2024: Going forward

It is 2024. A new year with fresh new goals, new budgets, and very likely, several new staff members. A new year is the great unknown. Can you keep the momentum of the past three years? Can you keep the golfers staying and playing? What can you expect from the team, your experienced people as well as those coming onto your stage for the first time? What might happen to the economy in this election year? So many questions. So many unknowns. And although it is a new year, with many questions, you look with optimism towards a season with an open runway complete with men, women, and juniors who still want to play, engage, have fun, and be a part of this hot game of golf.

Soon the season will kick in. Time to build on what the club achieved in the past. Time to improve consistency while adding new products and services to the 2024 menu. It’s essential to bring fun, education, and attention-grabbing programs to the property for both young and old. Golfers love to golf. Why not make this the primary thought of the day? As the property leader, it is important to focus on the primary driver of the property while building other product/service ideas around an overriding mission: a wonderful day of golf. In this new post, I suggest three ideas about the focus for the upcoming season, three thoughts that may help create financial wins, pushing past the fears of many property leaders in this new post-pandemic season. Here are my three thoughts on where to focus in 2024:

Focus on education: From teaching new golfers how to help care for the course during their round to helping them understand and appreciate etiquette and the rules, focusing on education can cut time off the average round, help people better understand the game, and equip them with the critical knowledge for their day on your property. Education is an added value, one your golfers will appreciate because you and your team are going the extra mile to make them feel both comfortable and responsible.

Focus on the product: When you and your team focus on the golf course you are prioritizing your success. Having good course conditions, clean carts, and rakes in carts or near bunkers, all provide tools, aesthetics, and value for the dollar spent. When your golfers experience great conditions, they will come back, stay longer, and spend money in other areas of the property. Success begins on the range, the 1^st tee, and every other area where a golf ball is struck. Focusing on the product will provide real dividends day one and then throughout the season.

Focus on the fun: When the team mission is built around fun, you and your managers own a great playbook. Providing a fun experience for men, women and juniors takes training, practice, and strong communication. When the staff is treated right, fun is an easy extension. It is all about your managers making certain your troops are treated well. Being proactive is important in making certain management is doing all that is possible for team members to create the desired experience for every golfer.

There are dozens of things to consider as you plan out the new season with your leadership team. Focus can help center the priority on those things that can best move the needle. Setting the tone with a few essential priorities can position the club for a strong year. Those clubs with hundreds of priorities truly have no real priorities. The leaders who decide on the right essentials can help move the team down the field with clarity and speed. It’s all in the focus, after all.

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Jack Dillon writes the In My Opinion blog. Jack is an author, speaker, consultant, and brand ambassador. His expertise is in customer service, sales, purchasing, communications, and training. Jack can help you achieve more in this new year. Go to: www.youdontknowjackd.com to learn more. There you can set up a Zoom meeting to find out how Jack can make you build a better season. You can also reach Jack at 407-973-6136.