GG#15 - The Big Mo

This is the 15th in a series of articles by The Golf Gadfly intended for anyone who is interested in the BUSINESS of golf... this one issues a challenge to all of us to "keep the ball rolling"... and we don't mean by stroking a putt.

According to Wikipedia, “The Big Mo is behavioral momentum that operates on a large scale.??The concept originally applied to sporting events in the 1960s in the United States, as momentum appears to have an effect on a team’s performance.”?

We all realize that the golf industry team has had “The Big Mo” on its side since spring 2020 thanks to the effects of the pandemic.

I have read many opinions on “how long will this surge in demand last before things return to normal”?

That’s the wrong question… the right question is:

What can golf course operators and other industry participants do to maintain and extend the momentum even as other aspects of life return to normal?

In trying to answer this question, it is helpful to divide golfers up into two categories:

#1 –?ORGANIZERS?are the people who herd the cats to the first tee… they book and organize groups of 4, 8 or more.??They are your best salespeople!

As golf courses have filled up, the job of the ORGANIZER has gotten harder and more frustrating and many are beginning to get weary of the hassles.??Please don’t tell me this isn’t true… every organizer I talk to agrees it’s tougher out here.

What can we do to make the process of finding available tee times, booking foursomes and then filling them will players easier and less time-consuming?

#2 –?JOINERS?are people who enjoy playing golf but are not prone to doing the heavy lifting involved in organizing group play.??They are, however, happy to join games organized by others.

Now that we have JOINERS playing more often, what can we do to make sure they have a steady supply of invitations to play???More invitations = more rounds = more revenue.

Whether the golf industry maintains THE BIG MO or not will depend largely on us.

What are you doing to ensure that we maintain THE BIG MO?

How can golf industry participants collaborate to do things that they can't do individually to maintain THE BIG MO?