Skip and Dreama Fumia
Recently we described ways you, as Quail Creek golfers, can help our inside Pro Shop staff as they strive each day to better manage play on our courses. Now we want to turn our attention to the outside Pro Shop staff, i.e., our Rangers. Separate from Golf Course Maintenance, our Rangers, led by Gary Adkins under the direction of Head Pro Joel Jaress, extend player services to the course. As a golfer you typically encounter the Rangers in their carts on the course as they monitor and manage play. Their primary focus is to help you have a great golf experience on our courses. First let’s talk about how you can help them ensure a smooth flow of play for all golfers.
Our Pro Shop goal for 18-hole pace-of-play is four hours with four hours and 15 minutes acceptable. The Rangers monitor your progress with a tee sheet and timetable. Seasonal pacing (time and position) comes into play but, typically, if you are behind our timed pace (as shown hole by hole on our scorecards), our Rangers will ask you to speed up. When they next see you, if your time has improved, they will take no action but continue to monitor. If you are further behind, they may ask you to skip a hole to make up time. Rangers also keep play moving by assisting players with pace impediments such as loss of clubs and malfunction of carts. How can you help them with pace-of-play? Monitor your pace and keep things moving. Remember that one foursome can slow down play for the entire field, causing undue waiting for everyone. No one appreciates a five hour round; however, if you are a threesome playing at a three hour 45 minute pace, don’t blame the on-pace foursome in front of you for holding you up. What else? Communicate if you have a need (Pro Shop: 520-393-5802 or after hours Rangers’ cell: 520-260-7157). Anything else? Of course, be polite, always. If you have a difference of opinion with a Ranger, take it up with Joel.
Our Rangers also service our practice range – filling water buckets, tidying teeing area, picking/re-circulating range balls. How can you help them? Advise your family/guests to wear proper attire on the range and avoid the awkward conversation between a Ranger and your family/guest. Also, don’t collect balls at the edges of the range; those areas are home to many desert critters you’ll want to avoid. Finally, please don’t take range balls or baskets home with you. To avoid replacement costs, we need to keep those baskets and balls on the range.
Still another responsibility of our Rangers is rental golf cart maintenance. This includes wiping down the carts, fueling them and performing light maintenance to ensure they are in good running order. How can you help? You are welcome to use the water and air available in the cart barn, but please leave the area as you found it (just as you should do for the golf course!).
As a wrap-up, please do your part to help our Rangers do the best job they can do for all of us!