Know Thyself
Greetings Golfers,
Though I’m not back home yet … the rumor is that it’s warming-up quickly and will stay warm.
Warm enough to open golf courses in Minnesota? Probably. Open all courses? No. Golf courses are not uniform. That’s a good thing. In fact, I think we need more variety of golf courses.
Trying to be “everything to everyone” is not a good model. If you’re the only course in your area – such as rural Minnesota … you have a responsibility to provide for everyone. However, in a highly populated Metro area such as ours … people are looking for more of a rifle-shot than a shotgun-scattershot.
Think about this in terms of restaurants. If you try a new restaurant and the menu has everything: Mexican, Chinese, Steaks, Seafood, Ribs, French, Italian, Vegan, etc … well, you know that probably most of it is bad … they can’t do all of those things well.
So … customers become frustrated and stop returning … so they lower their prices and thus need to buy lower quality food … the spiral of death begins.
And of course, everyone is going to tell them how they should be doing it … and most of those ideas will be self-serving … and the restaurant is right back to what got them in trouble in the first place.
This happens to big companies too. Yesterday I was talking to a golf sales rep at a local golf course. He was proud that his company was staying focused on who they are and getting better at what they do. We talked about the many companies that we’ve seen who do something really well, and then try to do everything. For example … a company that makes great drivers, then expands into other golf clubs … that’s ok … but, when they dive into clothing, etc … they usually do it poorly and stop making great drivers. The reason they were successful in the first place is then lost in the mess.
Running a golf course is also like parenting … you have to say no. You can’t let the kids run wild. Is it fun saying no? Not for most of us … but it has to be done … otherwise it becomes a circus … and the bullies take over.
So, will we open next week? No. Will other courses? Probably. That’s a good thing. I’ll probably play at one of those courses. But it doesn’t mean it’s right for us.
Cheers,
Tom Abts
GM/Head PGA Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com