Business Golf

I was on the phone recently with one of my associates who always greats me as ‘Mr. Business Golf.. I take it lightly, but I guess I should be honored since with the release on my book on How To Play Business Golf the reviews pretty much confirm that someone needs to be the expert on Business Golf… so why not me.

There are two questions I typically get when I am talking to people about my book. From the business people who are golfers, who have tried to use golf in their business, the question is; “how can I get golf to work for me”? And the second question comes from the non-golfer business people who find the subject on Business Golf beyond their understanding. Their questions are always something like “How can Business Golf work for me if I don’t’ play golf?”

Both of these questions are very good questions and I will spend a lot more time discussion this in the revision of my book. To answer the first question ‘how to get golf to work for you?’, the answer is;

Golf is always working for you. What is not working is the way you use it. The only time golf will work against you as a business tool is when you try to use it outside the steps I lay out in my book. Anything outside this process is not Business Golf; it is just golfing with a client. And there is a huge difference when it comes to achieving a positive outcome. Remember, the number one mistake business people make when attempting to play Business Golf is to try to conduct business during the golf…A certain way to fail.

For the non-golfers and the question ‘How can Business Golf work for non-golfers?’ In some ways Business Golf can really work to the non-golfers’ advantage more so than the business people who plays golf. Non-golfers can approach playing Business Golf a little more naively and open since the conversation and an invitation to learn how play business golf would be more of an invitation to join them to learn How To Play Business Golf. A lot of the business people the non-golfers will be inviting to play Business Golf will also be non-golfers. This makes going to one of my seminar/workshops a great way for them to doing something together which will build that long lasting business relationships.

Look for more information on what Business Golf is truly all about in my upcoming articles and get ready to join in the online discussions about Business Golf soon. More exciting stuff is developing on Business Golf, so stay tuned for more announcements on where you can find me on the web.

Scot Duke

President

Innovative Business Golf Solutions, LLC.

scot.duke@innovativebusinessgolf.com

www.innovativebusinessgolf.com

‘My Blog’ http://businessgolf.blogspot.com

Author of: ‘How To Play Business Golf’, From The Boardroom To The Fairways…

The best investment you can make for your business…

http://www.innovativebusinessgolf.com/business_golf/cb_order.html

I know many of you are members of golf clubs or country clubs. If not, you should consider it, especially if you are playing at least six rounds of golf each month…But more on the advantages of being a member of a country club later.

One of the features a golf club or country club has for golfers is the opportunity to play in the Club’s annual Championship. These tournaments have been going on since the beginning of time, or at least as far back when members of a clan would compete against each other for the honor of being the clan’s champion. The contests would be something that included sword wielding or pole throwing or some other contest made for the burly men of the clan.

Who knew back when wearing Bull’s Horns on your head was in style that the member who won the clan’s annual contest would today be the club champion. Not much has changed with the exception that the bull horns that the club champion wears today has a Taylor Made logo on it.

Back then there were huge advantages in being champion of the clan. You received benefits like; the admiration from the entire clan as being their best…their champion. The champ got things like; he is the first to eat from the fresh kill of deer or whatever the heck was killed that day. He got to camp out next to the fire during the winter instead of being pushed out to the outskirts of town where it is cold and dark; and …OH,…AH…well, the champ got a lot of chicks and everyone bought his beers…

Over the years the contest for the clan is now golf and not battle to the death or nude leg wrestling or whatever the clan leader wanted to challenge the clan with.

In today’s club championship you usually have some pretty awesome golfers stepping up to the plate to try their hand at winning the club championship and all of its wonderful honors. Oh, yes! They get the honor and the members all slap him on the back. The members admire his style and start wearing the same bull horns. Instead of getting to eat first at the kill, today’s champion gets a dinner in his honor; instead of getting a spot close to the fire, today’s champion gets a parking spot two steps from the locker room door; and…AH….yes, they get all of the chicks and everyone buys all of their beers…but that is not the point.

The point is, like in the olden days, there were a bunch of dudes hanging around that really were not cut out for the championship…you know the dudes. You saw them in the old movies. Those guys standing on the sidelines when the white knight rides up and would always be holding pitchforks and hoes cheering the knight on to victory. You know, the peasants… The same guys are here today, they just have 20 or 25 handicaps…

The pitch-fork guys where the warm-up band for the main event. They usually juggled or do some sort of gymnastics in front of the crowd while the main act was back stage getting ready or …AH…you know,…. they always got the chicks and the beers so what do you expect they were doing?

These pitchfork guys did not have the skill needed to compete at the contest, but could have if they had some sort of equalizer. There was not a handicap system for jousting back then.

The competition in today’s club championship is a little different. There are still the guys juggling, but instead of a pitchfork and hoes these guys are holding Pings and Adams golf clubs. The P&A guys get to play in the club championship but they are more like the juggling and gymnastic acts of old. The astonishing thing is that even after the USGA in concurrence of the R&A spent years of developing the tested and true player’s handicap and index system, the P&A guys still are not allowed to go for the club championship. No, the Ping and Adams guys have to stay in their own flight and compete only for their name being placed on the scoreboard (and the newspaper if the head professional remembers to send it in and the newspaper has room to put in the 8^th and 9^th flight winners).

When you look at it, the process just does not seem fair. If you questioned this back then you were carried off to shovel crap…Oh, wait that is also going on today.

I agree with the powers of being that the best golfer should represent the club, and that is perfectly fine. That is the way it should be. I am sure it was the same back in the olden days; it would not be too cool to claim that your club champion was won by the guy with the pitchfork or hoe.

So! My question to all of the P&A guys out there? Why pony up the cash to compete in a tournament that has less glory for you if you win and no way for you to be the club champion. Wouldn’t it be just as interesting to park in the auxiliary parking lot across the street from the club with the rest of us and stand watching on the sidelines with your pitchfork and hoe?