The Range or the Putting Green. A personality indicator.

We all know there are two different attendance realities for our ranges and for our putting greens. The range is plenty packed with full swings and long practice sessions happening. The putting green mostly serving as a quick warm-up pit stop for a few on their way to the 1st?tee.

It’s been this way for a long time. It has bred more than its share of?“drive for show, putt for dough”?commentary. It is an obvious personality indicator, and it stirs up some fun speculation about the behaviour patterns of our customers and what we could learn from it.

Of course, as we dissect the personality traits of our customers in this article, I’ll be circling back around to challenge you on which path you’re looking to follow yourself as your business faces some very big changes in the next couple years.

Personality Indicator Theory #1 – Discovery vs Dedication.?Fun vs work.

A frequent comment we often hear from our golfers as they update us on their range experience –?I am trying to find something. If we get any update at all from their time on the putting green, it is usually a more muted, less excitable –?working on my putting stroke. That’s the heart of it –?finding vs working. Discovery vs dedication.

So here is the fun in theory #1 – it hits at the heart of what it is about golf we all love so much. Golf really can’t be mastered – and for almost all golfers this means the golf swing itself. It is fluid and we find it briefly, then lose it, then found then lost again. It constantly needs to be discovered, again and again. Well, more than that really. Rediscovered. Tweaked. Torn down. Rebuilt. Modified. Condensed. Expanded. Higher. Lower.

Chasing something elusive is an inviting task. This is the common reason many of us propose as to why professional athletes from other sports find their way to golf. They mastered the challenge of their own sport. Now their competitive energy needs a place where it will be in ongoing use. The unachievable challenge of mastering golf. Very intoxicating to very many people.

We are hooked on the hunt. Find a swing. Always searching – always hopeful.

In contrast, putting a golf ball along the ground just can’t match up to all that’s going on with the full swing?search & discover?program. Putting can’t compete – it doesn’t have the big personality or the huge ups and downs your full swing journey has. It doesn’t get lost as often as a full swing does. The difference in the feel of a good putt vs a poor putt isn’t drastic enough to solicit the emotions our full swing does. We all know the difference in feeling of a perfectly struck 6 iron and a skulled wedge. Putting will never provide that dizzying ride we are on as we chase our swing. ?All it will do is lower your scores if you work hard at it. Same sentiment as the treadmill in my basement. Great success with monotonous dedicated work – hmmn, I’ll do it next year.

Full swing vs putting. ?Explorer vs grinder. Grinding is hard. Exploring is fun. The constant swing exploration is part of the game we love. Putting better is hard work.

It’s just a theory.

Personality Indicator Theory #2 – offense vs defence.?Aggressive vs cautious.

Just as we walked through above, this plays out in the full swing vs putting arena. Another discussion about what it is that makes us chase the full swing endlessly while having little time to offer at the practice putting green. And how that reflects the personality of our customers.

The backdrop to theory #2 is this – how we value the?price of failing?vs the?rewards of succeeding.??

The 1st?theory was about how we choose to use our private moments of practice. This theory is about how we actually play the game when people are watching and scores are posted.

Are you an?I plan to hit every shot perfect?type of golfer or are you an?I’ll avoid bad shots?type of golfer? Offense vs defense. Risking it all for glory vs mitigating failure. A personality indicator indeed.

Taking the risks to chase glory vs avoiding failure is the key to this theory. Golf places many confident individuals into one of the few non-confident situations they will have to manage. It’s back to the heart of what we love about this game. It often places us in that?out-of-our-comfort-zone?space. We spend a lot more time in the “it just doesn’t feel right today”?mode than we ever do?“in the zone”?so managing the insecurity this game foists on us is a rather worthwhile pursuit. Manage it offensively or defensively.

Taking the risks to chase glory vs stay-in-my-lane failure avoidance. Will you add some risk to do all you can for success or will you limit risk for the comfort of safety?

Now, for the minutes of this meeting, I am not advocating one over the other here. We all know that Hollywood script writers and fireside story-tellers love the swashbuckler angle here. Swing for the fences. No guts no glory. That said, what makes for great stories won’t always be the wisest choices. It, of course, depends. As you look at the coming shifts in your business – what’ll it be? Depends on your market. Depends on your customer. Depends on many, many things. This is Risk Management 101 and it needs a discussion because if you plan to swashbuckle you’ll need some expert help.

Back to the golf course. The range is still full while the putting green waits, and waits. The offensive golfer is there simply to keep their foot on the pedal. To prove to themselves that confidence comes from hard work. Let’s hope, for their sake, they are working on the right stuff. The defensive golfer is there to find a path to minimize failings. Keep it in the lane and get it home. Less risk this way don’t you know. And still the putting green sits there quiet even though approx 40% of the strokes in my next round will be played from there. Ah well, that’s just scoring better and hard work – I got a swing to sort out.

It’s just a theory.

Back to your business. Many courses will wisely choose a less risky path these coming years. Settle in and let the market show its hand. Then we’ll see. Where are costs going? We’ll see. Where will play volume go post-pandemic? We’ll see. For some other courses though, it’s time to get moving.

Remember – The new ’20 & ’21 golfers and the new huge uptick in play patterns are untested against a normalized life.

These next couple of years are too important. Get the help and support needed to maximize your effort. You may be more pleased with your marketing and communication assets than you should be. Make sure you question your set-up.

So for those courses – it’s time for some swashbuckling. It’s time to have your golfers see you in a new light. See you differently. Taking risks. Doing more. Working harder to engage them when they are not on property. Is your site really, solidly functional for searches? Is your data base delivering the click-through goods. Are you charming and entertaining in data base engagement to deliver those click-through’s or do your customers only see you constantly selling, selling, selling to them? Are your high volume landing pages copy-connected to the data base click-through strategy where they came from? Do you know which one is delivering the high volume traffic? Is your site provider bringing you the right intel on behaviour patterns? Does your site host understand golfer behaviour and where that collides with normal non-golf site structures? Are you sweating bounce rates every day? Are you jumping for joy that you have your customers on property for?5 hours?when they visit? Have you built a layered strategy for this or are close to missing that boat again. Do you know how willing your neighbourhood and community are to align with you and willing to tell your story? Do you understand that being mobile optimized is only part of the solution for UX on handhelds? Have you asked enough questions and have those been answered by the right people?

If not, we need to talk – because I have a lot more questions for you.

It won’t be long before we’re looking back on ’22 & ’23 and passing judgement on ourselves. What happened coming out of the pandemic? What did you do? What was your plan? Those answers need a lot more nuance beyond operational excellence and cost control. Those are vital?ongoing?management plans – they are not a 3 year strategy plan for exiting the most incredible and chaotic 24-month window our industry has ever experienced.

Everything you know about your customers add up to an important sum total to be considered at every turn. If your decision is to swashbuckle a bit. It’ll take strategy and copy corrections and creative evaluation and planning and more. So call me.

My development team know how websites interact with users. I know how golfers interact with the market. We are ready to help.

[email protected] (scroll to bottom of page for my email link - LinkedIn still won't allow a direct email out)?or 416-300-2075

To learn more about my beliefs on our industry issues concerning customer engagement – take a look at my articles?https://tgreensolutions.com/blog/