Taking Sabbatical!

I looked up the word Sabbatical and its definition pretty well describes what I am going to be doing.

A sabbatical year is a prolonged hiatus, typically one year, in the career of an individual taken in order to fulfill some goal, e.g., writing a book or traveling extensively for research.

Well, I guess it is time to finally fess up that none of this stuff out here on the internet really works. I would like to say it is just me, but unfortunately there are a large number of us out here that are now realizing that None of this is really all worth it.

I will be taking a sabbatical to work on my next book that I will be outlining all of the fallacies of the internet…until then you may want to check out my other book to catch up on what is going on.

You can check out the periodic blogs I will post over at my main site, IBGS Blog. Hope you enjoy the archive of blogs I have posted here.

Slow Play on the Golf Course: What is Causing It?

If you have played golf for more than a year you probably have had a round of golf where the group in front of you is waiting on the group in front of them who is waiting on the group in front of them who is watching a group that is playing REAL slow.

What is causing it? Well, If I knew exactly what was the one thing that was causing it I probably would not be writing this blog…I would be having someone write it for me since I would be playing golf someplace where there is not slow play.

But I do have some suggestions for a solution that would be fair for all.

The fact of the matter is, Slow Play is caused by a lot of things. What I think is at the bottom of it is ‘lack of discipline’. Either no one has advised the person, or persons, who are taking too much time between golf shots that they are not keeping with the pace of play, or they don’t care.

Yes these are the two extremes of causes of slow play. There are a large percentage of people who began learning golf and were never told during their lessons the etiquettes to follow when playing.

There are also those who are beginning who, like in their personal life, are close to being mentally instable and don’t care they are slow and rationalize being new to the game as reason enough for the group waiting on them after each shot to realize they will just have to wait.

Then you have on the other end the golfers who have watch way too much golf on TV and feel that if the professionals can take 5 minutes on each shot they should too.

What grows from these two dichotomies of ignorance is both are based on lack of discipline. The new golfer needs to be introduced from the very beginning what they are getting into and the seasoned golfer, and beginners, need to stop taking the attitude that ‘I paid my green fee, I’ll take all of the time I am allowed’.

What is not realized in both of these camps of causes for slow play is if either the beginner or the seasoned player could hit the ball as far, and as accurate, as the best golfers, then taking more time on each shot would be moot, since they would setting the pace for those behind them.

The fact is, 90% of golfers can’t hit the ball as far, or as accurate, as needed to play some of the courses that are being created these days, and with them hitting short drives and into the rough, or worst, it is going to cause more time to be taken by each player to play their next shot..

Solution here is discipline… Either the golf course needs to mandate the tee box each player should play from based on their skill level, or the players are going to have to realize they are not tour players and adjust their game to the skill level they are able to play. So far neither of these actions is being taken.

What will enable course management to manage slow play? Well a player certification program would be the answer and if golf is going to grow these types of solutions need to be adopted or Slow Play, Fairway Rage and people with T-Shirts with Cut-offs are going to place golf into an early grave.

I’ll have to tell you later what ‘Cart Path Only’ does to Slow Play…

Scot Duke is President of Innovative Business Golf Solutions, LLC and author of How To Play Business Golf. Mr Duke uses his 30 years of business management experience to help business owners and executives develop their business to be more successful and mentor business people on how powerful of a business tool Business Golf can be towards solving many business challenges. More information on Mr Duke and Business Golf can is available at the Innovative Business Golf Solutions web-site.

Golf Swing Blogs: A Double Take

 

Below are two seemingly identical blogs issues about an hour apart from each other, leading me to believe that there is not much left out in the blogsphere that is original or there are a lot of bad golf swings out there…I tend to believe that there is a lot of both..

How To Improve Your Golf Swing Timing

Golf Training Guide

Scot Duke is President of Innovative Business Golf Solutions, LLC and author of How To Play Business Golf.  Mr Duke uses his 30 years of business management experience to help business owners and executives develop their business to be more successful and mentor business people on how powerful of a business tool Business Golf can be towards solving many business challenges. More information on Mr Duke and Business Golf can is available at the Innovative Business Golf Solutions web-site.

PGA Q School: Where Golfers Go to Get Their MBA’s

There are a lot of good…let me re-phrase that…Excellent golfers out there and those who feel they are up to the 7 days a week job of hitting golf balls for a living have to go through THE MOST difficult test golf has to provide.  You have heard that the US Open is the true test of golf…well put three weeks of US Opens together, make it a 36 hole per day event on a half dozen different courses with different playing conditions in several different parts of the country and you have the PGA Qualifying School….yes folks the PGA Tour is a job.  It is work and these guys.  Though they make it look easy, they are the CEO’s of their businesses and it is up to them, nobody else, to make the revenue.  Come up short and usually you have to start all over if you want to stay in this business.

Most people just see the glitz and glamour the PGA Tour puts on the events and may think it is a party for a bunch of rich people…well take a look at the list of the players who fought it out last week to get their Tour Card…don’t see any rich kids in that field… 

 

Here’s to you guys…and good luck in 2007.

 

Q-School Graduates

·  George McNeill

·  Robert Garrigus

·  Rich Barcelo

·  Anders Hansen

·  Cameron Beckman

·  John Merrick

·  Steve Wheatcroft

·  Stephen Marino

·  Paul Stankowski

·  Tom Johnson

·  Bob Heintz

·  Paul Gow

·  Ryan Armour

·  John Mallinger

·  Anthony Kim

·  Chris Stroud

·  Craig Lile

·  Parker McLachlin

·  Glen Day

·  Charlie Wi

·  Darron Stiles

·  Alex Cejka

·  Scott Gutschewski

·  Marco Dawson

·  Brendon de Jonge

·  Chris Tidland

·  Michael Boyd

·  Michael Allen

·  Mark Wilson

·  Bob May

·  Jonathan Kaye

·  Steve Allan

·  Jason Schultz

·  D.J. Brigman

·  Kyle Reifers

·  Brian Bateman

·  Matt Hendrix

·  Dicky Pride

·  Michael Bradley

·  Jaco Van Zyl

Scot Duke is President of Innovative Business Golf Solutions, LLC and author of How To Play Business Golf.  Mr Duke uses his 30 years of business management experience to help business owners and executives develop their business to be more successful and mentor business people on how powerful of a business tool Business Golf can be towards solving many business challenges. More information on Mr Duke and Business Golf can is available at the Innovative Business Golf Solutions web-site.

 

 

 

PGA Q School: Where Golfers Go to Get Their MBA’s

There are a lot of good…let me re-phrase that…Excellent golfers out there and those who feel they are up to the 7 days a week job of hitting golf balls for a living have to go through THE MOST difficult test golf has to provide.  You have heard that the US Open is the true test of golf…well put three weeks of US Opens together, make it a 36 hole per day event on a half dozen different courses with different playing conditions in several different parts of the country and you have the PGA Qualifying School….yes folks the PGA Tour is a job.  It is work and these guys.  Though they make it look easy, they are the CEO’s of their businesses and it is up to them, nobody else, to make the revenue.  Come up short and usually you have to start all over if you want to stay in this business.

Most people just see the glitz and glamour the PGA Tour puts on the events and may think it is a party for a bunch of rich people…well take a look at the list of the players who fought it out last week to get their Tour Card…don’t see any rich kids in that field… 

 

Here’s to you guys…and good luck in 2007.

 

Q-School Graduates

·  George McNeill

·  Robert Garrigus

·  Rich Barcelo

·  Anders Hansen

·  Cameron Beckman

·  John Merrick

·  Steve Wheatcroft

·  Stephen Marino

·  Paul Stankowski

·  Tom Johnson

·  Bob Heintz

·  Paul Gow

·  Ryan Armour

·  John Mallinger

·  Anthony Kim

·  Chris Stroud

·  Craig Lile

·  Parker McLachlin

·  Glen Day

·  Charlie Wi

·  Darron Stiles

·  Alex Cejka

·  Scott Gutschewski

·  Marco Dawson

·  Brendon de Jonge

·  Chris Tidland

·  Michael Boyd

·  Michael Allen

·  Mark Wilson

·  Bob May

·  Jonathan Kaye

·  Steve Allan

·  Jason Schultz

·  D.J. Brigman

·  Kyle Reifers

·  Brian Bateman

·  Matt Hendrix

·  Dicky Pride

·  Michael Bradley

·  Jaco Van Zyl

Scot Duke is President of Innovative Business Golf Solutions, LLC and author of How To Play Business Golf.  Mr Duke uses his 30 years of business management experience to help business owners and executives develop their business to be more successful and mentor business people on how powerful of a business tool Business Golf can be towards solving many business challenges. More information on Mr Duke and Business Golf can is available at the Innovative Business Golf Solutions web-site.

 

 

 

When is Slow Play a Deterrent to Playing Golf?

When it is 81 degrees the day after Christmas, golfers are going to play golf… And that is exactly what I went to do… After a full day of festivities with the family and with all of the food, drinks and sweets, it made sense to want to get out and play a leisurely round with family and friends.

You would also think that since it is the Holiday season everyone on the golf course would be in a jovial mood.

But, I guess that is too much to ask at my club….

What is with people who think just because they pay a membership that the rule of the club do not apply to them. I guess a better question is, why does the management of a four star country club allow the course to open but not properly staff the facility so the club rules can be enforce?

Now if you ask the management of the club these questions their answer is going to be they want the members to enjoy their membership and the Holiday season. And whatever explanation they felt would make it sound like they are opening the club for the member’s enjoyment.

I guess ‘members’ enjoyment’ to this club means the rules of ‘no groups of Five, or larger, being allowed to play together on the golf courses’, will be waved.

As I see it, and I see it the way the game of golf was meant to be played, the only place a group of five golfers should be allowed together is in the Bar… There is no place on an OPEN golf course for a group of five golfers or more to play together. Now, if the course is closed or the day is slow with no tee times for at least an hour behind the group, then I can see a Fivesome being allowed.

BUT, not on a day when every junior golfer who go new clubs for Christmas, every Grandpa and Grandma who gave their grandkids clubs for Christmas and every other member who wanted to play a leisurely round of golf after Christmas all converge at the same time on the club…

Fivesomes and Sixsomes have no place on a course that is packed with golfers. Just the safety issues only are enough for the Club Management to have had some concern. And with no Marshall’s or golf professionals on the course to enforce pace of play or unruliness, this made for a lawsuit waiting to be filed…

Now, this was a leisurely round of golf, just think if you had brought a client out to your club where the forming of Fivesomes is cultivated. How would that impression effect your business relationship building? Well, I can tell you if I had been asked to join someone for a round of golf and was placed behind a Fivesome I could only think that this is normal procedure and the impression I have on my Host for inviting me to round of torturous waiting after each shot would not be favorable. Thus, it could effect how I do business with that person.

I don’t want to get into all of the ramifications on how fivesomes place a negative spin on Business Golf. Lets keep the game of golf as it was meant to be played as ‘a Four Square of gentle men or women makes for a proper golf group’…. Hope your day after Christmas went better than mind.

Innovative Business Golf Solutions © 2005

Duke

http://businessgolf.blogspot.com

Business Golf for the New Year.

Happy New Year,

Before you know it, it will be 2006 and with it comes a fresh chance to start making golf a part of the way you do business.

Yeah, you have probably started off every year saying I am going to do something to improve my game or I am going to play more golf next year…and you end up sitting in the office looking at reports showing your customer base eroding away, your sales force not meeting objectives and office morale hitting the deck… And then feeling you just can’t justify going out and playing golf with the ‘sky is falling’.

If this is the case, believe me, I totally understand. I have seen sales reports that looked like a deficit report and I have had to deal with the consequences of cutting operations costs and payroll to keep things a float. Not just once, but about 6 times in my 31 years in the corporate America…

If all of this is what is keeping you off the golf course, I can tell you this, an take me very seriously when I say it …go play golf….

Now, before you go running off thinking that what I am saying is all lunacy, a complete waste of your time, or I am not taking your problems and challenges for 2006 seriously, just hear me out. I hope to tell you how you can turn your challenges into increased productivity, which means increase in profits, if you do the right things.

Now, if you truly are in a world of hurt and your business problems are not the result of poor marketing, declining sales and low productivity, then you probably need to be reading blogs on the specific problem you are having and seeking advise from one of my business associates who I can turn you onto that handle those heavy weight problems.

But, if you are lacking sufficient marketing, losing loyal customers and your employees are just not giving you their all, then here is one of the Right Things to do…

Plan on taking a client to play golf the first day after the New Year when your weather will allow it. Not just any client, take your top client out. Even if he does not play golf, ask him to join you on the course. Or, invite an employee out to play golf with you. Again, not just any employee, ask the person who is always calling in sick or is always tardy to join you for a round of golf… or ask your sales manager to invite the potential client he is making a call on to join you and him on the course… Have not expectations of trying to do any business with any of them while playing golf, Do not talk to your VIP Client about anything business related, do not talk to the employee about his or her attendance, and do not let your sales manager talk about the products or business with the potential client….

Now, keep in mind you are going to be taking them out to play Business Golf. That will be your start to getting a New Year off to a solid start.

What the heck is Business Golf? If I can’t talk business how can it be Business Golf.. Believe me, if you take a purposeful approach to setting up the business golf during your invitation and leaving the business to after the golf, I know you will find you will start to see much improvement in how your clients and employees see you and then way your do business. These are the people your clients want to do business with and your employees want to work for…

Take it from someone who has spent 31 years dealing with the challenges every business person will deal with…

Even if your business had its best year ever, Business Golf fits into securing your businesses success and placing profitability as a norm instead of a challenge…

So what do I recommend you do to start playing Business Golf in the New Year?

I outline in my book How To Play Business Golf some very good ideas on how to purposefully go about using golf to do business without making it look like you are trying to work your golfing partner out of more than a $5 Nassau. I think you will find that it is easier than you think to accomplish what you want and need to do in 2006 if you plan on playing more golf… It IS worth the time and effort..

Have a Happy Holiday and a Very Happy New Year…

Innovative Business Golf Solution © 2005

Duke