Clueless Rangers

[hackasack]

I was playing yesterday morning at a course that does a terrible job of making sure everyone keeps up a decent pace and I've determined that the main reason is that the rangers are absolutely clueless. Our group which teed off at 7:30 was held up on every hole for 5 minutes or so. Not that big a deal, but prime time Saturday you would expect they keep things moving.

Anyhow, I could see the problem group was 2 groups in front of us and it was only a 3some. One of the guys in our group took a couple of minutes before taking his shot hoping that we would then be able to move through the rest of the round if we gave a cushion. A ranger noticed this and drove over and told us to play ready golf and hit as soon as we had a chance. He then continued to trail us and push us along even though it made us wait every other shot.

I told him that he should be up front moving things along there rather then worrying about what other groups were doing behind the slow group, but he was not seeing the connection. I'm not even sure if this guy knew anything about golf or what his job was, but common sense alone would tell you that the group slowing things down would be where he should be helping out, maybe helping them find errant shots or something. I wanted to tell him to get off our arse, but decided to hold it in and just laughed it off.

Uggh.

 

[GenErr]

I am noticing more and more golf courses employing non-golfers to work on the course. A few weeks ago we had to wait on the tee for a worker to cut grass around a par 3 green. He could have stopped, waved us up, and continued his cutting as we approached the green. As we were driving up to the green, he remarked to one of our group "its tough for me to get my work done with all you guys playing!" LOL

 

[Golf 'N Gator]

I love living in rural Indiana where slow play is still an issue but less of a issue and no local course's have rangers. Just a waste of money for most courses. One reason I love to play in early with my skins group or late when the masses have long gone home.

 

[nerfny]

The rangers at our course are useless the only time they try to push people is when they want to close the course and are trying to get you off at the end of the day. The rest of the time they actually can be the problem as they hold up groups talking to people.

 

[Erky]

I agree that you should be hitting as soon as you have a chance, but he should be focusing on keeping things moving up ahead.

 

[Tadashi70]

I didn't see one ranger today at one of the top courses in Orlando. Pace of play was like butter just moved along. Conversely we played on Thursday at another top course and the group in front of us was slow. They finally let us play through on 12 and we sailed.

Two course with no ranger and different outcomes. Sometimes it's all about the golfers on the course

 

[Canadan]

I genuinely don't understand why courses don't employ good rangers. It's not like it's a huge expense for the 5, maybe 6 very busy hours of the day to have someone ride around the course and confirm that all groups are maintaining adequate pace of play and there are no real gaps on course.

Even with pros riding around my course, this seems to be a big hassle, but I would imagine it's more about these guys not wanting to upset members by telling them to move along.

 

[ArmyGolf]

I genuinely don't understand why courses don't employ good rangers. It's not like it's a huge expense for the 5, maybe 6 very busy hours of the day to have someone ride around the course and confirm that all groups are maintaining adequate pace of play and there are no real gaps on course.

Even with pros riding around my course, this seems to be a big hassle, but I would imagine it's more about these guys not wanting to upset members by telling them to move along.

Courses that I frequent either have no rangers or useless rangers.
What good is a ranger if he's unwilling to tell a group of members to pick it up?

 

[Canadan]

Courses that I frequent either have no rangers or useless rangers.
What good is a ranger if he's unwilling to tell a group of members to pick it up?

By them just being on the course, they appease the complainers to a point. Whether they actually accomplish what they should is another story entirely.

 

[Golf Ghost]

I understand the concern and I know they are getting paid to do something, but shouldn't the larger problem be the focus here?

The fact that people still not understanding the whole, "Keep up with the group ahead" boggle my mind.

 

[tpluff]

Just curious, but what was the total time of your round on a Saturday morning?

I don't know if it is always the ranger, but the golfers as well. Sure, someone has to be able to enforce pace of play and get groups going, but it also requires a little common sense from the golfer to know when they can safely hit and speed up play on their own. Yeah, it taxes you as a group behind slow play and it ruins some of the experience, that is just the struggle for some right now. Sometimes, this sorta stuff is like :deadhorse: .

 

[hackasack]

I understand the concern and I know they are getting paid to do something, but shouldn't the larger problem be the focus here?

The fact that people still not understanding the whole, "Keep up with the group ahead" boggle my mind.

I think these golfers probably got out a few times a year and several times we could see them looking for balls and then not ready to hit. A lot of people that don't golf very often don't think much of a 5 hour round as they don't get out with their friends often and so are in no rush to finish. That's my impression anyway.


Tpluff, total time of our round was 4:40 minutes, not too crazy for a Saturday afternoon, but way too slow for early a.m. weekend,

 

[JRod]

Most Rangers are there for the free golf and looking for balls. There is one course that uses them regularly around here and they are useless.

 

[Tedfroop]

I play at a muni usually and I have he clubhouse on speed dial. It really helps when they tell the ranger where to go to fix the problem.

 

[CAA_Beat]

Granted there are a lot of bad ones out there.

But I should give an example of the other side.

My home course Waverly Woods in Maryland. The rangers are all very good. The drive the course regularly and if they actually get out of their carts and will help players look for balls.

On two potential trouble holes they station theirselves in a position to see where errant tee shots landed and have spotted it for you when you get to it.

I think part of the reason is the GM of the course takes pace of play seriously. The course offers a $10 cash "thank you rebate" on Saturday and Sunday mornings to groups that finish in 4:15 or less.

 

[mpeterson]

Granted there are a lot of bad ones out there.

But I should give an example of the other side.

My home course Waverly Woods in Maryland. The rangers are all very good. The drive the course regularly and if they actually get out of their carts and will help players look for balls.

On two potential trouble holes they station theirselves in a position to see where errant tee shots landed and have spotted it for you when you get to it.

One of the courses near me has done this one really busy afternoons. When things get busy, they'll put people on tight holes or holes with blind tee shots to track balls for people. It's amazing what saving 2-3 minutes on a couple holes will do in terms of preventing the course from bogging down. It also helps that the rangers are then seen as helpful, rather than antagonistic.

 

[cpljohnst]

We call our two rangers Sweet & Sour. Bill is Sweet. He is always smiling and greats every group with "hey, how ya'll doin?". Never asks anyone to play faster or pick it up. The other ranger is Sour. I don't even know his name. I've never seen him smile and is a big grump. He enjoys too much getting on a groups case for slow play or what not. Sour just pisses everyone off due to his always hard attitude. Neither one of these guys are doing a good job of rangering the course.

 

[Canio]

This year, I started working at probably the best golf resort in New Jersey, Crystal Springs Resort and Spa. If you haven't heard of it, please take a look on line at http://www.crystalgolfresort.com/About/Hotels.aspx?gclid=CNrDuNevs78CFSJo7AodZUkA5Q. They have 7 courses, and 4 on site with the resort. I work at the main resort which has two of the best courses, the Crystal Springs course and Wild Turkey. They try to have 4 rangers on each of the main courses especially on the weekends. They work VERY closely with the starters on when the golfers tee off. They are in constant contact with each other on times and they WILL order a group to skip a hole if need be. They work very hard to keep the course moving at a 4:15 to 4:30 clip. Many times, on good days with good golfers, it will average 4:00 or under! They also will forecaddy for slow groups to help speed them up. I haven't seen them escort any groups off for behavior or extremely slow times, but I've heard they have done this in the past.

All in all, we are mostly retired or about to be retired golf nuts. We get free golf at all the courses!!! I only work parttime on weekends, but some of those retirees have been there 8-10+ years. They really know their business.

I'm proud to say that these rangers (they call them 'players assistants') are the gold standard! It is definitely a place for THP to consider for a future outing.

 

[flog2424]

I have always been amazed at the stupidity of some rangers who seem to simply have no knowledge of the game or how to treat customers.

I have been guilty a time or two of flat asking the ranger if he was playing in our group would he think the pace and things people are doing in front of us would be deemed respectful

 

[Sox_Fan]

Most Rangers are there for the free golf and looking for balls. There is one course that uses them regularly around here and they are useless.

This is my course. All elderly gentlemen that are scared to rock the boat. Although there is one that works on Sundays that always helps me with getting through slow golfers, etc.

 

[KnightLightPro]

My home course doesn't have a ranger as well. Pace of play is usually pretty decent, but there have been a few times where we had to holler at the group ahead of us as they were playing a couple of balls each between them.

 

[ddec]

the rangers at my course are all for the most part nice guys, but they are clueless. I've mentioned it before on here. They usually will stop and ask you how your round is. If you say slow, they will tell you that it's slow on that day. Well no crap, can we mention it to some groups and maybe help it move a bit better? They also like to drive down towards the tee box when you are getting ready to hit instead of stopping.

Here is one of my recent exchanges with a ranger at my course. I am a member here, and usually this guy knows me. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and say that I shaved my beard off so maybe he was confused. Anyway here goes the story. I show up on a weeknight. There is a league out on the front so the lady in the pro shop tells me to go off the back because it should be empty. It's about 6:15 at this time. I played the back 9 in just about an hour, had to wait on the final 2 holes. No big deal. So I finish the back and decide what the hell, maybe I'll go out on the front and play a couple holes or maybe even get another 9 in at this pace. Well this ranger comes up to me and asks what I was doing. Told him I was going to play a few on the front. He gave me a look like I was crazy. When he asked me how many holes I paid for, I told him an unlimited amount because I was a member. He didn't like that answer, but told me that I just needed to have the cart in by 8:20. Told him that wouldn't be an issue at all. I did end up playing 18 because there was nobody in my way until I got to the 9th hole. So it was 8:10, I teed up the ball got ready to hit and I can see his cart come down the hill, ride through the fairway, and then back up the hill towards the tee box. So I waited because with my luck I would have killed him. Anyway he stops and looks at me and said "Are you heading in? You know the cart needs to be returned by 8:25 so let's speed it up." I was a little taken aback by it. I asked him if he knew what time it was. He confirmed that it was 8:10. Being a little irriated I asked him if he remembered talking to me on the 1st tee box, some 45 minutes ago. If I had played 8 holes in that time, don't you think I will get this one done in less than 15 minutes? He kind of just snarled and went on his way.

Anyway, long post almost over. I just found it funny that I was being hurried along, when I played 18 holes in 2 hours, but when it's slow out they don't say a word to anyone.

 

[Evok]

the rangers at my course are all for the most part nice guys, but they are clueless. I've mentioned it before on here. They usually will stop and ask you how your round is. If you say slow, they will tell you that it's slow on that day. Well no crap, can we mention it to some groups and maybe help it move a bit better? They also like to drive down towards the tee box when you are getting ready to hit instead of stopping.

Here is one of my recent exchanges with a ranger at my course. I am a member here, and usually this guy knows me. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and say that I shaved my beard off so maybe he was confused. Anyway here goes the story. I show up on a weeknight. There is a league out on the front so the lady in the pro shop tells me to go off the back because it should be empty. It's about 6:15 at this time. I played the back 9 in just about an hour, had to wait on the final 2 holes. No big deal. So I finish the back and decide what the hell, maybe I'll go out on the front and play a couple holes or maybe even get another 9 in at this pace. Well this ranger comes up to me and asks what I was doing. Told him I was going to play a few on the front. He gave me a look like I was crazy. When he asked me how many holes I paid for, I told him an unlimited amount because I was a member. He didn't like that answer, but told me that I just needed to have the cart in by 8:20. Told him that wouldn't be an issue at all. I did end up playing 18 because there was nobody in my way until I got to the 9th hole. So it was 8:10, I teed up the ball got ready to hit and I can see his cart come down the hill, ride through the fairway, and then back up the hill towards the tee box. So I waited because with my luck I would have killed him. Anyway he stops and looks at me and said "Are you heading in? You know the cart needs to be returned by 8:25 so let's speed it up." I was a little taken aback by it. I asked him if he knew what time it was. He confirmed that it was 8:10. Being a little irriated I asked him if he remembered talking to me on the 1st tee box, some 45 minutes ago. If I had played 8 holes in that time, don't you think I will get this one done in less than 15 minutes? He kind of just snarled and went on his way.

Anyway, long post almost over. I just found it funny that I was being hurried along, when I played 18 holes in 2 hours, but when it's slow out they don't say a word to anyone.

That's how they are at my course. Being a member they all know me and are very nice and actually some are good at keeping things moving but most just write your name down and say have a nice day. There's a few veterans that just mosey around and enjoy the sun haha. Even had one remind me to wait till the group ahead was past a certain distance before I teed off..........well no kidding