It was an honor and privilege to be a judge for this year’s Golf Course Industry Builder Excellence Awards. Based on industry talk, they’re becoming sought after. However, given the great respect I have for golf course builders and my belief many deserve such an award, I wonder why many qualified projects weren’t entered.
Some builders say the application process is too time consuming and can’t be completed without input from the highest level of employees. I agree (and John Walsh is trying to ease the application process for next year). Others tell me it’s too hard to win, which also is true, given professionalism and excellence among golf construction companies continues to rise. Your competitors are making it harder to win.
That would make me want to win it even more. If they were easy to win, they would be less satisfying. When GCI resurrected the awards in the current form, the GCBAA endorsed making it difficult to win to increase prestige, value and motivation to win. You can’t win if you don’t enter, and as difficult as it is, your odds are much better than playing the lotto. I believe the benefits are great – and far outweigh the disappointment of not winning and the time and cost of submitting a project every year.
These benefits include the intangibles of symbolically being at the top of your profession and being recognized by your peers. Your employees put in long hours, and that wall plaque gives them an “atta boy!” to improve morale and motivation. You also have the opportunity to get reprints of the feature article, which can be used as publicity pieces in your marketing handouts and Web page.
Tangible benefits include the fact that golf course architects notice the awards. Most of us use GCBAA members to best assure the owner of a quality project, but many golf course architects have favored builders. Even so, it’s hard to leave a recent Builder Excellence Award winner off a bid list. The award should get you on several new bid lists and legitimize you in a new golf course architect eyes more easily.
Owner’s notice, too. A multimillion dollar project selection usually hinges on little things. Think back to your last hiring process. Early on, you probably mentally discarded several candidates for things they didn’t have on their resume and later, narrowed the search by the positive things that were on the resume. Owners are the same. In a competitive industry, a recent Builder Excellence Award easily could tip the scales when the distinction between contractors is fine.
With owners and architects, the time and cost of preparing your submittal award package looks nominal and as an effective marketing cost if you’ve just picked up a project you might not have had.
I’ve been thinking, from a judge’s perspective, about what it takes to craft a more successful entry that stands out and increases your chances to win when the judges (who are human, too) need to split hairs in deciding among quality projects.
Be sure the owner was happy. While you can’t (and shouldn’t) control the evaluation forms, do your best to know that everyone on the owner’s team was completely satisfied. If they aren’t, it probably wasn’t a project displaying excellence. We had a few submittals with wide disconnects in the evaluations of the owner, superintendent and golf course architect. Some variations in the evaluation forms is more credible than perfect scores, but seeing a scathing review makes it easy for judges to discard a project from consideration.
Submit only your best project. Most projects involve moderate budgets and quality, but don’t stand out as much as projects where you provided:
- Exceptional quality or value in a place where it wouldn’t be expected. Judges probably favor underdog projects more than well-known courses.
- Exceptional quality in which owners had exceedingly high expectations and standards – which is the definition of excellence.
- Methods to overcome huge difficulties and unexpected challenges.
- A ground-breaking construction technique to meet unique needs of the golf course architect and owner that might be a blueprint for future construction.
Play to your audience. The panel of judges consists of course owners, and golf course architects and superintendents with construction experience. We’re familiar with the process, so spend only a little time describing the typical project features, like green sizes, etc. and more time stressing what made the project uniquely challenging. Avoid offending any of those groups inadvertently. For example, “Cut the golf course architect out of field evaluations to save owner money” wouldn’t get my vote, and even the owners might cringe. Explain the benefits each of those entities experienced on your project.
Stress benefits. You’ll be more effective in stressing the owner’s benefits rather than focusing on your difficulties or processes. Dealing with obstinate suppliers isn’t something to put in the application, nor is “paying your bills on time.” Both are expected part of the golf construction process, at least with the level of submitting a project for an excellence award. Never assume the judges will know why something was important. Schedule is always important, and adding a second crew is typical. Making up for 31 days is impressive, but means more if you can tell judges how it benefited the owner. Grassing a month early, thereby saving four months of maturation time, is an owner benefit arising from your construction excellence.
Be as specific as possible. Saving four months of grow-in time is more impressive if it allows the course to open six months early. Estimating that it saved or made the owner $1 million of cost or revenue is even more impressive. But, with the owner’s permission, or on the owner’s evaluation form, reading the owner actually saved/made $1,016,732.06 stands out as a credible example of the value – and excellence – of your professional services.
Be brief. The judges are busy folks, and there’s a time limit to the judging. Besides that, succinct wording usually makes stronger statements. Saying “Saved owner $1,016,732.06 in grow-in costs with a bullet point makes the same point as “Pursuant to our review of the owner’s original construction schedule, as amended throughout the project and……” Wordiness dilutes your submittal’s message.
Be organized. Wordiness is only one problem with some submissions. For the judge’s sake, write clearly and edit relentlessly. Use paragraphs and headers. Better yet – one submission featured an impressive bullet point, “power point” inspired entry. A brief, strong, and organized presentation radiates professionalism and subtly affects the judge’s opinions.
I hope GCBAA members eligible for the Golf Course Industry Builder Excellence Awards clip and save this article as they consider submissions for next year. I probably won’t be a judge again, but these tips will impress future judges and allow builders to properly highlight their quality work and get you the recognition they richly deserve. Good luck.
Brauer, past president of the ASGCA, is president of GolfScapes, a golf course design firm in Arlington, Texas.
