Steve Hudson, a Southeast Chapter at-large representative to the South Florida PGA Section Board of Directors, is the PGA head professional at John’s Island Club in Vero Beach, Florida.
One thing we did here at John’s Island Club is invest in a mobile scoreboard stand that can be transported from room to room inside or outside. You can create great looking custom scoreboards using programs like Microsoft Excel and Publisher, and this gives our scoring area a professional and clean look. Our staff can also use various tournament software and projectors to achieve the same effect. If you don’t want to purchase a mobile scoreboard stand to put these scoreboards on, you can also use Styrofoam and an easel to create a mobile stand. This allows us to do all the scoring in our eating areas, which is very convenient for us and our event participants. Our scoreboard staff can maintain contact with other areas of the operation using two-way radios in the event of an issue. Players can watch scores as they come in, and it has made our whole tournament operations a lot smoother and more professional. It has also had some unique effects: One is that now everyone knows who the last players in are, and this has created a “self-policing” situation for slow play. We also have created a better audience for post-round announcements, such as the “Rule of the day” and upcoming club events. It has been a huge success for us.
We have had several positive effects that have come from scoring our events in the dining room or sit-down area. Our pace of play has improved by about 15 minutes per round on tournament days, and our food & beverage sales on event days have increased approximately 5-10 percent by encouraging more participants to stay for lunch to see the results. We get to promote the rest of our facility while people wait for players to come in. If we had a scoreboard exclusively outside, we probably wouldn’t see much of an effect on food & beverage sales.
If you would like to email the author of this Best Practice directly, please email stephendhud@gmail.com
Editor’s note: The above comments reflect the opinion and experiences of the submitting PGA Professional and are not endorsed by PGA Magazine or the PGA of America.