Urgency can bring
out our best

It’s easy for golf course superintendents to become isolated from the “outside” world. We are so focused on our facilities that we don’t get the exposure that can help us in all aspects of our lives. This was driven home in a recent trip to the World Golf Village for the Golf 20/20 Conference. These leaders of the golf industry met to help mold a player development program with a broad base of industry support. You’ll hear more about this program as it rolls out in upcoming weeks.

One speaker struck a chord with me. Roy Spence, CEO of GSD&M Idea City — an Austin, Texas-based public relations agency — talked about golf’s opportunity to grow despite challenging economics. Two trends give him optimism: the number of people who joined fitness centers since 1990 doubled from 20 to 40 million; and people are looking for family based activities that can provide fitness and physical activity.

Golf’s growth has been flat, so I have no doubt there were more than a few non-believers for Spence’s optimism. But what struck me was his line that we “need to quit acting like we have an emergency, and start acting with urgency.”

Spence said in times of emergency people panic and often act irrationally, furthering the downward spiral. He said urgency indicates a need to act quickly and focus on what’s most important. Urgency requires bold, quick action, rather than sitting paralyzed on the sideline waiting for better times.

GCSAA has been vocal in advocating that its members focus on the success of the facility. We believe a team approach best achieves facility success. But a team approach means someone needs to lead at the appropriate time.

Now is the time for GCSAA members to assert their leadership. What resources directly under your domain are necessary to ensure facility success? How do we resist the calls for short-term gain that result in long-term pain?

I’ve been thinking about this since returning from the GCSAA Chapter Delegates Meeting in New Orleans, the host site for the 2009 GCSAA Education Conference and Golf Industry Show, which you can think of as “an information pack on tough times” backed up by all the resources available from GCSAA.

These resources, like GCSAA membership itself, offer benefits and ideas to take back to your facility that more than cover the costs of attending. This is more than idle talk. GCSAA member Glen Denney, CGCS at Alto Lakes Golf & Country Club in Ruidoso, N.M., says that attending the sessions, networking with peers and researching bunker products and other items at conference and show have resulted in savings of $100,000 for his facility.

I know many of you probably considered bypassing conference and show to save your facility dollars. Certainly there would be short-term gain. But is it worth the long-term pain?

If you need assistance in communicating the value of attending conference and show to an owner or supervisor, GCSAA can help. Visit www.gcsaa.org or call 800-472-7878 and ask for a GCSAA customer service representative. We can help customize a specific communications strategy for you.