26 July 2014
To Whom it May Concern
I am writing this reference in support of the mPace software product.
I have been a member of golf clubs for over 45 years and in golf club management for 25 years, including a term as President of Golf Management Australia (NSW). In my roles as General Manager of The Royal Sydney Golf Club, Pymble Golf Club and now Bonnie Doon Golf Club, I have been actively involved in dealing with slow play at these clubs. Also as a long time member of The Lakes Golf Club, I have experienced the frustration of a slow round from time to time.
Until now, the only way that I have had any success in improving the pace of play has been to introduce a draconian penalty system which I had to personally implement and enforce. The only effective marshal is someone with authority and the respect of the members and in my experience it has had to be me. I had some success at Pymble but I needed to devote an exorbitant amount of my time to it – clearly a waste of an expensive resource.
At Bonnie Doon, soon after my arrival in 2012, we commenced utilising the mPace software. At the time we were averaging 4 hours 40 minutes on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays and I was receiving many complaints from the members. While the average doesn’t sound too bad, as there are some 4 hour rounds or better, the average shows that there were many rounds of 5 hours or greater. A survey at the time highlighted that slow play was a major area of concern of the members.
18 months later, having introduced mPace and utilised a disciplined approach of sending emails to players in groups which take longer than the targeted guidelines, our average round time has improved by 20 minutes. The flood of complaints has disappeared. The known “slow players” have found a way to play more quickly. We can now get more players into the field if we need to.
This has all been achieved without a significant administration burden. Once the staff are trained, it is a quick and simple process to download the data from MiClub into mPace, examine the output from mPace and then initiate the emails.
I highly recommend mPace to you. It is the only solution I have found in over 20 years of trying, which can significantly improve the pace of play.
Yours faithfully

Bill Francis
General Manager

Bonnie Doon Golf Club