One of the biggest traps you can fall into in our industry is focusing too much on turf. Instead, you should spend extra time learning as much as you can about what golfers care about and want to discuss. Outreach to your customers is something that is truly lacking in the golf maintenance world. Many of the problems that arise for a superintendent stem from communication, or a lack of it, with golfers.

The best way to create better outreach to golfers is through first learning what the most passionate of them think. To better understand their frame of mind can lead to improved dialog and education with them on course conditions and what is involved, versus their impressions of conditions.

To this end, Greg Wojick (my business partner at Playbooks), has compiled a very extensive article on "A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Course Ranking System. Greg is a Golfweek rater and former superintendent. His look into all rating systems and what passionate golfers like raters think is a great educational opportunity for those of you not fully familiar with rankings and how it's done.

I invite you to read the complete article here (lengthy but very worthwhile and educational).

As I am sure most of you know, even if your course will never be ranked, some of your most passionate members like to discuss architecture, rankings, pretty much anything to do with comparing courses. The more you know about the process or things from the golfer's perspective the better off you will be in communicating with them. They may even begin to consider you one of "them", which is a good thing for your long-term success in this industry.


(Greg Wojick's article was originally published in the MetGCSA's Tee to Green newsletter, content courtesy of the MetGCSA.)