Seven Steps To Make Golf Better

17th at Mercer West (8 here today)

Today at my local county public golf course, I had one of the best rounds of my life. (Note: I'm really not very good, but 100 was Heady Progress on the course in question.) Drives were straight and true, irons were frequently well-struck, and some of the wedges led to tap-ins. I holed out a bunch of long putts, got lucky a few times, and recovered relatively quickly from the inevitable shaky strokes.

It as all remarkably pleasant, despite a very slow pace of play. If you were judging by the state of the course today, you'd have no idea that golf was in serious decline.

Why? Well, it takes time, especially if the course is crowded. We played as a twosome between foursomes on a crowded course, on a Sunday afternoon, which meant that a round that could have been done in three hours took four and a half. It's pricey, but that's never stopped the game from doing well in the past. It skews badly on the demographics, as the game has always seemed exclusionary, old and classist, what with the enforced fashions and strong male bent. There has been, to date, no New Tiger Woods, so the game has just not sustained the popularity boom seen in the 1990s. Too many courses were made as part of the land / housing boom, for too few lifelong new players, and it's an open question as to whether we're going through a correction or a death spiral.

I think there's a lot that can be done to make the game better, not just for players, but for the areas where the courses are -- and without making the game unrecognizable with oversized holes and other fundamentally rule-busting moves. Here they are in list form.

1) Use the Internet of Things to enforce pace.

It's not hard to track carts with transponders (either driving or push) and get a sense of who is holding up play, and have them get a visit from a ranger. Especially for players who play from tees that aren't at their true levels.

2) Help hackers with beacons. The single most irritating aspect of play as a weak player is trying to find the ball on errant shots, and this should be the kind of thing that technology should be able to fix with a quickness. Wire that up to the cart, and I won't even mind paying more for it, since I'll be saving money on the lost balls that are the current bane of my existence.

3) Dial in for food and beverage. Nothing's more annoying than waiting on a group that is ahead of you as they do business with the beverage service; as always, of course, having other people wait when you do the same thing is fine. If these orders can be sent in and billed to a standing account (say, the same card you used to pay for the round), then the service is no slower than a drive and drop. Plus, no one's fumbling over change.

4) Develop a Web-wide player profile. I play a handful of courses within an hour of my home, and I doubt that I'm a strong outlier in my golfing habits. If my rounds tend to go faster or slower than the 10 to 17 minute per hole speed quoted on most cards, that should show up in my record, so that when you set me up to play at your course, you don't just slot me at the same time as everyone else. Eventually, we might get to the point where everyone's playing without spending so much time waiting.

5) Expand the available time to play. I haven't tried it yet, but a local course to me has offered night golf, with special equipment and holes; it sounds like a blast. I've played on indoor simulators that have gotten better and better, though the putting is still a mess. I'm pretty sure that we'll eventually get to at-home set-ups that allow for realistic play, which might even get to letting you play the course of your choice, with your remote friends, at the hour of your choosing. Virtual also helps fix the next problem, which is...

6) Make this a much more green enterprise. Chopping the use of strong pesticides, using alternate materials in areas where elements aren't local, and using the lay of the land instead of wild modifications, should all be standard operating procedure. It's also a point that should be used when marketing and advertising the course.

7) Use technology to improve the overall golfing experience. Use the tech to give me distance to the green from driving the cart to aid in club selection. (Some clubs do this already; make it the standard.) Give me the option to tune in the game on that cart screen, which would be wildly popular during football season. Have scoring incorporated into the cart tech, so that we're not spending time doing math at the turn, and can have the card e-mailed later. Maybe do shot analysis from beacons, and even selected moments of video capture, with the ability to post to social media, so my friends and family can see the 30-footer I holed out from the fringe today.

It's not as if there isn't the money to do this, an audience that says no to technology, or any reason to just keep doing things the way we've been doing them. The future of the game is at stake. Use the tech to secure it.

* * * * *

If you like or share this column, it's as good as a gimme putt. Feel free to also connect with me on LinkedIn, email me at davidlmountain at gmail dot com, or visit our agency. We offer copywriting, direction and strategy, along with design, illustration, photography, coding and hosting. The RFPs are always free. Hope to hear from you soon.

Business lessons from fantasy football

This Year's Board

T'is the season when America's football fans get their statistical nerd on, and I am no different. I've also been playing in leagues since before the Internet, because the nerd runs all the way back to childhood... but in thinking about the exercise and the agency, it struck me that some of the rules that you play by have been of high value over the years in business.

1) Get Your VORP (Value Over Replacement Player) On.

Especially in an auction situation, good strategy is to go the extra mile to get players that have something special. In football, that usually means the player has talent to help you in more than one way (running backs who also catch passes, wide receivers that are good at multiple kinds of patterns, quarterbacks who can run for extra yardage, etc.). In marketing, it's creative people that make pieces that stand out, or can work in tight spaces. Difference makers, in other words.

2) Play your position. 

Most leagues have some form of draft order, which means that you will be making your picks with action likely from a few specific competitors. If you know what they need, and what they value (especially if someone acts on a real team allegiance), that is information you need to use to your advantage... because, rest assured, the other savvy players are doing it to you. In business, this is known as knowing the competition, and it's table stakes for doing work, but you'd be amazed how many people just come and play their own hand, without a care in the world as to how others are working them like a speed bag.

3) You can't win on Opening Day.

There's never been a league where I've drafted so well that I haven't had to work the bottom fifth of my roster like a day trader. Most seasons are too long, and injuries are too prevalent, to just set and forget, especially if you are any kind of league with quality competitors.

From a business standpoint, the corollary is that no matter what your starting advantage might be in a market, the grind is all -- and that winning a client is only the start of a long road. Motors are required.

4) Run through the tape.

Only one person can win a league, and at least a third of the players will know they have no chance halfway through the year. Far too many people will then use this info to throw in the towel and stop playing. Not only does this run the risk of ruining the game for others who are still in contention by making things easier on some members of the league, but it just shows poor character.

In business, the equivalent act is mailing it in as soon as you get a new job, or pulling the chute on a client that shows signs of leaving. Sure, it's defensible in the short term as a matter of prioritizing, but this is the kind of thing that people remember, and not well. It can easily become the defining aspect of your personal brand, and, well, deservedly so. Run through the tape.

5) Do it with your whole heart.

In my league, the winner gets an authentic old-school leather helmet, with the winner's name on a plate on the front of it. It's very stupid, but the extra mile matters, and ties the name of the league together, in a way that's distinctive and special. I also run the league as a real-world experience, with big labels and a room that's prepared just so. The people in my league have the choice to play or not, and any number of other leagues to join. They stay with mine, for the most part. I appreciate it.

In business, the same kind of commitment applies. Go all-in and sweat the details, because those details are how you separate yourselves from other professionals. The people at your company have the choice to work with you or not, and any number of other things they could be doing with their time. Make them want to stay with you, and appreciate you.

* * * * *

Something else you should do with your whole heart: like or share this column. Feel free to also connect with me on LinkedIn, email me at davidlmountain at gmail dot com, or hit the RFP boxes on the top right. We offer copywriting, direction and strategy, along with design, illustration, photography, coding and hosting. The RFPs are always free. Hope to hear from you soon.

The Always-On Problem

24 7 365

A brief (?) aside, but wait for it, Marketing and Advertising will happen.

I remember when I first realized I had a problem, when it came to being online. I'd spend hours on my favorite site, agonizing over getting the wording just right. I cared way too much about what a specific girl would say about what I wrote. I disrupted my sleep schedule, engaged in the usual hyperdriven levels of teenage drama, and frequently valued the relationships made online more than my immediate friends and family.

The year was 1985, and the medium was bulletin boards, the CB radio level precursor to the Internet as most people knew it. My addiction was to a monochrome screen, download times that were barely faster than a very fast typist. But still, strangers on a screen, potentially from all over the world, reacting to what you write. Magic.

The point? Addiction to screens is not exactly a new phenomenon. At least when I was a teen, I had to be in front of my monitor, in my room, with no one else on the house telephone. (Woe to the kids who used pay sites, or dialed in to boards that were long distance calls. That led to spectacular levels of Parental Trouble.)

Today? It's in your pocket, fast, with mutli-media and so much more. You can check it hundreds of times a day, and many do, without ever thinking about it.

How does anyone say no to it, really?

The answer is that, honestly, they don't. Which also means you have untold opportunities to make a buck off them.

The best time to send your commercial email... is probably when no one else is, particularly if you've got a solid offer and an algorithm that's pushing out relevant goods. I've seen big bursts of clicks on 11pm local sends, because we can't say no to the phone or tablet, and looking at the email is nearly as easy as ignoring it.

How about your content piece? Many of the best that I read are sent in the very middle of the overnight, so they aren't above the radar. Others sprinkle them out during the work day, and avoid falling under the waves in the in box by avoiding the channel entirely.

Your marketing and advertising messages exist in a sea of other moments of interruption. Tests are being co-opted by competitors, search, social, direct mail and more, and nothing ever, ever stops. Particularly if you have consumers spread over many time zones, all of them with the ability to always be on. Especially now, when you not only have the ability to receive the message at any time, but the data shows that many, well, are.

I don't know if it's doing anything good for us as a species. I worry about attention spans, sleep schedules, the damage done to personal relationships, the ability to be truly present and focused. I've seen adults pay very good money to play beautiful golf courses, but still online. I've seen others gambling big sums of money, making decisions at a poker table, still online.

We have the ability to market and advertise to these people all the time.

And if we don't, someone else will.

That's a problem, right?

* * * * *

Another problem: I need you to like or share this column. Feel free to also connect with me on LinkedIn, email me at davidlmountain at gmail dot com, or hit the RFP boxes on the top right. We offer copywriting, direction and strategy, along with design, illustration, photography, coding and hosting. The RFPs are always free. Hope to hear from you soon.