Rightsizing – Golf Inc Magazine

The game of golf has never been bigger or better in the minds of many. Unlike the old days there is no constant plea for the next version of a player development program. COVID helped solve the white space for so many tee sheets. For more than a year now golf fans have heard about the new global game and how it can rise to become the grand sport for the masses. Thanks to an old vision and a new, questionable partner, the game is lining up to jump leaps and bounds over its former self. Golf may soon be set to make professional men and women athletes richer beyond any dreams they once had while pounding balls on the range as young kids.

That’s the professional game. Certainly, golf is looking to catch other sports where the best performers make life-changing money. While once even the best players had to make a cut to make a check, the new money list just might have more zeroes than one can count. We will still love our golf and our favorite players, but the feel of this new game may take time to get used to once the music stops and people settle into golf 3.0. As amateur golf plays out on the other side of that conversation, your goals feel the same: create true hospitality and a grand day of golf for your members and guests. In a game that seems too large for even the largest of screens, the local game remains about the people, experience, the fun.

This post is about making the game the right size for your club, your team, and your golfers. It is about doing the many small things that add up to joy, beyond satisfaction. In this In My Opinion post, I provide three thoughts, hoping to offer a realistic snapshot for the day of golf wherever you manage the experience. Here are the three ideas:

It’s about people: Building a successful club means creating a grand population of golfers, staff members, suppliers, and even family members, in order to execute, enrich, and support the mission of the property. When you can pull together people that believe in and support your mission, the rest is execution. Although it took just four lines to provide this direction, building, supporting, and retaining people from all sides of the business is the real 24/7 task. In this new world of musical chairs, keeping people ever satisfied takes a very real, dynamic focus. Work to make people feel better than satisfied.

It’s about the day: No matter the purse at the next Tour event, golf at your place is about the greens, the gimme putt, the beverage cart arriving on time,…