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It's a beautiful Saturday at the beginning of October. You can almost feel another great golf season coming to a close. And you know what? You're excited about it. Not just because a little break is coming once that white stuff starts flying... okay, maybe that's part of it. But because you've spent another season dealing with stress, making countless decisions, putting out fires and constantly being on the go. And now all that hard work is about to pay off. The financials ar

There are only so many hours in every day and despite what people like to tell you, you don't get to decide what to do with most of them. Yeah, yeah, I hear it all the time: “We all have the same 24 hours.” “If you really want to be successful, you just have to use your time wisely.” Sure. But let's actually break down those 24 hours. I have to sleep. There goes 7. I have kids who need lunches made, breakfast, help getting ready for school and a trip to the bus stop. The dog

We as GMs work hard. We create all the best policies, handle every situation perfectly, make decisions better than anyone else possibly could and somehow run the absolute most perfect and efficient golf operation on the planet. Nobody runs a golf course as well as we do. Or so we think. Depending on your level of arrogance you may actually believe all of that. The truth is, we have gotten to where we are because we've done a lot of things right. And I mean a lot of things rig

Well… that weekend was a total washout. A full course outing had to cancel one day.. the rain kept coming all night and we ended up closing the course Sunday too. Not exactly how I pictured the final stretch of the season. I was excited to make the most of these last few weeks before the days get shorter, the temperatures drop and our rates start coming down. But here's the thing… As a GM, you can't control the weather. You can control your tee sheet.You can control your mark

We’re already a week into September and you can see it in your staff. The heavy eyes. The shorter patience. The little things that normally wouldn’t bother them suddenly do. It’s been a long year. Think about what your staff has done over and over again since spring. The early mornings. The phone ringing nonstop. Taking tee times. Checking in golfers. Answering the same questions for the hundredth time. Then there are the league players who still don’t call to cancel their te

Your staff has been busting their butts, your customers have been happy, and hopefully, the money is pouring in. There is something about the late-season grind that, in my mind, can make or break how the entire season is remembered. When the course opens for the year or in some cases, just begins to get busy again, there is a refreshing feeling that floats through the air. Everyone is happy to be back playing golf. It seems as though nothing can bring them down, and your staf

This is my first blog post. And truthfully, it may be terrible. But I’m guessing that post after post, I’ll get better at this just like I did becoming a General Manager. So, why am I here? For most of us in management, we spend years trying to climb the ladder. We work hard, take on more responsibility, solve more problems, and eventually, if we’re fortunate, we reach the top. And then something happens. You realize how lonely it can be up here. Not lonely in a sad way. Lone