Hard questions – Golf Inc Magazine

For many clubs, the season is over. Football and family have taken the place of packed clubhouses and overcrowded tee boxes. Now is the time for review. Time to assess the season, identifying the wins, and deciding on those things that could have been better. No matter the results in 2023, the eyes are planted on next year. Club managers will look hard for ways to streamline costs, improve property aesthetics, and blow away the competition. Once the review has been completed, it is then time to include the world beyond the clubhouse doors. What will the economy look like next year? How will the upcoming election cycle affect the club and its membership? What might be added to enhance the property? What must be cut? Although every season ends with difficult questions sitting on the top of your desk, this next challenge may be the biggest in years. The election, the economy, and the fact that many Americans have less money to spend will all have sway in the decisions you and your team make during the coming weeks.

Do you cut the cap ex budget, hire less seasonal staff, drop a department manager, or even cut back on the course maintenance schedule? No doubt you have a system in place. You likely have a checklist of things you and your leadership group will review, to then bring forward the appropriate questions for the year ahead. With the idea that 2024 may not have much of the positive COVID hangover remaining, the downward income numbers may be an added factor for retrenchment. There are difficult questions at the end of every season. This time, however, there are things at play that have not been a part of the process before. With the golf expansion waning around a shrinking economy, you and your team have hard questions to resolve. Beyond any cutbacks you may plan, how will you keep attitudes and hospitality positive? We all know expectations never go down. How will you decide to move ahead? As importantly, how then will you communicate the decisions? In this In My Opinion post, I suggest three areas that might be important in your 2024 planning. Here are my thoughts: 

It’s people, people, people: The magic is to keep service high, people happy, and costs at bay. Yes, I said magic. The manager’s role is always challenging but more so in a time of change from both sides of the dollar bill. As you review the hard questions, think about the service experience. How can you improve your standards even in the midst of change? How can the team get…