Golf Managers Must Understand and Manage Marketing

Pat Montana, Contributing Writer, US Golf Managers Association

One of the biggest concerns of golf club managers today is retaining current members or customers and attracting new members or customers. This is a marketing problem and golf club managers must understand and manage marketing in our changing world.

Marketing in its broadest sense is a concept for running the entire business. It puts the customer at the center of the business universe and not the organization. In other words, we must start in the marketplace and work backward from customer needs to develop our products and services – not the other way around. This so-called “marketing concept” is based not only on being customer-oriented, but also on doing it profitably. We are not interested in volume for volume’s sake, but in volume at a profit which flows as a result of meeting people’s needs effectively and solving their problems with our products and services. In its broadest sense, the purpose of marketing is to cause change in your favor. It takes a conscious pre-planned effort and requires that top management first set a specific measurable objective for the golf club facility which will serve as guidelines for the functional areas to do their planning and their research aimed at discovering opportunities for causing profitable change in their marketplace.
Failing Forward

Failing Forward

By: Gregg Steinberg, WGCA contributing writer When Dustin Johnson lost the lead to Ian Poulter during the final round at the WGC-HSBC, he did not force the issue and get too aggressive, leading to a blow-up hole or two.  The wiser and more seasoned Johnson has learned from his past mistakes.   He said he must be patient and stick with his game plan and let the scores happen. It worked, and DJ found the winner’s circle to what he called “the biggest win so far in my career.”   We all make mistakes. We all fail at times in our golfing life. We have all had a few terrible holes and many horrendous rounds. We have all seen the greatest golfers in the world fail, as well. However, the most successful golfers use failure as a springboard to greater days on the links.   Dustin Johnson has failed forward.  He has used his mistakes in the past as lessons well learned. Here are a few suggestions to fail forward in your golfing career:   1)      Be real about your mistakes. Realize that failing in golf and performing poorly at times is part of golf. Take it easy on yourself when you hit some bad shots and have a bad hole. One of the greatest golfers of all time, Ben Hogan, expected to hit five stinkers a round. 2)      Create a failing forward journal. After each round, write down five mistakes you made. Then write down what you learned from those mistakes and move on. The importance of this mental exercise is that you no longer dwell on the mistakes. Focus only on what is gained in knowledge from each experience.   But, don’t just think about what you should have done. Go out and practice the skills you need to improve, both mental ones and physical ones. As legendary basketball coach John Wooden once said, “Failure is not failure unless it is failure to change.”   Dr. Gregg Steinberg is a regular guest every Tuesday on “Talk of the Tour,” heard on the Sirius/XM’s PGA Tour Radio. He is a tenured professor of sports psychology and has been the mental game coach for many PGA Tour players.  Dr. Steinberg is the author of the bestselling golf psychology book MentalRules for Teaching Golf, which can be obtained by calling 888-346-3290. 
Helping each player to find the tempo that is right for them

Helping each player to find the tempo that is right for them

By: Steve Williams, WGCA contributing writer Everybody has a tempo that is right for them individually. There are those who have had great success with a quick tempo. Players such as Chad Campbell, Nick Price, Lanny Wadkins, Hubert Green, Tom Watson, Arnold Palmer, and Ben Hogan come to mind. Then, there are those with slower tempos, players like Payne Stewart, Fred Couples, Davis Love, Tom Weiskopf, Jerry Heard, and Julius Boros. All of these players have been successful! So, which is better…a fast or slow tempo? The answer is, the tempo that is right for that individual. The observant teacher will gain insight into which tempo is right for their student as they watch them practice and play. How do you get the golfer to swing with the tempo that is optimal for them? Let me make some suggestions, if I may. Here are some thoughts that you can experiment with for each individual. You can tell them to swing at a certain percentage of their full-speed swing. One individual might consider that he is taking a full swing when he swings at 80 percent. If you are trying to get him to slow down, you can suggest that he swing at 60 percent. This will work well for some, but not for others. I usually get better results doing it a little differently, though. I might ask them how far they hit their driver when they swing full and if they hit it perfectly. If they respond with 280 yards, I will ask them to swing slow enough that, if they hit it right in the sweet spot, they’ll hit it 220 yards. You might think that is a little ridiculous, because if somebody can hit it to 280, why would they be satisfied with 220? Well, I can tell you this: I have never, ever, had an individual swing the club that slowly after me putting that thought in their head, to swing so it would go only 220. Typically, they might back it off to 260 or so. This is the reason why I ask them to back it down to 220, because that is what it will take to slow their tempo sufficiently. For whatever the reason, this seems to work better with most people, rather than just telling them to swing at 60 percent. This can also be done using an iron. If someone tells me they hit their seven-iron 160, I might tell them to back it down to 130. Again, they’ll never back it down that much. Virtually every time, when swinging at a slower tempo, the golfer will notice that their balance is better, they hit the ball more solidly, and have not lost any distance. In actuality, once they get used to this slower tempo and the muscles have had a chance to adapt to each other, they will notice while playing golf (if they are observant) that their rollout distance is greater than when they swung the club faster. This is due to less effective loft at impact because of a better release. When you need to tell someone to swing faster, the key here is to recognize whether a fast tempo is beneficial or detrimental, and then helping them to find their optimal tempo. Then, leave a clear picture in the student’s mind as to which thought helps them to achieve the right tempo for them. Good golfing!