains can be made.

Technology like Tagmarshal’s optimization system has made it possible to proactively manage pace of play, turning this into a key differentiating factor that sets a course apart from the competition.

Below, we’ll look at some of the revenue challenges that head golf pros face and how technology helps to overcome them.

Adding additional tee times is, alongside increasing green fees, the most effective way of generating additional revenue.

However, this comes at the risk of jeopardizing the player experience, with more golfers on the course often leading to increased bottlenecks, wait times and frustration. When pace and flow grind to a halt, staff members out on the course are the first to hear about it, but it’s the head golf pro who is ultimately responsible.

Using technology to proactively manage pace, and using the data gathered to identify periods of the day where adding capacity may be possible, is the first step. Tightening gap intervals during quicker periods of the day, such as the early rounds, and reducing the round goal times in these same periods will help minimize the effect added capacity has on the rest of the day’s flow.

Once a decision has been made to add tee times, close attention must be paid to effectively monitoring these periods to ensure pace is not impacted.

Tagmarshal’s data breaks average pace down into times of day and days of the week, giving head golf pros a granular view of the impact that adding tee times has on pace. This can be benchmarked against data from before the tee times were added.

By effectively managing pace, and adding tee times based on data, Erin Hills now generates an additional $700,000 in green fees per season. According to Jim Lombardo, Erin Hills’ head golf pro, “the return on investment is huge!”

GENERATE ADDITIONAL REVENUE USING OUR TECH

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Research by the National Golf Foundation (NGF) shows that more than 50% of new golfers stop playing within the first two years. By the end of 2025, half of the 3.4 million people who played on a golf course for the first time in 2023 will have given up playing.

Head golf pros must encourage their teams to identify first-time players and log this data. On-course staff can then track these players on the course and offer a level of service that encourages first-time players to choose this facility as their ‘home’ course.

The same rings true for regular golfers who may be playing a course for the first time. With technology enabling a more consistent, enjoyable round, players will see value in the fee they pay and will be happy to return, filling the tee sheet and driving revenue gains.

At private clubs, members can often be demanding and expect both the on-course and off-course experiences to meet a high standard. The enhanced level of service that Tagmarshal enables, coupled with pace and flow of play gains, encourages loyalty and improves the relationship between the head golf pro and members.

There are now more golfers in the 18 to 34 age bracket than any other, making it the sport’s largest cohort.

This demographic values their time and places a premium on immediacy (think Uber, DoorDash, and Amazon Prime), which is why NGF research has shown they are willing to pay more for a quicker and more enjoyable round. The same is true for the majority of age ranges.

Dynamic pricing leads to heightened expectations around the quality of the player experience, making effective pace and flow management central to its successful implementation. 

When head golf pros make use of technology like Tagmarshal’s Live Map, which provides full, real-time oversight of on-course operations and highlights problem groups at a glance, they are showing players that they are committed to delivering on those expectations.

The quality of on-course interactions is also improved by reframing marshals as player assistants and using data to inform conversations around pace. This sends a clear message to players that their time is important and helps justify the increased price they paid for their round.

Research by Players 1st, the foremost player experience and post-round survey platform in the golf industry, shows that there is a direct correlation between a course’s Net Promoter Score (a marker of whether they enjoyed their round) and the likelihood that they will head to the clubhouse for a meal and/or drinks.

When a head golf pro and their team ensure a steady on-course pace and flow, a critical component of a player’s enjoyment of a round, there will be an uptick in the number of people who spend money after their round. It’s also logical that quicker rounds equate to more time that can be spent at the pro shop or clubhouse.

At courses where 2Way cart screens are in use, head golf pros can set up automated, GPS-triggered alerts that prompt players to place their food orders. This is usually done on the 8th hole, so that staff can prepare the meal for collection as the players pass through the halfway house. Along with reducing turn time, this is also a revenue driver. 

In addition, the 2Way cart screens can be used for advertising F&B specials in your facility’s restaurant or bar, prompting players to stay (and spend) post-round. On-screen advertising can also be sold by Tagmarshal to third parties, creating yet another revenue stream for the facility.

Head golf pros play a vital role in planning and executing the day-to-day running of on-course operations, while also being the most public-facing members of the management team.

The rise of technology in the golf space has opened up many additional revenue opportunities for courses; most prominently, understanding how and where to increase capacity. 

Head golf pros who harness the power of optimization technology effectively will ensure that they get the most out of their teams without compromising on player experience and revenue gains.

HARNESS THE POWER OF OPTIMIZATION TECHNOLOGY

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Great news – now you can watch our latest expert webinar, ‘Optimization tech and tee sheets: 3 ways to add capacity and material revenue,’ on-demand in your own time!

Tagmarshal CEO Bodo Sieber, in conversation with COO Craig Kleu and Customer Success Associate Terence Thornton, outlined pace and tee sheet optimization strategies that you can implement today, based on learnings from more than 75 million tracked golf rounds across our 700+ partner courses.

You will learn:

• Revenue opportunities created by proactive pace management
• Increasing tee sheet capacity with smart gap intervals and variable goal times
• Executing the foundation for dynamic pricing