Merion Goes High-Tech

[Joe Bausch]

That is the name of the article by Mike Kern of the Philly Daily News:

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/golf/20120816_Merion_goes_high-tech.html

From the article:

By utilizing technology that includes 3D images of putting surfaces, Schultz' company, ezLocator, helps golf courses in several ways. Merion now has the ability to place its pins in places that can make better use of the greens, ease the wear and tear in certain sensitive areas, and strategically, as Shaffer pointed out, maybe even give them new possibilities.

Anybody here have experience with this 'pin location method'?

[Sean Remington (SBR)]

  I have seen them at our trade show the last few years and listened to the pitch.  I would like to look into it further but I don't think the money is available for us at this time. 

[Mike_Trenham]

I met the Greg Wojick and Matt Leverich who are agronomy playability consultants and they were real high on the product. here is a link to their site check out the 3d renderings!

http://www.goplaybooks.com/products_files/NewBrochure_ezLocator.pdf

Personally I think this type of knowlege about a courses greens could add pins a possibly prevent redesign of greens with a lot of slope.

Being golf chairman of my club in a year when two Saturdays the superintendent had to move a pin mid morning I know this would have prevented that situation.

[Patrick_Mucci]

That is the name of the article by Mike Kern of the Philly Daily News:

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/golf/20120816_Merion_goes_high-tech.html

From the article:

By utilizing technology that includes 3D images of putting surfaces, Schultz' company, ezLocator, helps golf courses in several ways. Merion now has the ability to place its pins in places that can make better use of the greens, ease the wear and tear in certain sensitive areas, and strategically, as Shaffer pointed out, maybe even give them new possibilities.

Joe,

Would you agree that a competent superintendent, familiar with the putting surfaces, is keenly aware of sensitive areas and all of the viable hole locations ?



Anybody here have experience with this 'pin location method'?

[Joe Bausch]

That is the name of the article by Mike Kern of the Philly Daily News:

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/golf/20120816_Merion_goes_high-tech.html

From the article:

By utilizing technology that includes 3D images of putting surfaces, Schultz' company, ezLocator, helps golf courses in several ways. Merion now has the ability to place its pins in places that can make better use of the greens, ease the wear and tear in certain sensitive areas, and strategically, as Shaffer pointed out, maybe even give them new possibilities.

Joe,

Would you agree that a competent superintendent, familiar with the putting surfaces, is keenly aware of sensitive areas and all of the viable hole locations ?

Probably, Pat, but the fact that these are selling and Merion purchased it suggests there is some benefit(s).

[Ian Larson]

It's a luxury. Just like the fairway rolling. But they can afford it. Merion has been changing pins everyday for decades without much trouble at all as well as any other super with knowledge of greens contour versus speed. It may have the benefit of data collection but I don't see it helping much with actually setting a fair pin. Putting a tee down on spot and lobbing a couples balls at it is free and effective.

[Patrick_Mucci]

Joe,

It's not an unheard of practice to give equipment/devices to the iconic clubs, then in your marketing efforts, to cite those clubs as having your equipment/devices, in order to get other clubs to buy your equipment/devices.

So, I wonder, did Merion buy this or was it complimentary ?

I tend to agree with Ian.

As to the data bank, while I love acquiring and warehousing data, what purpose does it serve if, as Ian says, you have a competent super ?

[Ben Sims]

I saw this at the show this year, and asked the guy a lot of questions.  It boiled down to this, "you can prevent over stress by knowing where your pinnable areas are and how best to rotate them."  When I asked what a pinnable area was, he gave a variable slope number.  When I asked if there was a exponential graph of slope that decreased "pinnability" as green speed increased he said yes.  When I asked if this included grass type in the graph he said he didn't know.  When I asked if clubs had used the info to soften slopes to increase pinnable area, he became very excited and said yes.   

Bottom line, I agree with everything Ian said.  I am sure it is a nice tool, but not necessary for even the most rookie sups and assistants. 

[Mike Nuzzo]

Being golf chairman of my club in a year when two Saturdays the superintendent had to move a pin mid morning I know this would have prevented that situation.

How can a computer keep a hole from being moved mid morning?
I've seen the demonstration.

If a club requests a hole to be moved during the day, I'm guessing they keep the greens quick.
Which means even a subtle slope change will effect the allowable hole map/patter.
So the map will only be pretty close -- it will have a tolerance or error.
Someone with a map will have to pace off the location - more error.
It is a game - I doubt those hole locations will be used again at your club anyway - too bad.

We recently saw Merion rolling their fairways.
How can Merion making a purchase be proof of some benefit for the average club?

Cheers

[Doug Siebert]

This sounds like it would also be valuable to insure that the greens stay as designed (well, stay as they are since they were first scanned)  Just scan them every few years and compare the before/after, and you can fix places where the green is getting built up due to sand splash, soil is subsiding, boundaries are changing, etc.

[Rich Goodale]

I know that Pasatiempo was experimenting with a LIDAR based system 6-7 years ago.  Maybe Tom D or Jim U know more.

[Patrick_Mucci]

This sounds like it would also be valuable to insure that the greens stay as designed (well, stay as they are since they were first scanned)  Just scan them every few years and compare the before/after, and you can fix places where the green is getting built up due to sand splash, soil is subsiding, boundaries are changing, etc.

Doug,

The only hole I can think of where sand splash may have had an impact was # 13 at Merion.
I'm sure there might be others, but, I can't recall any.
Same for topdressing with the exception of the horseshoe spine in a number of short holes.

Are there any greens that were dramatically altered by sand splash ?

Today's satellite photos would seem to be adequate for determining perimeter alterations to the greens over time.

What interested me more was the technology that illustrated the effect of shade as the sun moved across the sky, from sunup to sundown.
That was very informative and scientifically enlightening to the membership when it came to demonstrate the need for tree removal.