Golf being Suppressed by Business
(The following is the continuing report from my week of traveling around Minneapolis/St Paul, Minnesota, discussing business golf with people in that area. To catch you up, here are the three previous posts. So What are we Dealing with Here, Golf from a Non-Golfers Point of View , Business Golf in Minnesota )
As I was riding around East Minneapolis with my host trying to find Theodore Wirth Golf Park, I started reviewing all of the other conversations I had over the last three or four days with a number of golfers. So when I got to the rather old, but established muni golf course I felt maybe I would be in store for a change of subject on the business golf issue.
However, after a short rain and lightening delay I found that maybe the problems I keep hearing over and over from golfers who have leadership positions in company’s telling me of them being suppressed my their superiors to using golf as part of doing business are really more prevalent than my previous studies showed.
As we took the tee we were notified that the other twosome that was booked to join us had not checked in and we were free to tee off. So we were off and as we traveled down the fairway of the first hole in search of ball on a golf course neither of us have played we heard this loud whistle coming from the tee box we just left. It was the starter waving at us for some reason.
In a few moments a course marshal comes driving up to tell us that the other Twosome has shown up and “we would like for you to join them”. So now we have a foursome. This worked out since there was a twosome in front of us and twosome in back of us making it impossible to keep up with the group in front and the group in back always standing in the fairway a hundred yards behind us with their hands on their hits.
Unfortunately, the policy of the course is “no playing through groups”..I applaud this effort to keep the course tee times on scheduled, but in a muni environment where most golfers really are not out to obey most rules of golf, the stern looks and hands on hips seems to be muni-golf’s version of “Road Rage”. But this is stuff for another blog…moving on.
As the pace of play level out around the third hole I took the time while we all were standing on the tee box watching the guys from two fairways over playing out of our fairway attempting shots that would required them to swing out of the CROCs they were wearing, I took the time to start with the old ice breaker line “so what do you guys do for a living?”
Both of the guys were CPA’s. It was a vacation day outing for them …OK, this seemed to be pretty straight forward until I asked if they used golf in their business.
Now asking a CPA, or anyone who is in an analytical type position like accountants, an opened ended question like I did I should of expected to hear a reply like..
“Well, our company sponsors Phil Mickleson.”
OK, that did tell me that their company understands the value of golf in business, but did not provide me with much to go on that these two guys had ever played golf as part of doing business. So, I worked the “Lefty Sponsorship” angle by asking..
Have you got to go to a function where Phil was attending or playing golf?
And their reply was a repeat of what I have been hearing a lot from people during my trip to Minnesota tell me. The youngest gentleman said…
“OH no, we are only peons, only the “Big Guy’s” on “Carpet Row” are allowed to attend those functions. Even though I am a department head, I am not high enough in the corporate ranks to even know who in the company it is that organizes the the Mickleson events so I can nudge an invitation to attend. Those functions are for ONLY the guys in the “Nose Bleed” offices (meaning very top level executives.)”
Since it was my time to hit I let that report pass until we again got the time to wait on the group in front of us. So as we watched another group of codgers from the fairway next to us in the creek in front of us attempt to fish out every ball they saw, I took on directing the questions to these guys by asking, if the opportunity came to attend one of those functions with the condition that they had to entertain a top client would they feel comfortable doing so?
Now, this line of questioning really got things going for about five more holes. Each of the gentlemen felt that what they had to offer clients would impress upon them the details of the work the company is doing for them instead of just being wining and dinning them to get them to extend their contract.
Each of my fellow business golfers told me of situations where they spent hours and days in conference rooms meeting with clients over very touchy situations. It took months of those meetings before each side of the table got comfortable with each other enough to trust what each side was saying as being the truth.
It was not until something less formal of an activity was introduced before the environment in these meetings changes. By then they had spent days away from other duties they needed to do as part of their jobs.
Both of these gentlemen felt that if they had started the meetings with a golf outing so each side of the table could size up each other’s character the discussions during the meetings would have moved on quicker avoiding the problems dragging these issues on causes to a business’s operations.
I was mesmerized with this information since it confirmed what I know has been going on around the corporate world for years. When I asked if they had mentioned to anyone how a round of golf would have set the mood for the meeting to be more productive both gents had similar comments of…
“Hell, No…golf is not allowed as any type of business function at our level of the company. Those type of functions are left for the selected few. I have asked a number of times if I could soften up the client meetings with off premises meetings using golf and was nearly reprimanded for suggesting the idea. No, golf for anything in our corporation is really suppressed.”
Over the last remaining holes these gentlemen turned the table on me and started asking very thought out questions. It seemed that between tee boxes they were conversing with each other on the answers I had provided to their questions which, as is the case with most analytical thinkers, provoked yet another question.
Their focus was on wanting to know more about the benefits of co-workers playing golf together. However, my answer to those questions was cut short by round of golf coming to an end so quickly and both of our needed to move on to other appointments we had made.
However, I was able to address the issue with telling them that staff meetings and employee training seminars work much better when their is a round of business golf as part of the agenda.  Not just a round of golf, but a round of Business Golf. This means the golf that is offered at the event has a purpose outside of being a frilly day away from the office.
They were wanting to know more about the availability of offline out of town seminars and conferences that facilitated some sort of training they needed to take. Since I was not able to complete my report to them on all that I know about those type of functions I ended our visit with the exchange of business cards and commitments to get in touch with each other after the Holidays.
So, my golf at Theodore Wirth Golf Course was very productive and exciting with the Number 12th Hole being my favorite..since I birdied that hole… I will have a couple more reports on my adventure in the Minneapolis/St Paul, Minnesota area to come so stay tuned. Plus I will also be back in other post to expand upon some of the business golf issues addressed in my adventures.
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