INTERVIEW: Matt Savage - GM, Mill Run - His Success With Autonomous Pickers + Toptracer

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How AI-Powered Range Pickers Are Transforming Golf Course Operations: A Conversation with Matt Savage of Mill Run Golf Club

In this insightful episode of The AceCall.ai Podcast, we sit down with Matt Savage, General Manager of Mill Run Golf Club, to explore how AI-powered automation is revolutionizing golf course operations.

Matt shares invaluable insights on:

✅ The decision to embrace automation – How Mill Run Golf Club transitioned to automated range picking and why it was the right move.
✅ Operational efficiency & staff utilization – How automation has freed up employees for higher-value tasks and improved the golfer experience.
✅ Challenges & lessons learned – The real-world hurdles faced during implementation and how he and the club overcame them.
✅ The future of automation and AI in golf – What’s next for AI-driven operations, including predictive maintenance, autonomous fairway mowers, and member personalization.

This episode is packed with real-world strategies, first-hand experiences, and practical advice for club managers looking to innovate their operations with autonomous range pickers and Toptracer.

Whether you’re a seasoned GM well-verse in the latest tech, or new to the role and exploring how automation and/or AI can enhance your club’s efficiency, Matt’s perspective offers something for everyone.

You can follow Mill Run Golf Club on Facebook, X (Twitter) and Instagram for updates on their events, course play, and latest innovations.

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In a rapidly evolving golf industry, technology is playing a crucial role in enhancing efficiency and improving the golfer experience.

One standout example is Mill Run Golf Club, where General Manager Matt Savage has embraced AI-powered automation to streamline operations.

In a recent conversation on The AceCall.ai Podcast, Matt shared his insights into integrating automated range pickers, the challenges faced, and the immense benefits his club has experienced.

A Unique Golf Club Model with a Progressive Mindset

Mill Run Golf Club is a rare hybrid between equity ownership and public access, creating an inclusive yet premium experience.

With 902 individual shareholders, the club balances member privileges with public play to maintain financial sustainability.

This innovative model reflects Mill Run’s broader commitment to forward-thinking solutions, including AI and automation.

The Leap Into Automation: Why Mill Run Adopted an AI Range Picker

The idea of automating range picking at Mill Run wasn’t an overnight decision.

Matt first encountered autonomous pickers five to seven years ago and was fascinated by their potential.

However, early technology wasn’t suited for Mill Run’s high-volume driving range.

When Korechi, a robotics company from Oshawa, introduced a new AI-driven range picker, the timing was perfect.

Mill Run’s old picker was in disrepair, making the transition to automation a logical next step.

The new AI picker has allowed staff to reallocate their time to higher-value service tasks rather than spending hours manually retrieving balls.

Overcoming Challenges and Adapting to New Technology

As with any new technology, integrating AI-powered range pickers came with learning curves.

The club had to develop new systems for charging, remote operations, and troubleshooting occasional signal outages.

Fortunately, Korechi’s close proximity allowed for quick on-site support, ensuring minimal downtime.

One of the biggest operational shifts was adapting staff roles. Instead of eliminating positions, the AI picker displaced employees from monotonous range duty and allowed them to focus on customer service, bag drop assistance, and range maintenance.

This shift has led to a better overall experience for members and guests alike.

The Future of AI in Golf Club Management

Matt sees AI’s impact expanding beyond range picking.

He envisions AI assisting in member personalization, predictive maintenance, and even autonomous fairway mowing.

Technologies like TopTracer are already set to revolutionize range data collection, providing insights on usage patterns and optimizing operational decisions.

Lessons for Golf Club Managers

For clubs considering automation, Matt advises reaching out to operators already using AI solutions.

Real-world insights from early adopters can save clubs years of trial and error.

“Find a course using the technology and pick up the phone,” he recommends.

By staying ahead of the curve, Mill Run Golf Club has positioned itself as an industry leader.

As AI continues to evolve, clubs that embrace innovation today will be well ahead of the competition tomorrow.

Podcast Episode Transcript

Clay (00:02)

Welcome to the ACE Call AI podcast where we help golf club managers win with AI. Managing a golf club today is harder than ever. So we created simple AI solutions and a podcast to make it easier for you. I'm Clayton Elliott.

Brad (00:18)

And I'm Brad Milligan. Together, we bring a mix of entrepreneurial innovation and decades of golf club management experience to help you optimize your club, increase profitability and elevate the golfer experience. So let's dive in. Today, we have the pleasure of speaking with Matt Savage, the general manager of Mill Run Golf Club. Matt turned professional in 2009, achieving a commendable third place finish in the PGA of Ontario playing ability test.

Matt brings over two decades of experience in the golf industry, including 16 years as a member of the PGA of Canada. He is actively working towards becoming a certified club manager through the Club Managers Association of Canada. And he currently serves on the advisory board for his chapter of the NGCOA. Under his leadership, Mill Run Golf Club has flourished, offering world-class golf instruction and facilities. Matt's dedication to the sport and his innovative approach to golf management

make him a standout figure in the industry. Matt, thank you for joining us.

Matt Savage (01:19)

You're welcome. It's my pleasure. Thank you for the nice intro. I'm excited to chat with you two today.

Brad (01:25)

There you go, good job on third place in the PATs too, that's a grind.

Matt Savage (01:28)

Thanks, it was an interesting day for sure.

Brad (01:32)

Yeah, I know, I remember.

So we were very excited to interview Matt and he's been at the forefront of autonomous range pickers and his club is using one of them at their driving range. When we had our initial intro call with him, he was blowing our minds about what was happening with range pickers and AI. Before we get into that, do you mind giving us a quick description of your operation and your experience at Mill Run?

Matt Savage (01:58)

Yeah, absolutely. Mill Run is a 45-hole facility. We're actually equity-owned, a very unique place where we are owned by 902 individual shareholders or unit holders. But we allow public play. Most equity clubs are fully private. we allow members' dues to be at a much more reasonable price because those tee times that get unbooked will get filled by public golfers. So part of our 27-hole or part of our 45-hole setup is 27 holes on our championship course. And then we have

an 18-hole executive course called the Highland. We have a separate clubhouse there and a main clubhouse on the championship course that has full banquet facilities. We have a beautiful spot out by the pond where we do outdoor ceremonies for weddings. We've got inside banquet facilities for up to 250 people, a fitness center, locker room, showers, that sort of stuff. So kind of all the amenities that you need at a club and fortunately the public can still play here at a decent price in the tee times that the members haven't booked.

Clay (03:03)

Right on. That's a good pitch. That's a, you, it sounds like you have an amazing operation actually. And, is that like, I'm new to golf. don't know a lot about the comparing all the different clubs. Would you guys say like, that's not normal. That's not, that's not common amongst a lot of, semi-private private clubs to have that level of operation and production.

Matt Savage (03:29)

Yeah, it's very uncommon. It's the only place that I know of that is equity owned and allows public play. So we're still member focused. Like that's our goal is we're a member first place. Our members feel like they're at a private club. We have a separate member lounge for them, separate member patio, discounts for them in there that only them and their guests can come to. But then we have the regular restaurant that people can come off the street to. So very unique that we have both of those. Our members play and we have over 20 golf events that our members play in throughout the season. So if you're a member here, you feel like you're a member at

the same as the private club down the road but their dues are a little more reasonable and because we allow some some of those tee times that are open to be filled.

Clay (04:09)

That's cool. And I guess a lot of the public that can come in and enjoy playing on such a great course, they're very well-behaved. imagine you do attract some good non-member clientele who kind of fit the vibe and just kind of, they step in and they're like, okay, it's nice to be here. You know, I'm going to act as if I'm a member here, act as if I'm an equity owner here kind of thing.

Matt Savage (04:37)

Yeah, we have a great mix of the public players that do play here. A lot of them are, this is their kind of second home. You know, they might not play enough to be a member, but they'll buy a 10 pack or they'll play every other weekend or something like that. So even our public players, you know, they show up to bag drop and some of our staff know them by name. So they kind of fit that mold, that vibe. And then also they're usually wedged between two groups of members. So, you know, it's not that opportunity to, I think we all know some public courses where things can get out of hand and you don't really have that opportunity. you're wedged between

Clay (04:46)

Yeah.

Matt Savage (05:07)

members that own the place and care about the place and everyone kind of has that mutual respect around here. So our players that do fit here really fit that vibe and become regulars as well.

Clay (05:20)

That's cool. That's very cool. We could, we could dig more into that. And I'm sure, you know, in the future, we'd love to have you on again to dig deeper into the details of, you know, the fine tune machine that you have running over there, as far as overall operations, but we're going to dig into.

You know, the automated range pickers and really pick your brain about that and learn as much as we can from you about that and your learning curve and your learning experiences. And what would you do differently if you went back and did it all over again? Cause that's what the value for anybody listening to this, the, of the most valuable pearls of wisdom will be. If you could go over and do it again, what would you do differently? How can I piggyback on your wins and losses and kind of just start hitting some holes in one or some right out of the gate.

You know, like right off, right off the T and, that might help people. So, you know, what initially sparked your interest in integrating automated range pickers and, especially as I assume this is one of your first. Exploration into like advanced automations and AI hardware and technology.

Matt Savage (06:26)

I first saw the technology probably f-

five to seven years ago and I was so impressed by it, blown away really. The first unit that I saw actually had a picker that would drive around. It was just a little robotic piece that would go and pick up balls and followed it was the same size unit that was cutting the grass. Because one of the issues that we always have at golf courses is you need to have the range completely clear of golf balls before you can cut it. Otherwise you're cutting through golf balls that cost you almost a dollar a piece and it becomes very expensive to lose all those golf balls. So this was a really unique setup where

the robot would pick up the balls, the mower would follow behind and cut the grass, and they'd just kind of work in unison all day. Unfortunately, at the time, I looked into that and the technology for the size of the unit that it was, it wasn't something we could do at our place. We're extremely busy with the 45 holes and over 800 members. We have so much uses on our range that there was just too many range balls for this unit to actually work for us. But ever since I first saw that, in the back of my mind, I said, this is something that when the technology gets better, we really

to be part of it. And then Korechi, a company out of Oshawa, approached us. They are a robotics company and they came to us and said that they had a unit that could drive our picker for us. So there's obviously the machine or the tractor that the staff would traditionally sit in and then in front is the rollers and the baskets that pick up the balls. Their robot that they created actually drove that basket and rollers around for us. So we were in a unique spot where we actually

our machine that we'd been using to drive around the range was in a state of disrepair. We'd fixed it as much as we could over the last few years. You it's not a customer facing piece of equipment. So it kind of always gets pushed to the back and we limp it along and it was at the end of its lifetime. So we were going to need to purchase a new unit. And then this robot came up as a, kind of a good opportunity. So went back and forth through the process with them, learned all about it, found out that it's going to fit right into our current, you know,

the front, the gangs at the front, and we just decided to jump right in. Learning curves, obviously there are some with all technology.

We got them out here, they mapped out our area. We had some concerns just with cell service, if the signal goes in and out, what's gonna happen? So they came and walked the whole range and tested all the signals for us and went through all the processes. It was their first kind of go around at this too. Them being just in Oshawa was really convenient for us that they could pop over here, do some testing and then zip back. So being so close was a huge benefit to us. If they were in BC, maybe we wouldn't have been so quick.

to jump on to be one of the first adopters of it. But having them right here was beneficial. basically the process they came out here, they mapped the range. So based on where we told them most of the golf balls ended up most of the time, they made four different routes that we could modify, turn into a fifth one, turn into a sixth one if we need to. But you'd basically send the picker and say, go pick route number one. And it would just do laps around that area and pick up all the balls as needed. So that was kind of the first iteration of that technology.

And we'd have to change routes as we learned that this one's too busy, this one gets too many balls. But the neat thing is, once it finishes its route, it would then send us a message to say, OK, the picking's done, come and empty the baskets. So that was kind of the first idea of what we were getting going. Now the technology is just getting better and better, and they're onto the second version of it. So the first version was called the Picker. Their new version is called the Picker X, and that's what we're going to have here this spring.

looking forward to some of the advanced tech that it's going to have.

Brad (10:14)

That's awesome. It's really, it's a massive decision when you have, cause I've been at clubs where your range pickers, they get dilapidated, they're falling apart. It's a very common thing. You're basically piecemealing it back together every season and you're like, okay, let's, I guess we need a new gang for it. And then like, some sort of bar will snap and then it's out for a few days and you have guys hand picking the range. It's a really huge issue at golf clubs. don't think.

people understand how many kilometers or miles you're putting on those actual machines, how much wear and tear they actually take, especially with the human element of, you have Sean over here who drives it properly, then you have Billy who's just a maniac with it, and he's taking it around trees and flying around all over the place, and he puts more wear and tear on it. So just having something that's consistent and doing its job always the same way, I think is absolutely massive.

Can you like touching on that staff element there, Matt, can you touch on how automated range pickers were obviously, we're not trying to replace a human being here, but how have they, you know, enhance your staffing experience, would you say?

Matt Savage (11:24)

I think that's a really important piece of this. know, if you're paying attention to news or whatever, they always talk about how AI is going to take over these jobs and replace people. And there's obviously some pushback and some concern about that. And we thought about that, but that was never really our situation here. We didn't use it to replace a staff member. We used it to displace a staff member so that they can be used in more service areas. You know, traditionally you'd have someone out there for four or five hours picking the range and that body is just gone.

they disappear, let alone the stuff you just mentioned, Brad, about the way they drive it, because everyone drives it not like they were trained to drive it. But that person's gone. You don't have them for all the other duties that need to be done. And we would schedule them appropriately for that. But what we've done with this automated picker, it now goes on its route, it lets us know when it's done. And now it's five minutes to go over, meet the picker, empty the baskets, wash the balls and get them back into rotation. So you've taken this five hour job and now it's

it might be five minutes every hour over those five hours that that person is actually attending to the range. The rest of the time they can be at bag drop improving our service levels, know, taking care of laundry, doing the towels, picking up range baskets that were left on the range, all these little things that need to be done anyways, that maybe if that person's gone for five hours, get left behind and then they've got to run and do all that stuff after and there's less precision in it. So the biggest thing we've seen is having that extra body at bag drop, just helping out that customer experience.

Whether it's members or guests, when they show up, there's an extra body to help get them welcomed and get them onto the golf course.

Clay (13:03)

That's very cool. What, and it's really, like you said, it's not about, I like that not replacing humans. It's displacing them from drudgery tasks and low value activities that have, they have to get done by someone. And if you don't have a robot, well, then it's a body. It's a human. It's going to be doing that. But if a robot can do it just as easily to free them up, all the better. Right. And so, on that note, like,

What were the really distinct and most painful challenges that you faced, you know, as you adopted this tech, how did you, how did your team handle it and overcome it?

Matt Savage (13:45)

Yeah, the biggest hurdles was just you get this with all new technology. There's always learning curves. So we had to set up new systems in place. Like the unit gets stored inside overnight where we charge it. So the, you know, the pro that got here in the morning to kind of open the course and get things ready, he'd have to go over to maintenance and there's a remote control and manually drive it over to its home location, hook up the gangs on it and have it ready for the day. So that's just a new thing that we weren't doing in the past. Same thing at the end of the day, it has to be put away. So the back shop,

staff might unhook the front gangs, but then we wanted one of the more senior staff, whether it's one of the pros or the closer, to drive it back over to maintenance and arm the maintenance building. So little things like that where we had to just create new systems. Even the learning curves of having someone here all day, the back shop staff that would normally pick the range, now there's an extra body. So what are we going to have them doing? When do we get those notifications? Who do those notifications go to that says the picker is

or the picker is back at the home location. So those are just learning curves that you had to work through. And with any technology, there's always outages or something happens, right? So there's the odd time that for whatever reason, the picker might just stop on the range. Well, we'd have to then troubleshoot it and find out what that issue was. Conveniently support with Korechi was great. So send them an email. They can log in directly, talk to the picker and get it going or let us know what the issue is. So we had a lot of those.

the situations that were fixed remotely. But it's new technology. think anytime you implement something, you're going to run into some learning curves, hurdles, whatever you want to call them. It's all part of growing and becoming a smoother, better operation. I think that's the biggest piece. We did this to make our operation more efficient. And I don't think you can just snap your fingers and expect to be more efficient overnight. It's no different than when we implement new point of sale or T-sheet software. Yeah, the software we're using now is way

better

than what we were using five years ago, but it took some time to get to that point. We're actually just about to launch Top Tracer range in the springtime and we've got the towers installed and all set up and it's going to be live when the golf course opens. But we know there's going to be some hurdles, some some learning curve, not just for our staff, but for the members too. So I think just getting ahead of it as much as you can, trying to have a plan in place for Top Tracer. For example, we're going to have members out here education sessions.

so they know how to use it. Before that we have to have education sessions with our staff so they know how to use it. So proper planning helps a lot and

You always have to know that technology can cut out at any point. So there always has to be a backup plan. we didn't necessarily like I was mentioning that the cart we were using to drive the picker around before was in poor shape. Well, we had to come up with another plan in case the picker did go down. What are we going to do? So having those things thought of in advance and back up. And it's not like it was ever down for a week or anything that we had to really change our operation. But just having those things, I think,

for other operators to think of all those things in advance. What are we gonna do if this happens, if this happens? And just having a plan in place is a good idea.

Clay (17:01)

Yeah. And like you said, it's proactive growing pains to grow or reactive catch up pains, you know, where people are like, everyone's got this. Okay. Then you're like scrambling to get caught up. You're still going to cause you pain doing that. There's still a learning curve, but now you're doing it in a reactive way versus being industry leader. You know, now you're, you're setting the standard and it's something by the time everyone else is doing it, you guys are all.

extremely proficient in the hardware and the software. Like you're so far down the learning curve, you're truly realizing all the benefits. You're already realizing benefits from the sound of it, which we will get into it a bit, but it, in two, three, four years from now, you guys will be even more dialed in with how it all operates. Well, everyone else is just getting started and trying to figure it out. So there's still be a big gap between the experience you guys can provide and the experience others can provide as they're just playing catch up. And one more question though is,

Did you guys reach out to Karachi or did they reach out to you?

Matt Savage (18:04)

So I actually saw it online. I think I saw it on Twitter or guess X now So I had sent them a message and we connected and went through that whole process So it was it was a little bit of a back-and-forth I saw it and then their sales team, you know jumped in and we got some more information and went through that whole process But it was it was kind of random how it started they were they weren't looking to push sales at the time We were one of six that they launched in that first year

So, you production obviously is an issue when you're a startup to try and get the robots themselves built. So they didn't have a ton to just go sell everywhere and they wanted to fine-tune it before they went to the market. us being close was an easy opportunity for them. They could come by and test and even the new the PickerX that we're taking this year, they were out here last year testing it because it's so close. They just zip over and we have a good relationship with them. So we'd let them use the range and they did some test work with it here before they

started selling it to the rest of world.

Clay (19:06)

Yeah, but, but you, this whole thing started because you were seeking, you were looking and searching and keeping your eyes open for new innovations and kind of doing your own after hours research, I guess. And then when you found it, you reached out to them because you're like, I got it. I got to start a conversation here with these guys and like, see where it goes. Cause if this is possible, said you saw it at a golf, in a different club or a trade show. Initially. Online. There you go.

Matt Savage (19:32)

No, actually saw it online. This version I saw online.

I think it's important for any club to just try and be on top of the new things that are coming out as possible. Like this is such a great technology and it's become such a convenience for our operation. I think in five years, everyone's gonna have one. There's other competitors out there. Every company that's involved in range is now making something similar. They're kind of playing catch up. Obviously they reach out to us and try and sell us their product too.

This is going to be something that every range has and we're just much happier to be at the forefront of it, be ahead of it. And it's just, a talking piece, right? When we first put it in, we were the only one, no one had really heard of it. And people are just talking about it like crazy, going to the clubs they're at and bringing that up. And it's just another way to get Mill Run in people's mouths. If someone comes and plays here and a group of buddies play and they see it on the range and they're laughing about it, trying to hit shots at it. And they go to the bar later that night and they're talking about the robot they saw at Mill Run. That's just one more.

time that Mill Run is being talked about to more people. So as long as we're providing a quality service and quality product, we want people talking about Mill Run as much as they can and that's our goal. So the more conversations that we're involved in outside of the club, letting other people do the word of mouth marketing for us, we're happy to do that. And that's part of the Top Tracer thing that I was mentioning too. know, the technology there between Top Tracer range and TrackMan range, it's so amazing. And if you've ever used it or when you do use it, it's something that every golf course that

that's of quality, I think, will have on their range at some point. Every independent that's just a range, it would be crazy to me to own something like that and not have this technology on it. So in the future, it's gonna be something that you see everywhere. And as we see technology increase across all areas, all environments, it's just gonna be something that the earlier you're into it, if someone goes to a place that has it and says, oh yeah, I saw that at Mill Run first, that's another reason that puts us at the top.

of the curve.

Clay (21:35)

Exactly. And like you said, you invested in something that had long-term benefit, short-term and long-term benefits for your daily operations, which is labor utilization. It increases your profitability, all these things, right? Is just getting that. But one of the secondary, like not even a far second, but a very close secondary benefit is it's almost like a marketing spend. Because the amount of viral word of mouth buzz.

that just comes from people seeing it, hitting balls at it, talking about it. You can't pay for that kind of virality, that kind of word of mouth buzz. And if you ask people to talk about your club, they're not going to do it. But if you bring something that's worth talking about, they'll just do it and they can't stop doing it. And they don't even have to be asked to do it. So that, what's that, could have cost thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars of marketing and advertising to get people to talk about your club like that and keep it, keep you in their mouths. So yeah, it's a, but again, if you do that in five years,

It's not going to get you that buzz, right? Because you got ahead of it. It's, had that effect for you and that benefit for you. It's very cool.

Matt Savage (22:39)

Yeah, it's pretty neat. even had a CTV came out and did a special on us that first year that we had it because it was brand new. No one else had ever seen it. So they did a little feature on AI. Is it taking over the golf industry? And it was a little quick hit in their sports section. But a fun little thing, again, that gets us in front of people and obviously gets Korechi some notoriety too for being out there.

Brad (23:02)

Yeah, let's keep talking about about Korechi because you know, when we had our initial conversation, you were blowing our minds with what's what's coming down the pipeline. This was information you weren't even sure you were allowed to share with us up to this point, but you got the go ahead from from Korechi. Why don't you tell us about how they're going to integrate with with Trackman range with Top Tracer? I know you guys are going with Top Tracer. These are excellent products, both of them. I've used both of them, Top Tracer and Trackman and

Clay (23:03)

Yeah, cool.

Brad (23:32)

Like Matt said, it levels up the experience at the range. know of range rats who they play actually very little golf. Like there are these members, I'm sure you have them at your club, Matt, who they'll play nine holes and they're like, I'm terrible today. Then they'll go to the range for two and a half hours and beat balls to the sun goes down. And this would add such a massive experience, you know, to their entire enjoyability of the game. Those range rats, they would spend even more time there and that's good for your club too.

Can you tell us about this amazing, this tech that's coming out and how they're integrating and how that's going to increase your operation, the member experience at your club?

Matt Savage (24:12)

Yeah, absolutely. And just to your point about those range rats, like this makes practicing way more fun. I know when I was a kid working on my game, I spent a ton of time at the range too, but with this technology, I would have spent way more time. It's got built-in programs where you can work on your game. It gives you a rating and you come back and you work on those skills time after time. The top tracer coach portion that our pros will use for teaching, they can assign drills to the student and then that student doesn't need the program. They just go to the range,

phone out, get assigned their drill and they can practice and get that feedback rate to the coach. So the practice potential and the learning opportunities with it is amazing, let alone from it just being a ton of fun to use. But the technology that we were chatting about that I'm

so excited for is really the connection between Top Tracer, Trackman range and Korechi. So right now the way that it works as I explained is we get, we send it on a loop, right? It's got loop one, loop two, loop three, loop four, whatever, however many you need for your range. And the unit comes back after it does that loop and we go empty the balls. The new, the Picker X actually has cameras on the machine that scans and looks at the baskets and is actually counting the balls as they're coming in. So it's going to let us

us know when the baskets are full, not just when it's done its loop. So if it's on loop one, and let's say we had a tournament and everyone was just beating balls at that first close green, then it's gonna fill up pretty quickly. So the cameras are gonna see not only that the baskets are full, but also where the balls came from. So it's gonna be learning using AI consistently to learn that more information about our range, which is great. That's gonna be kind of the next benefit of this. But the big thing that I'm excited for is

this year every golf ball that's hit on our range because of top tracer is going to be tracked. Whether you're using the app or not, the cameras are set up and it sees every single golf ball that flies off our range. So it helps us with, you know, how many golf balls go out of bounds. We have on the right side of our driving range is our driveway that enter the property and golf balls you pull in and you'll see a couple on the driveway from time to time. But to the right of that is a steep cliff with fescue and we lose who knows how many golf balls over there in a season. We'll actually

be able to know that now, which is kind of nice. And if it's a member that's hitting them over there regularly, we can see that too, if they're using top tracer and say, maybe just aim a little bit more left next time. But so that's that's pretty cool technology alone just to see where the golf balls are going. But that's going to actually show us where the concentration is the heaviest. So when this technology is synced with Karachi, instead of the robot just going, OK, you do lap one, come back, do lap two, it's actually going to know where the heavy concentration of golf balls is and be able to go to that area, just as you would

with when we had the staff sitting in the machine, they drive out to the heaviest area first when we needed golf balls so they get back and unload them. The robot is now going to be able to do this. So that's not going to be right away. It's obviously they're testing it. I believe they're working on it with Cabot Cape Breton this summer and going through some testing. I'm sure that's with Trackman range. I'm sure we'll do some testing here with Top Tracer range as we go through and really get that dialed in. But I'm really excited for that in the future where

It's almost the gentleman that works for Karachi Jam explained like it's dog going to play fetch now It's actually going to get the golf ball instead of just the golf ball being on its route. So I think that's really cool It's gonna speed up that process that productivity the efficiency of the of the picker itself because it won't be driving in a spot where there's no golf balls in the future it will only be going where it knows the golf balls are and it knows where they are because of The balls being tracked on top tracer. So it's just amazing how the two can connect We're really excited

for the work around and the testing of that and then officially launching it when it's ready.

Clay (28:04)

That's, that's wildly mind blowing tech. it, says tracer and the balls are traced. Are they cameras that trace the balls? So they come and they set up cameras at certain points in your, sorry, let me say that again. It's, that's, it's really mind blowing tech. Like they come in, is it cameras that catch?

Brad (28:07)

Bye.

Matt Savage (28:12)

Yeah, yeah, so we have three.

Clay (28:26)

the locations of all the balls and they just, they track it like visually, like it's visual tracking. It's not like each ball has a little GPS thing in it and they can track where the ball goes.

Matt Savage (28:32)

Yeah.

Yeah, we have three cameras that are set up behind our range deck now. So three different towers and the cameras face the range and they can...

They actually view the actual golf ball. The golf balls are the same. We've upgraded the golf balls because we want the numbers to be a little bit more accurate for this season. But you don't need a specific golf ball. It just needs to be within the range of the camera. So we had to get three towers because we have a pretty big grass tee deck that we wanted to be included in this. If you have a smaller range, you can get away with one or two. But we needed three just because the size of it, it's 200 feet wide. And we wanted the whole range to be included. So anywhere that you hit a ball on

our range deck, the ball flight is tracked. Whether you're using the app or not, it's going to see it. And then to use the app is really, really easy. You just go up to the range, you open up the app, you hit a shot and you say, find me. And if Clay, if you and I are standing beside on the range and we're both going to use it, I would hit one left, you would hit one right. And then it's going to see both those flights and I would select the person that hit it left. You'd select the person that hit it right. And now every shot we hit from that spot is going to be tracked for our whole session in our profile.

and if you didn't use it and I was using it, I still select the left person, you just keep hitting balls, you don't get any of that data, but we have that data internally of where you hit all the range balls, how many you hit, how long you were there, all that stuff.

Clay (29:57)

And that could be used for coaches that could be used for whatever other internal purposes. Like you said, if you want to know which members blazing all your balls down into the off the cliff, you might go to him and say, listen, man, we hate to give you another little bump in your fees here, but you specifically have cost us about a thousand 1500 bucks this year, just in balls. So, yeah, we're gonna, we're gonna put a little, a little hold on that there, John, your clay. It would be clay. wouldn't be, it wouldn't be John, it'd be clay.

Matt Savage (30:07)

You

Yeah.

Yeah, it'll be good to have that information. you know, we buy new range balls every year. And it's always been an educated guess of, know, we know how many we have in inventory, we know how many we normally buy, we have to throw out the ones that are in bad shape each year. But it's always been based on feel, you know, I'm fortunate, I've been here for 19 years. So I've had a pretty good feeling of what the the averages are and what the normals are. But now we have that data, you know, we say, okay, this year, our first year with top tracer, we had x many balls hit, here's the condition of the balls, and we bought this many. So leading into next year, we want the balls

to last longer or be better, we need to buy a certain percentage more. So it's a lot easier for me to go to the board and say, hey, we're upping this expense because of all this data instead of going to them and just saying, I have a feeling we need more. having some data to back any decision always helps in any situation. And this is just another area where we can use that.

Clay (31:15)

Yeah. The data, data driven decisions, right? And there's no saying is saying is if, what gets measured gets managed. And if you can't measure it, you can barely manage it. You're going on your gut. There's no standard, there's no standard. There's no objective assessment, right? It's just a bunch of different people's subjective gut feelings in any given moment. Cause there's no measurement. So, so, okay. So just to be clear, like it's insane tech. what exactly.

And forgive me if I'm slow to record what you said, but it sounds like the data that is gathering is wherever the ball moves. It's tracking, it's recording, it's gathering it. like, what are other capabilities that you can do with the data analytics? Like that's associated with these systems, you know, that have provided any new insights into like range usage or.

additional services, like anything, any data analytics that's coming to you now, that's informing any decisions, current or future so far.

Matt Savage (32:23)

Yeah,

since we haven't technically launched it yet, we're still waiting to see.

Clay (32:28)

sorry, Top Tracer

has not been launched yet.

Matt Savage (32:30)

Top Tracer, we installed the towers in the fall, right when we closed, and it's going to launch in the spring. you know, the immediate thought of what we're going to see is how many balls are hit, busy times, usage on the range, which is really important. You know, the range has to be cut. The TDEC has to be, the divots have to be filled. There's a lot of man or labor hours spent on the range, and we're going to have usage reports of when it's busiest, when it's not busy. Currently, we close it Wednesday night so we can do a full clean pick and make sure there's no balls

Clay (32:33)

Gotcha, sorry, yep. Gotcha.

Matt Savage (33:00)

there and then Thursday morning the turf crew comes and cuts it all and it doesn't open till 9 a.m. and that's been our standard practice because of just play patterns and whatnot but now we're gonna see is there a better time to do that based on the usage is there a time that we can close it down is there times that we should be on the the mats we have a nice hitting mat at the back of the range but a huge grass tee deck so right now we close it certain days based on if it's a if it's been really rainy maybe we want people off the mats instead of tearing up the turf because it's weaker

But we might have more patterns that we can get from this of, this day and this day are a little slower. We're going to have off the mats, give the turf some time to heal, or maybe the opposite. It's really busy on Saturday mornings and the T-deck is just getting smoked. We need to be on mats on Saturday mornings. So just getting some actual data instead of taking a guess or looking at the number of buckets sold. You know, our members don't pay for range buckets. So we don't really get that by, it's just how many did you hand out in the golf shop to a member?

So

just to have that information is going be huge to make decisions in the future. Operationally, both when do we close, when do we pick, when do we go to the hitting mat, but then also for purchases. How many balls do we need? Do we need to get way more? Are we good with that number? Can we upgrade it to a different ball category? All that information is going to be good to have.

Brad (34:23)

Yeah, data is crucial and it helps to show your membership the actual numbers instead of just using opinions. know clubs, they can fall into that kind of pit where there's a lot of opinions circling around and there can be certain clubs. I can kind of say these things because I don't work at a club currently, but you can have members with self-serving agendas, right? So they believe in one thing.

Matt Savage (34:43)

You

Brad (34:49)

and they have a very strong voice and they might get another person who's on a board and kind of sway them into some decisions. But when you have these analytics, this data, they can't really argue with it. I mean, they might still argue with it. We've all seen that before, but let's talk about the dollars that are being spent in the bottom line. Maybe if you could explain how a club goes about financing one of these bots, are there leases available? Can you buy one outright? And then...

You touched on the support that Korechi gives you, but maybe just touch on that a little bit more too. Once you have one on your property, if and when it breaks down, if there's issues, it sounds like they're amazing with customer service and support. But yeah, just the financing aspects and then the support would be awesome to touch on, think, Matt.

Matt Savage (35:31)

Yeah, we were in a unique situation like I mentioned that first year where we needed a new machine anyways. So we dove in with a rental program for the first year because it was a trial for them and it was a trial for us as one of the first six adopters of it. We wanted to see that it worked well and be part of that experiment. But we also didn't want to be on the hook for a huge amount of money if it wasn't going to be that work the way that it did. So we rented it the first couple of years knowing that we had a long term commitment with them.

to move forward. So now they've got a new version that's coming out, the Picker X, and that, yes, you can purchase it outright. We will likely finance it. There's all kinds of financing companies in the golf industry, let alone, you know, through your bank or whatever. But we have companies that we deal with on a regular basis, whether it's for carts or turf equipment, you know, whatever we need. So we will finance it, kind of spread it out over four years. And that payment that we're going to make is equivalent to what we were paying to rent the unit before. So

on our operation it doesn't make any huge changes to our finances but it just means that we're going to own this product at the end of those four years and you know it's technology in four years we might be saying okay we're going to trade this one in because you've got the picker XX or whatever they're going to call it right and there might be a smaller course whether it's just a single driving range or a mom-and-pop course that wants to buy our unit because they can't afford to spend 50 or 80 or 100 grand whatever that new

one's going to cost but they might want to replace their machine and get it at $10,000 or whatever ours is going to be worth at that time. I think there's always going to be value in that unit because we might be deciding we're going to stretch it for two more years without paying for anything. It's free now or we sell it to someone, trade it in with them. We haven't worked through those details yet because we know in four years it's still going to be an operation and that's not an issue but there's definitely always ways you can finance and

work around getting these kind of devices. When you spread it out over three, four, five years, the cost really isn't that much. And some clubs are going to be just buy it out right with cash. That's going to be depending on the ownership style. If it's one owner with heavy pockets, if it's 800 owners at an equity club, who knows what that situation is and where a board or an owner wants to decide. for us, been it's a pretty straightforward, pretty simple process. I think a lot of clubs do this leasing

at to own option with carts and turf equipment anyways, it's a pretty normal process for us.

Clay (38:09)

Very cool. what, what feedback have you received from your, from your staff, from your, club members, you know, regarding this, you know, when you're trying to bring it in, imagine there was some skepticism, some pushback, some curious people, some of you scratching their heads, other people very excited, but then after rolling it out and seeing how it works and, know, getting the winds with it and up the learning curve, is anybody

vocally praising you for it and forgetting it, is there any serious pushback still or anybody? Is there any, any, the human element, the tech is great. It's supposed to do it. does what it's supposed to do, which some tech does, some tech doesn't, but the human elements always the real chaotic and kind of, uh, difficult to navigate and manage sometimes just curious if now that it's working is

Any previous naysayers saying you were right. Good job, Matt. Thanks for pushing this forward or anybody that was really excited in the past. they now being like, yeah, I'm so glad we got this. I told you it was great. I told you Matt was right. You know, anything like that.

Matt Savage (39:17)

Yeah, there's always those reactions on both sides of things no matter what we do. At first, obviously, there was a ton of, yeah. Of course. Yeah.

Clay (39:21)

No matter what, it's always going to have one side or the other, no matter what you got, you got to, you got to do the politics of it no matter what.

Matt Savage (39:28)

But in general, a ton of excitement around it when we first got it. People asking questions, wanting to show their friends, asking if they can hit balls at it, if that's gonna break it. Just curious about how it works and what it does. just that the little small talk conversations with the members was pretty neat right from the start. There wasn't too many naysayers or negative complaints about it. And I think a lot of that is because they aren't too involved in the operation. They don't see that, sorry, not all of them would see that there's now an extra body around.

to help with certain things. That that person isn't out stuck on the range for four or five hours, but they would notice that the operations got a little smoother and services a little better, but they don't necessarily relate the two like we would operationally. So no real pushback. There's also, you know, there's a bit of a good story along with it too. It's using a battery to drive out there, whereas the picker that we were using before that was 20 years old was using a gas and not environmentally friendly at all. So, you know, there's

a little bit of displacement of emissions that some people were actually came to me about and they asked me about that which was pretty neat. I didn't try and use that as a selling feature when we were looking into it just because we needed it and we had other reasons that we wanted to switch to this but it was neat to have people come to me and say, you know, this is electric. It's better for us than using that gas, that old gas cart that was out there before. So nice that people pick up on that. And as far as the change

environment, it's kind of stayed the same. It's just part of our operation now. People know about it. I'd say when people bring guests to the range, it kind of reminds them that we're at the forefront and doing neat things that other places aren't necessarily doing. If they bring a guest for the first time and the guest is like, what is that thing out on the range? And then they get to kind of talk about it and promote that we've had it for two years and they might see it somewhere else, but we were one of the early adopters of it and they get proud of that sort of thing. So overall, it's been, it's been a

positive all around. And as far as the staff, new technology is always going to cause some hurdles with staff, just adopting new rules, new...

procedures and then dealing with any issues. You Brad, you asked earlier about Koretschi's support and I really didn't get into it, but with them being so close, they have had to pop over a couple times and replace some parts and whatnot, but nothing major. You know, if we think about the old gas picker that we were using before, it was in the mechanic shops every week anyways. So, you know, if a tire goes on the gangs, well, we have a mechanic on site, he can replace the tire.

So we've had to adjust the rollers from time to time, but sometimes it'll just get veered off course.

like there'd be instances where we just stop on the range. So it's a matter of emailing their support. They look into it. They're like, yeah, the looks like this is stuck. They do some stuff in the background and we go out and reset it and it sends it on its way. So most of the stuff is fixable over email, a phone call sometimes, but usually it's just getting them to dial in and troubleshoot and then, and then give us that. So the staff dealing with that, you know, obviously they don't love when anything goes down. I think that the amount of times that, that,

gas picker was pushed off the range because it fell out of gas. That doesn't happen anymore. That's been a relief. I personally have pushed it in a few times. So nice that we don't need to do that anymore. with everything, there's always going to be items that pop up. But overall, a pleasant experience. You know, we have the option year to year to bow out if we didn't want it. We are jumping on board with their new technology. It's going to be arriving in the spring. So it's not like there's been anything that has shied us away from that.

We're excited to get the new one and just make it even more efficient.

Clay (43:22)

That's good to know. And for anyone listening to this right now, now you know, right? If you had a lot of concerns for what this could look like and what the biggest obstacles were, you know, maybe your club will run different than, than Matt's, but, it can't be that different. so, you know, expect similar obstacles, I guess, if you go to Karachi, expect similar support, all that stuff. And so it sounds like a good company.

Matt Savage (43:46)

Yeah, they've been great to work with. We've got a great relationship with them now and it's kind neat to be part of their early adopters and including the new tech when it comes out. yeah, we got nothing but good things to say about them.

Brad (43:59)

Awesome. great. The support is so, so massive, especially in golf. you know, I've had issues with software in the past and, you know, the, company we're using at the time, they ended up selling off to an American company and the customer service and support went just into the drain. And it actually led to us leaving that company and getting other software because the support that used to be so personal.

one-on-one and they would fix things within minutes became, you know, hours, days before you get a serious issue fixed that was leading to extreme member dissatisfaction. So that support is just over the top. That's one of the most important things you can have when you venture out with new software, new hardware, anything like that. Matt, where do you think this technology is going in terms of mowing? I know you mentioned there were, you had some kind of

you know, maybe a more archaic version of it that you saw working, where, the more would follow the picker. Where do you think this is going in terms of ranges, greens, keeping, and are you having a look at these products as well?

Matt Savage (45:08)

Yeah, I think we're getting closer and closer to having it in more places. As I mentioned, that first company that I looked at.

We weren't quite ready for it then. In my opinion, they weren't quite ready, but more and more companies are in this space now. On the range side of things, there's competitors with Korechi that there never really was when they first got into it. No one as big as them, at least. So more and more ranges will have this, whether it's a Korechi or one of their competitors. But then on the mowing side of things, if I asked my superintendent five years ago if he wanted to have a robotic mower, he probably would have laughed at me and said, like, no, we need a person to do that. And he was just like,

at

the superintendents conference and was asking me now about robotic mowers and how we feel about them. So we're both a lot closer to it. I think that there's certain areas that they're going to be adopted sooner rather than later. There's already places that are using them. I was down in Orlando for the PGA show and one night my friends at Full Wedge had a tournament at Orange Lake. They have a light up nine hole golf course. So we went out and played in the cold, unfortunately. It was cold for Florida.

Out on the course, there was robotic mowers. And there was probably three different little patches of them, home bases. So they would drive around and mow, and then they'd lock back into their home base and charge up, and then they'd keep going once they got a charge. So you see it more and more, and that was pretty neat to see them in action on the course. But I've seen them in some other places too. I think the range is a good place to start.

because there's no golfers out there. But I see like a fairway mower, know, first of all, the amount that you have to pay for them is astronomical. If you could get something, that's just the equipment itself. And then people are on those pieces of equipment for a long time because fairways are huge. You know, you're up and down, back and forth, back and forth. It disrupts golfers. Ideally, we'd want to be ahead of play in all situations. With 45 holes, that's not always possible. So if we could have a mower that's just going out there 24

I think that's something that will be happening soon. There's other things you have to look at, if you have yardage markers on the course, they're going to be in the way of the mower. Think of like a Roomba vacuum that you might have at home or you've seen. It's the exact same idea. So eliminating obstacles for them is going to be one thing. They're pretty good now at detecting golfers and whatnot is in front of them. So no concern about safety anymore. Actually, Correggie, when they first launched this

Robot had some guys at the PGA show when they were doing a demo like run out in front and try and get it to run them over because they wanted to film the skit where the robot was taking them out, but it's got detection for that so it stopped automatically. So these guys were not in love with that but I think Koretchi was pretty happy that their machine didn't run over two guys. So all that all that tech is there. You know when it gets to raking bunkers, that's a huge manual labor

to labor spend that is just astronomical at courses that have 60, 100, 200 bunkers. The amount of human hours spent in those is a lot. So when this technology gets to the point where it can rake a bunker, even if it's just what the bunker bike does and spin the bottom and then you just have someone go in and hand rake the sides, that's gonna save a ton of time. So we're close. I actually know another company that is now hooking on cameras to your current equipment. So this is for turf equipment.

your fairway mower, it will put cameras on your current unit that you already own and it drives it based on cameras and you can be sitting in your office, have four or five machines going and if there's a stick laying down the fairway that you don't want to run over because it's going to ruin the machine, ruin the fairway, the machine will stop and it'll send a notification to the person in the office. They can manually steer the equipment around it and then send someone out to go get it. So the technology is getting better and better. Every kind of conference or

I go to I see more and more and the more people that adopt it the

the faster it's gonna grow. Every company's gonna be doing it. The price right now, it's pretty expensive to jump into this. Golf equipment is always expensive. The mowers, the sprayers, the golf carts, they're all more expensive than the average golfer thinks. But it's because we need them. It's a one-off product that golf courses need. I can't just go to Home Depot and get a mower and cut our fairways with that. So because it's a unique product, they are expensive. But the more that adopt this AI and have these autonomous

machines, I think that's going to bring the price down a little bit. And then you'll get to the point where you might be displacing staff, whether it's that person that was sitting on a fairway mower, maybe they're only in for half the day now and they're doing manual jobs, or maybe their jobs change. if you look at it on the operation side, if we were to keep our labour the same and have these, well, we just have so much more time for the little details. And then there's going be clubs that look at it, it's like, okay, well, we're spending X on this machine, we need to reduce our labour by whatever.

amount. there's gonna be people are gonna deal with it differently at each club, but the opportunities are endless. You know, it's I think at the end of the day, a superintendent that cares and is doing their job properly always wants to have boots on the ground and see the golf course and stand on the grass and look at it and, you know, be able to detect disease and whatnot. But there's technology now where a drone can do that. The drone can fly over the golf course, scan it and send back a report to the superintendent says this little area of turf is it has discoloration.

you should check for this, this, this disease and then they might drive out and look for it. So this technology is coming and it's coming fast and more and more clubs are going to adopt it and I think that's going to help bring the price to a more reasonable point.

Brad (50:57)

Yeah, great points here. This is really good advice for anybody who's listening to this, who's looking to jump into this. Any other tidbits you could offer to golf course managers just beginning to look into this and seriously consider getting their own automated range pick or anything you haven't touched on that you'd like to add.

Matt Savage (51:18)

I think the biggest advice and it's probably the best thing about our industry is just pick up the phone or email me and not necessarily me. Find a course around you that is using some of these technologies and give them a call. We're so fortunate that we basically get along with everybody in the industry. know, the club down the road, they might be our competitor, but they're also my good friend. And everyone in the industry is pretty open from what I've experienced. So that would be my biggest suggestion is find out whatever unit you're looking at, whether it's

whether it's a range picker, find out a course that has it. That's one of the first things I do. When I talk to one of these sales teams, I say, who's using it who can I talk to? Because I want to get the opinion from an operator. The sales team is doing a sales job. It's their job to tell you all the good things and none of the bad things. And there's going to be more honest salespeople than others that are going to say, we're working with this, we have troubles with this, or this is going to improve in the future. You get that a fair bit. it's still, they're trying, at the end of the day, they're trying to sell you a $50,000 machine.

or whatever that might be. talking to another operator that has used it or has used something similar is always the easiest way I find. And it doesn't have to be someone that the salesperson refers you to. Do a little research and find out who's got what and call me up and say, hey, I haven't talked to Korechi, but I want to know all about it and get an honest opinion instead of if they recommend. And I shouldn't say this about them because they are great and they are honest with us, but a salesperson saying, it's at this club. Well, they might be having

a special relationship with that club and they might treat them a little better so that's why they're going to give you that quote or that you know that that statement that says this is the best product ever so I think it's really important to just do due diligence that way talk to other operators ask questions find out who's who's got it and then all the seminars and conferences and shows that are available you can see the stuff firsthand talk to people in person I find that a little easier than just getting a cold email from someone that says you should try our product

If I've seen it in person, I'm going to be a lot more confident.

Clay (53:23)

Yeah, it's great advice.

It's great advice. There's a learning curve, but someone else has been down it. So find those around you in your warm or even just wider professional network who's using it. And one or two phone calls can, can gain you potentially years of, uh, experience gained from trial and error and learning curves. yeah, that's great advice, Matt, hopefully, hopefully we don't, this, podcast doesn't take off and thousands of people are going to listen to it. You're going to get a big, uh, series of email blast to your inbox and you're going to wake up one day.

Brad (53:54)

He said, call him, you know? He's

like, give me a call.

Clay (53:57)

We're gonna have to, he's gonna message us in a year and be like, thanks for that, time on your guys podcast when it was small. I did make that invite and now I get emails every week and we're like, get an AI to answer the email. Just make a template answer and have an AI answer your email moving forward. Whenever key keyword, keyword, questions about your Korechi mower, the AI just jumps in and handles the questions.

Brad (54:14)

Matt needs a bot.

Matt Savage (54:21)

Yeah.

Clay (54:22)

cool. So we're, we're almost at the end here. We're making perfect time. Actually. It's great. but before you go, you know, but beyond range picking, where else do you see AI getting integrated into golf clubs? You know, and can you speak on some, some ideas that you have for use cases that you could see for AI mill run specifically, but also for like private, semi-private or public public courses in general.

Just, you know, just top of the dome, any ideas or wants, or like, always ask this question. If you could wave a magic AI wand and say, want AI to do this for our golf course or help us with this big recurring persistent pain or problem at our golf course, what would you want it to fix, solve or address for you?

Matt Savage (55:08)

I think on the short term, like in the immediate.

You know, we're using it a lot for cleaning up emails, document writing, even social media posts. You if we have something that we're going to send out, we'll throw it into one of those language models, whether it's chat, GBT, or Gemini, whoever you use. And it'll spit something out. And then we clean it up to make it seem like it's actual wording and phrasing. But it's a good idea generation and getting things going. So we use it a lot for that. Even on social media posts, we have a social media coordinator. He does a lot of our stuff. But he'll use it, too.

extend photos or clear blemishes and that sort of stuff. it's built into a lot of the programs we use now. Like I have Grammarly on my computer. So as I'm typing, it's going to fix mistakes as I go. I've been using Otter AI to record meetings and take notes. just little things like that that we're using to just become more efficient is the of the short term, the immediate term. Long term, I think there's unlimited capabilities for it. know, people are already using it for like dynamic pricing, like

heavy public courses to change pricing based on demand. It learns when those more people are looking for tee times, how many days out it is, and it spits out the price based on that. So if we were a public heavy course, we would be doing something like that. But again, we're member focused, so a little different there. And then on the the private club side of things, you know, I see this kind of AI dream world where the technology is already there. There's some courses that are experimenting with it. But, you you pull up to the gate and

something scans your license plate. A message gets sent to the bag drop says Mr. Smith is here. He's pulling in his clubs are ready. The message also goes inside to the food and beverage team. And when Mr. Smith walks in, they welcome him. They know his name because they've already been notified his picture pops up his name pops up. They welcome him by name. They offer him the Stella that he always has. And he's just blown away ready. If he has a guest with them. They're like, this is the coolest place ever. They know who you are. And Mr. Smith might only play twice a year, but they have that pattern of

he comes in, he has a Stella, he has lunch, and it can learn all those trends that people are doing. Tough with us, we do about almost 75,000 rounds a year to sort of scan every person that comes inside. The tech's gonna need to get a lot better for us, but that's kind of the exciting things that I see it coming to. Just predicting people's activities and preferences and being able to really hone in that experience for them. I think we do a really good job of that now with a personal

level

but I think that having that little almost that cheat code is going to help and again it's this isn't taking the job away from anyone this is making your staff be more efficient be more welcoming and provide better service so that's something that I'm looking for that to continue to improve and something that will implement when it makes sense for us

Brad (58:02)

Yeah, very, very good points. A really good interview, Matt. That was a really, really good chat. We appreciate you joining us and sharing such valuable information from your first-hand hard-earned experience. I know there are a lot of clubs looking to implement AI and automated range pickers and other equipment like mowers, and this is going to be a very good resource for them to get a grasp on where to start and what to expect going forward. Matt, thanks once again for your time and insights.

Clay (58:04)

Yeah, great points.

Matt Savage (58:28)

You're welcome. It was my pleasure. It was great to chat with you both. Yeah, thank you for having me.

Clay (58:32)

Yeah, thank you very much, Matt. We really appreciate your time and.

We encourage our listeners to follow Mill Run Golf Club on all their social media platforms. Stay updated on their latest initiatives and events. If they have a newsletter, jump on that too. And if you're in the area, since you guys are semi-private and open to the public as well, drop by for a route and see their club. I haven't been, but from what Matt's told us about it and the pictures we've creeped online, it's a great place. It's a beautiful place. really is a top tier.

Operation there and we'll be getting out there ourselves this season for sure. So thanks again, Matt. We look forward to seeing in person on your home turf.

Matt Savage (59:11)

Yeah, looking forward to hosting you here. Can't wait. Thanks, gents.

Brad (59:15)

Additionally, we invite you to experience our ACEcall.ai receptionist firsthand. Give it a try by calling 1-866-838-8581 and see how it can revolutionize your club's communication.

Clay (59:29)

Yep. And thanks for tuning in to the ACE call AI podcast where we help golf club managers win with AI and we'll see you next time.