Tag: henry delozier

Hard Times

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In his award-winning description of the Dust Bowl years, author Timothy Egan tells the story of a land without adequate water for crops and the soul-suffocating consequences of extreme drought. “The Worst Hard Time” recreates the 10,000-foot high dust storms that whipped across a delicate dryland ecosystem, choking animals and people eking out an existence most of us cannot imagine.

It’s hard to read the author’s account of their epic struggle and not relate it to the importance of intentional water management programs for anyone in the golf business today. Water management is one of the great responsibilities for all who draw water from the land, and superintendents are rightfully praised for their careful and attentive water consumption practices. They are diligent and careful users of water – whether from the ground or recycled effluent. Yet, many fear we are not doing enough to safeguard the long-term health of our most valuable assets.

Fortunately, and in contrast to the Dust Bowl years, when charlatans and conmen preyed on fearful farmers, there are now a number of progressive superintendents developing and sharing solutions for the common good. We’ve highlighted a few of them here, some of which fall into the category of plain old common sense and others that are quite innovative.

Common-Sense Solutions

Rick Tegtmeier, the superintendent at Des Moines Golf and Country Club, which hosted the 2017 Solheim Cup, often employs the wisdom of experience.

“If there is a rainfall event in our immediate future, we turn off the well (that fills the irrigation lake) in anticipation of filling the lakes with runoff water,” he says. “That saves the club money by not pumping the water out of our deep well. All our lakes on property can be drained into one of the lakes that we draw out of. In the event of a water shortage or drought, we have 21 days of water on property to keep our greens and tees alive.”

Many superintendents monitor water consumption with technology systems that constantly monitor the efficient performance of irrigation systems. “If a head is not turning or a nozzle is clogged, I can assure you water is being wasted,” Tegtmeier says.

Innovative Solutions

Tegtmeier is also known for his innovative approach to water management.

“Over the four months of summer, we utilize wetting agents on greens, approaches, tees and fairways. These surfactants make the water wetter and help to evenly distribute moisture throughout the soil profile.”

There are many types of surfactants available to turf professionals. “Using the right ones to either retain water in the profile or penetrate the soil is key,” Tegtmeier adds.

Bill Cygan, superintendent at Silver Spring Country Club in Ridgefield, Conn., considers water management a “blend of art and science.” Using moisture meters, Cygan and his team seek optimum moisture content for their course to produce firmer and healthier playing surfaces. “Many factors, including season, weather, soil types, microclimates and membership expectations, must be considered,” he notes.

Both Tegtmeier and Cygan also carefully monitor evapotranspiration (ET) levels on their courses. Cygan uses deficit irrigation for replacing only the least amount of water lost through ET that is needed to keep the plant healthy.

Tegtmeier says tracking ET helps determine how much to water back that evening. “We also have six TDR meters we utilize throughout the day to see if the soil needs water. Thirty years ago, we used a soil probe or a cup cutter to determine if water was needed. Now, TDR measurements are an essential part of what we do every day.”

Wetting agents are also an important part of the superintendent’s arsenal. “Wetting agents aren’t a replacement for good drainage or an irrigation system,” Cygan says. “But they will aid either process, depending on which product is chosen.”

We’ve come a long way from the Dust Bowl years, when wet sheets were hung in windows and doors were taped and stuffed cracks with rags to ward off the elements. But despite their good intentions, homespun remedies didn’t work. Poor soil management practices and the lack of water were to blame. The toll was paid by the people who lived to tell the tale.

Fortunately, progressive superintendents have developed common-sense practices and innovative solutions to help ensure that the worst hard time is not repeated on our golf courses.

GGA’s Henry DeLozier penned this article for Golf Course Industry Magazine.

Common Change Challenges

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“As you ask about common change challenges that most clubs are facing, it is that they are ill-prepared for change in the first place … they are not prepared to process change in a sequential manner.”

In this interview, GGA Partner Henry DeLozier shares his view on how club leaders can create and prepare for change – referencing the need for a clear-cut set of intentions that describe the club’s plan for change and how the club’s leaders will go about implementing it.

Make Grit a Habit

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In the 2010 remake of True Grit, Arkansas farm girl Mattie Ross sets out on a quest to track down her father’s murderer. Knowing her journey will take her over tough terrain and across the paths of some ornery dudes, the feisty 14-year-old enlists the help of a boozy, trigger-happy lawman named Rooster Cogburn.

“They tell me you’re a man with true grit,” Mattie says to Cogburn, whom she somehow figures is just the man for the job, despite outward appearances. Later joined by a Texas Ranger on the trail of the same outlaw, Mattie, Cogburn and the Ranger each has his or her grit tested in different ways.

Similarly, our own grit (call it perseverance, resolve or steadfastness, if you like) is tested on a regular basis. Dr. Angela Duckworth, professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania and the founder and CEO of Character Lab, is well-respected on the topic of grit and how to build more of it. In her book “Grit: The Power and Passion of Perseverance,” she writes: “Where talent counts once, effort counts twice.” In fact, she has reduced her research findings to the following formula:

Talent x Effort = Skill

Skill x Effort = Achievement

So, how do superintendents and other managers of golf courses and clubs develop more grit to achieve more of their goals? Here are seven suggestions:

  1. Start by doing what interests you. If grit is a result of passionate commitment, it is wise to choose a field or projects that matter to you. Choose a field and pursue accomplishments worthy of your best efforts. You know the old saying: Make your job your hobby, and you’ll never work a day in your life.
  2. Surround yourself with gritty, determined people. In his story of incredible survival against the ravages of the Antarctic sea, Earnest Shackleton noted that it was the dogged determination of key crew members that made the difference in living and surviving. Likewise, acclaimed management guru Jim Collins advises managers to get the right people on the bus with you and see that they are in the right seats.
  3. Establish a clear-cut plan of action. Managing others requires that all involved fully understand and support the plan. Educate, inform and paint the picture of the successful outcome. Reiterate goals and objectives continually. Commit the plan to writing and support it with visual cues wherever appropriate and possible. One finds his or her way home when remembering clearly what “home” means to them.
  4. Dare to succeed. Fear of failure is called atychiphobia in the scientific community. The antidote is courage, which can be learned and developed. Push beyond your comfort zone. Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Do something that scares you every day.” Some managers are afraid of failing or appearing to be a “failure.” Be brave and strive for higher, bigger and better goals. These goals should be a core part of your plan.
  5. Be conscientious. Pursue goals in a consistent and resolute manner. Do the right things right and help those around you to do the same. Learn from small losses along the way; celebrate wins in their time. Revisit your goals daily and remind people why they’re important to the bigger picture.
  6. Prepare for and embrace difficulty. Peyton Manning practiced throwing wet footballs, knowing there would be rainy Sundays. Golfers at Oklahoma State University are taught to relish bad weather with the certainty that they will be better prepared than their competition. Bad weather or poor conditions become a competitive advantage to that mindset. OSU’s longtime golf coach, Labron Harris, taught his players that one must put his hands close to the fire if you want to get warm.
  7. Pursue excellence. Perfection is often unattainable, while excellence is an attitude that rewards the determined few. Faithfully pursuing excellence enables successful results and an emboldened team. It was Aristotle who wrote, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.”

Similarly, grit is not an act as much as it is a habit, an attribute that can be more fully developed with careful thought and advance planning. About you, would they say: “They tell me you’re someone with true grit?”

GGA’s Henry DeLozier penned this article for Golf Course Industry Magazine.

Board Priorities: Add Brand Management to Your Fiduciary Responsibilities

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There are typically three priorities that command the attention of private club boards: (1) developing and using sound strategy; (2) ensuring the financial security of the club; and (3) governing the club responsibly.  However, in these days of over-supplied markets and the ongoing regeneration of many clubs, brand management has become massively important to clubs.

Some board members claim that a private club is “private” and, therefore, not a commercial brand. These outdated beliefs are a sure-fire plan for damaging the long-term brand health of the club.

Private club board members share several fiduciary duties, which include the duties of care and loyalty, such as good faith, confidentiality and disclosure.  Directors’ duties also expand to the responsibility to protect the identity—which may include its trademarks, intellectual property and public-facing images.

Brand Planning and Security

What is your club’s brand? And how is it being protected?

A brand is a small piece of real estate “owned” in the mind of the consumer, according to Al and Laura Reis, authors of “The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding,” a marketing classic on branding commercial companies.  Some board members claim that a private club is “private” and, therefore, not a commercial brand.  These outdated beliefs are a sure-fire plan for damaging the long-term brand health of the club.

Brand health, which means admiration, trust and desirability, is an important duty for private club leaders.  Social media proliferation and unending public awareness and scrutiny of private clubs require the club board to pay attention to the club’s brand.  Club leaders should routinely execute a brand audit to validate the club’s market impact.

Strategic Planning

The club’s strategic plan is its long-term direction and scope of operations.  The plan helps the club stay focused on its priorities, and to fulfill stakeholder expectations.

Board members are responsible to fellow members to ensure that the club has a sound strategy and that the strategy is being faithfully enacted.  Directors are duty-bound to know the club’s strategy and ensure that it is preserved and routinely used.

A sound strategic plan extends for a period of three-to-five years and should be fully reviewed annually.

Financial Security

Directors are responsible to protect the financial resources of the club.  This means that directors must carefully measure the future financial needs of their clubs; plan for the sources and uses of funds; and ensure the economic sustainability of the club.

Economic sustainability requires that the club generates revenues adequate to pay the costs of the operation and to fund future capital needs of the club.

Board members must fully understand the club’s financial capabilities and limitations.  A key tool used to report the financial profile of a private nonprofit, tax-exempt club is a Department of Treasury Form 990, which each director should also understand.

Club Governance

Every club director should strive to provide sound governance to their club.  Effective club governance is built on the regular usage of the strategic plan and a board policies manual (BPM).

A BPM documents the methods that will be used in governing the club.  It also includes a description of the organization, the authority of the board and the manager, and the relationship of the board with the manager/COO.

The BPM is as fundamental to effective club governance as the strategic, financial and brand plans.  It must be developed and used on a regular basis.

Today, governing a private club is a bigger and broader job than at any previous time.  Brand knowledge and management have become just as important to the overall health of the club as other fiduciary duties, such as strategic planning and financial security.

GGA’s Henry DeLozier penned this article for the National Club Association’s Club Director Magazine.

Financial Indicators to Monitor

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What are the financial indicators that the club leadership should monitor to stay strong?

Canaries in a coal mine were the early-warning system that saved miners’ lives before technologies for detecting noxious gases came along.  Just as careful miners took caged canaries underground with them, club directors are wise to protect the club by implementing early warning tools—or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

Stephen Johnston, the founder of Global Golf Advisors and a former KPMG senior auditor for major accounts, explains, “The number one duty of every club director is to protect the assets of the club.”  To Johnston, the canary to be watched is full member equivalents (FME) of a club.  FME represents the total annual dues amount divided by the amount of a full-member’s annual dues.  Johnston warns directors that when FME metrics begin to slip, directors should beware.

Future attrition rates and the successful conversion rate from potential new members follow the FME metric.  Attrition signals retention success or concern while conversion rates presage new member recruitment.  Keep these KPIs singing a happy song.

Successful membership recruitment follows a 10 percent conversion rate—from bona fide member lead to accepted new member.  Therefore, this ratio instructs the board and management that the roster of prospective members must be ten times the number of membership openings.  Says Johnston, “If you want to add 30 new members, you will do well to develop at least 300 trustworthy leads.”

In addition to FME metrics, Johnston emphasizes the power of the cash flow statement.  For a club to be truly economically sustainable it must generate revenues adequate to pay the club’s bills and fund its future capital needs.  Johnston advises club directors that the annual “spend” on capital assets should be 7 to 9 percent of annual gross revenue.

The impact of the recessionary cycle caused most clubs to fall behind on capital replacement and maintenance so the cash available to catch up on deferred capital maintenance is a critical early indicator of future financial stress or security.

For the miners, early-warning was the difference between life and death.  For private clubs, monitoring early-warning KPIs is similarly crucial.

GGA’s Henry DeLozier penned this article for the National Club Association’s Club Director Magazine.

Agronomic Planning – Avoid Canine Brunch

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Those who know our firm are aware of the value we place on plans that focus resources and actions against strategic goals and objectives. But too often our plans turn into something resembling a dog’s breakfast: a mess of opportunity, necessity and happenstance. To avoid agronomic plans that are similarly inconsistent and random, here are three steps that will give an agronomic plan order and purpose while showcasing the author’s professionalism.

1. Educate

Golf course superintendents are agronomic experts with scientific training and specialized knowledge. Club and course managers are similarly well-educated professionals. They are keenly interested in the results supers produce, but not so sure how they pull it off. Therefore, superintendents’ plans must educate, providing the knowledge and understanding that help course owners, club directors and fellow management professionals see the inherent logic and forethought.

An informative agronomic plan:

States standards of excellence. Mowing and trimming frequency, height of cut and fertility programs need to be explained beyond frequency or fertilizer blends so club and course managers understand how the superintendent’s tactics connect with the facility’s overall goals and objectives. Once they do, they can become supporters of the plan.

Environmental objectives should be considered in this same context. Elements of the conservation plan should be described to help club managers understand the use of pesticides and standard practices for water taking. Information about beekeeping, bird and bat houses, and milkweed cultivation for butterflies, for example, also reinforces the facility’s overall sustainability efforts that can be passed along to members and customers.

Explains importance of standards. Many become confused when asked, “Why is that practice so important?” The superintendent who uses the agronomic plan to educate helps golfers be even more supportive and understanding.

Quantify needs. Measure everything and see that every line item in the budget is backed up with specific data points for acres or square feet being mowed, irrigated, fertilized and kept. Every number in the budget should have support tied to key data points. For example, labor – including wages and benefits – is increasing significantly in most markets across North America. Fuel prices are likely to remain volatile with the risk of sudden increases driven by geopolitical events.

Express aspiration. Describe your vision for the golf course. Be brave in setting higher standards for your facility. Describe improvements that can enhance the reputation and earning power of your course.

2. Organize

While there is the need to educate, club managers can become weary reading about unfamiliar agronomic standards and practices. Help hold their interest by organizing your plan. Starting from mission critical, first cover the most important topics – care and upkeep standards, expense and budget management, and expected outcomes. Then describe routine matters and needs that preserve working conditions and standards of excellence. Last, address matters such as storage needs and practices, staff training and break-room amenities.

3. Paint a Picture

Photography, video and other graphics can be highly valuable support tools for your audience. People who are not scientific experts need the additional understanding that imagery provides.

  • Show intended results. Teach readers of the plan and what they should expect in terms of denser turf, deeper color in maintained turf, reduced pesticide use and reduced water consumption.
  • Provide graphics for such details as mowing patterns and explain why your crew mows greens from different alignments.
  • Show how carefully your usage of manpower is planned. Help others understand that you command your category of expertise with knowledge and experience.
  • Support budget projections and expense trends with graphs and third-party data sources. Show the actual expense history of your course and how your own trend tracks local, regional and national patterns.

GGA’s Henry DeLozier penned this article for Golf Course Industry Magazine.

Finding New Members

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The need to grow membership keeps me up at night. Where should clubs focus their attention to find new members?

A bleary-eyed Keith Richards awoke with music in his head. He switched on the recorder and laid down the riff that everyone now knows to be the lead-in for “(Ain’t Got No) Satisfaction.” And, then, promptly fell back asleep. “When I woke up in the morning, the tape had run out,” Richards recalled. “I put it back on, and there’s this, maybe, 30 seconds of ‘Satisfaction’ . . . and then suddenly the guitar goes ‘CLANG,’ and then there’s like 45 minutes of snoring”.

It’s the need for better and more actionable market knowledge costing many club managers sleep. In fact, recent research from Global Golf Advisors (GGA) finds that [only] 6.5 percent of 4,400 private clubs in North America are full with a waiting list of members hoping to join. Or, nine-in-ten clubs are searching for members. But, where? And how?

Michael Gregory at GGA offers important points of focus:

  1. Win the Kids – Understand where the best school districts are if you want members for a family-oriented club. Clubs are especially important to families during their child-rearing years.
  2. Win the Moms – Offering a wide assortment of programs and activities engages women who cast the veto-vote in most to-buy-or-not-to-buy membership decisions. Moms search for clubs that meet most of the family’s needs.
  3. Do Your Homework – Market information concerning housing, demographic and psychographic trends is readily available in most markets, so do the research to understand the push and pull factors that matter most locally

The market factors that are key to generating more members are surging consumer confidence, favourable employment statistics, increasing household income and advanced educational attainment. Private club members tend to be found on the positive side of these indicators.

Sometimes inspiration appears in the middle of the night. For most club managers the results that keep your club at the top of the charts requires consistent pursuit of market knowledge and future member insights.

GGA’s Henry DeLozier penned this article for Club Director Magazine, Published by the National Club Association.

The Equalizer

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At one point in Neil Simon’s Tony Award-winning Biloxi Blues, Sgt. Merwin Toomey tells his young recruit, Eugene Morris Jerome, “If there were no such thing as problems, we could all go home at lunch.”

As managers, regardless of title or type of facility, we’re all problem solvers – or we better be. Not only do most of us face enough problems to keep us from going home at lunch, but solving them is also what is expected of us by our boards, general managers, owners and employees.

The best problem solvers share a number of characteristics:

  • They plan for problems. Many managers develop sound and well-conceived plans. Then something unexpected happens. Effective planners develop back-up plans to deal with unforeseen or unintended outcomes.
  • They use rigorous logic and progressive-step methods of analysis. They organize their work into constructive increments.
  • They tap into substantial reserves of research and data to make fact-base decisions. But they’re also capable of learning on the fly. They can harness emerging information, and search for patterns from previous study and experience to extract the underlying essence of how things work.
  • They are comfortable being uncomfortable. They often enjoy the challenge of unfamiliar problems.
  • They continually expand their network of resources. They use professional and peer networks to learn how others have dealt with similar challenges.
  • They research other business segments and disciplines for solutions to similar problems. They leave no stones unturned. If more research is needed, they dig back in to explore creative ideas, continually testing new theories and hunches.
  • They are positive, determined and patient. They roll up their sleeves and get to work, knowing that problems seldom solve themselves and that a solution exists for every problem.
  • And when the solution is found, they share so their fellow professionals can learn from the problem and the solution-finding process. Writing white papers for magazines or presenting your experience in peer-study programs expands everyone’s knowledge and proves you to be a tireless learner and a genuine professional.

In contrast, unskilled problem solvers struggle to find new solutions in time-worn practices. They often miss the complexity of an issue and try to force-fit simplistic solutions.

Effective leaders and managers develop their problem-solving skills through a variety of means: formal continuing education, trial-and-error and with the help of mentors. While there is no substitute for the experience of having faced a major problem and figured out a solution, you also can learn to be a more effective problem solver. Here are three strategies:

Get help

The golf business offers terrific resources, including associations, consultants and peers who have a shared interest in helping to find the best solution. Some people are too proud to ask for assistance, but their stubborn and prideful isolation not only compounds the original problem but deprives them of relationships with the many generous and knowledgeable people in our business.

Work the problem

One need not solve all problems or even every aspect of one. It’s like the answer to the question, “How do you eat an elephant?” One bite at a time. The key is to break the problem into manageable chunks, solve that part of the problem and move on to the next step. If you have a strategic plan, prioritizing problems becomes easier because your plan tells you which problems are standing in the way of meeting your objectives.

Reverse engineer

Stephen Covey advised “begin with the end in mind,” which is the approach of diligent problem solvers. What will success look like? What will it take – whether it’s capital, labor or persuasion – to get there? Reverse engineering brings focus to the intended outcome. Use it as your magnetic north.

Our jobs surround us with problems, making problem solving the unwritten part of every job description. The better problem solver you become, the more valuable you will be in any position your career takes you.

GGA’s Henry DeLozier penned this article for Golf Course Industry.

Focus on Planning, Not Plans

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Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, who served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe and planned the successful invasions of North Africa, France and Germany during World War II, didn’t put much stock in plans.

“Plans are nothing,” Ike once said. Planning, however, was an entirely different matter for the man who would become our nation’s 34th president. He believed “planning is everything.” In other words, the value really derives from the disciplined process that produces the plan. Furthermore, a plan that has not been preceded by sufficient planning may not get you where you want to go.

Are you planning for the future of your facility or club in ways that produce the right plans to guide your actions? Before you try to jump to the final product (the plan), consider a few basic but critical planning steps.

Agronomic Planning. Many states in the U.S. and most Canadian provinces have begun the progressive reduction of pesticides on golf courses and sports fields. Is your course anticipating the almost certain changes that are coming? Your planning process also should address water and water-taking, fertility, pesticides and chemical use and storage, tree replacement and removal, mechanical care and upkeep of maintenance equipment, and employee training and development.

Capital Improvement and Investment Planning. Golf courses and private clubs have insatiable appetites for capital. As a result, clubs must maintain a robust and thorough roster of capital assets, ranging from community infrastructure and buildings to rolling stock and maintenance equipment to furniture, fixtures and equipment.

Typically, capital and investment plans are the work of the controller and the finance committee. But expansive-thinking clubs also include in the process management, staff and the people who actually use and operate the capital assets. The more inputs provided to the capital asset roster, the better the eventual capital plan. The controller should issue clear and unequivocal guidance concerning the active definition of capital assets to ensure board-based understanding and compliance.

When planning for future capital needs, take into account: capital items owned by the club; standard useful life estimates (available through the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants); life-cycle projections for golf course assets, including greens, tees, sand bunkers, irrigation systems and drainage (available through the American Society of Certified Golf Architects); and actual standard unit counts of assets to ensure alignment with utilization needs and patterns.

Crisis Planning. What happens in the event of a disastrous or tragic event at your club? What specific actions should employees take, and in which priority order? Which staff members are authorized to contact and deal with police, emergency responders and fire departments? Who contacts the insurer? Who drafts responses to media questions and acts as a spokesperson for the club? Who manages the subsequent media cycles? All of these questions should be anticipated and answered during a detailed planning process and obviously before any crisis.

Resources in answering these questions include your insurance carrier and agent, local public services of fire, health and public safety, and experts available through major professional associations such as CMAA, GCSAA and PGA.

Marketing Planning. One of the regrettable truths revealed by the Great Recession is that most golf courses and private clubs do not understand their markets well enough to inform their most critical decision making. Few conduct a business-like market analysis of existing customers and prospective market segments outside of the front gate.

Lacking a thorough and current understanding of their markets, most clubs execute misdirected, ineffective and potentially costly marketing efforts. Top-performing clubs have studied and measured their market areas. Among other benefits, this research helps them understand feeder markets (which may be out of state and beyond) that can sustain growth and reliable financial performance.

Armed with the information uncovered during the planning process, you now have the ingredients of a comprehensive business plan which supports your overall strategic plan. While he may not salute your plan, Ike would surely be impressed with the hard work and critical thinking that produced it.

This article was authored by GGA Partner Henry DeLozier for Golf Course Industry.

Will Women Save Golf?

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Golf has a tendency to exist in a vacuum, one where blinders we sometimes wear with pride make us inattentive to happenings outside the confines of our green fairways. But looking away from one of the most important issues of the day could have calamitous consequences.

2018 may well go down in modern history as the year of the woman and the fight courageous women waged for respect and opportunity. What started as a backlash against a Hollywood movie mogul by women trapped by his influence has spread to other parts of society and is now part of the daily dialogue. It should also be part of the conversations we’re having in golf.

Leading up to the World Economic Forum in Davos earlier this year, Erna Solberg, the prime minister of Norway, and Christine Lagarde, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, wrote that “time is up for discrimination and abuse against women. The time has come for women to thrive.”

They went on to say that “giving women and girls the opportunity to succeed is not only the right thing to do, but can also transform societies and economies.” If that opportunity has transformative global potential, just think what it could do for golf.

More women in leadership roles – on boards, as general managers, as department heads, as executive directors of allied associations – would do wonders for golf. I continue to be dismayed when I see panels composed of middle-aged white men at industry events. What perspectives are we missing that could inform better decision-making? What experiences are we not aware of that could help us fix problems on and off the course? What nuances are we tone deaf to that would make the game, our courses and our facilities more engaging?

We’ll never know until women have the opportunity to demonstrate their leadership abilities. And we won’t know the consequences of those omissions until participation and diversity have dwindled even further. Dare we risk that? Golf’s good-old-boys club took us so far. It’s also one of the reasons momentum has stalled.

There is urgency because, as we have seen dramatic evidence of already this year, women are not content to wait for change to come to them. But are the mostly male leaders of golf and its mostly private clubs prepared to examine their own practices and begin to open the right doors?

Introspection starts close to home. Boards can mandate women fill a minimum number of seats around the table. They can also require that job searches include women (and minorities). General managers can make educational and career-experience opportunities available to women so when management positions become available women and men are competing on a level playing field. Clubs can take the necessary steps to help women stay active in the workplace while raising a family. And without question, clubs can compensate women and men on an equal basis for jobs with similar requirements and responsibility.

Enlightened perspectives should also be customer facing for obvious reasons:

  • Women are driving the global economy – the women’s market is growing at a faster growth rate than men.
  • Women are responsible for $20 trillion U.S. dollars in annual consumer spending.
  • Women have a high level of commitment and loyalty.
  • Women share positive experiences.

But (news flash!) there are considerable barriers that women must overcome to gain the respect and opportunity most men are granted with few questions. Almost 90 percent of countries have one or more gender-based legal restrictions holding back women. Fortunately, those legal restrictions do not exist in the United States. But we all know that there are other barriers that can be onerous and restrictive, and we don’t have to look outside our own organizations to see them. Clubs ignore those hurdles and discriminatory practices at their own peril.

We must realize that recognizing and rewarding women’s potential is critical to the future of golf and golf clubs. We may be swimming against the tide of tradition in some cases, but the best practice seems simply to make the most of everybody’s talents.

The tide has shifted, the momentum has changed. Today’s conversation focuses on broad social change led by women and – yes – men who are speaking out against outdated views that hold all of us back. Helping women make the most of their potential is a job for all of us, and it’s time to get started.

GGA’s Henry DeLozier penned this article for Golf Course Industry.

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