From the publisher’s pen: Thankfully, only some stale turkey

Between visiting Myrtle Beach last week and Pinehurst next week, while munching on my wife’s Thanksgiving salad — the same leafy blend she eats every damn night — a few turkey-inspired thoughts of industry gratitude emerged. Perhaps you’re thankful you’ve only met a few of these people around our happy industry.

1 Percenter Guy

Some times, ego proliferates even our humble side of golf. We’ve all had this conversation with a vendor:

How are things going?

Great!!! We’re doing an install at (insert name of course with a six-figure initiation fee) … and we’re all also doing work at (insert names of two more courses with six-figure initiation fees) … and I just got back from visiting every bougie club in Naples.

He then deflects to a list of clients, which are courses of the same financial type. He becomes bewildered when you look unimpressed, because you understand how consumer course rankings actually work and you’ve had the same conversation with him about the same eight courses six times in the last two years.     

To mess with him, ask two loaded questions, fully knowing the response you will receive:

Does it get old visiting the top 1 percent of the courses? Do you wonder how the rest of the industry operates?

Nah! It’s pretty awesome.

Walk away realizing this guy (it’s always a male) cares more about his perceived status in the industry than golf’s overall health.

1 Percenter Logo Guy

Instead of wearing his club’s logo around industry gatherings, he’s wearing the logo of another club, as if he’s too cool to associate with his employer. Never mind that the elite club on his shirt chucks his résumé every time he applies for an open position. 

Club or corporate logos present terrific talking points. Wearing them proudly helps generate interest in applying for one of your open jobs, booking tee times or potentially exploring one of your company’s products. Donning another club’s logo around peers is as misleading as a Lane Kiffin interview.  

Setting The Course Up for One Type of Player Guy

I’m positive only one course hosted the U.S. Open this year. I’m positive less than 0.3 percent of players can navigate anything close to what the USGA presented at Oakmont in June. That doesn’t stop hundreds of courses from trying to replicate their version of tough on a micro level.   

More than 28 million golfers now play the game in America, including a record 7.9 million females, according to the National Golf Foundation. But how much time do you spend thinking about their enjoyment of the game? If it’s anything less than 28 percent, your customer service efforts are misaligned.

For a good read on this topic, our friend and former back-page columnist Matthew Wharton wrote about the wrong type of setup guy in our 2017 Turfheads Take Over issue.

We’re thankful Matthew had the gumption to challenge Myopic Setup Guy.

Failure to Explore Technology Guy

Here’s a cruel reality: nobody paying your salary expects course conditions to go backward. Here’s a positive reality: digital tools will help advance conditions with current staffing levels and without working more hours. 

Amazingly, some turf managers insist they don’t need apps, monitors, robots, controllers and meters to meet expectations. These same people lament toiling for 70 hours a week on the course and proclaim nobody wants to work hard anymore. It’s a miserable existence. But, hey, at least they know exactly what the turf needs via touch, feel, smell and taste!  

Technology, when implemented correctly, optimizes businesses and improves lives. More of your peers seem to be getting alerts about this.

Everybody respects those who toil until their stubbornness becomes as glaring as the person eating salad as a main dish on Thanksgiving.

Stare At His Phone Guy

What’s the point of attending an industry event or visiting peers if you’re looking down on your phone 62 percent of the time? In-person networking opportunities still abound in this industry. Be grateful plenty of humans are willing to discuss the greatest game of all with each other via the greatest form of communication.  

Guy Cipriano is Golf Course Industry’s publisher + editor-in-chief. His wife’s Thanksgiving salad must have hit him the wrong way.