Vital Information
Greetings Golfers,
Three more days ’til Halloween. That’s a fact … and also a line from an annoying song in the movie “Halloween III”. Of course I thought the song was hilarious … though my wife and golf partners did not enjoy my singing of it.
That was 40 years ago … and also a beautiful October … we played golf right up until Halloween.
Though the rumor is of more nice weather next week … Sunday, October 30 is our last day of golf in 2022.
We had a great year. That’s fun to say. Weather-wise, April was brutal, and May was mediocre … but June through October was amazing.
Good weather is good for the golf business. (Profound!)
But good weather isn’t enough to make for a good golf experience … that depends on culture.
On Monday of this week, Joe Schmitt gave a talk at the MN PGA Fall Meeting. It was about culture … and it was great. Usually these types of talks at meetings are pretty generic and not very insightful. Well, this was profound.
I’m not going to go into it … but basically it was about culture first, money second. About the importance of making people feel good. Staff and golfers. And developing the skill of making people feel good about themselves.
Bravo Joe … bravo!
A golf course has a unique opportunity to build a culture. Build. It won’t happen on its own. And it’s not just jumping to satisfy the whims of people. It’s about building connection and respect and sharing a sense of humor. In a unique way. That’s a good culture.
Well … we have a lot of people at DRGC who have those skills. It’s pretty incredible. I try to stay out of their way. But … I want to thank them publicly. Last month I thanked Barry and his maintenance staff. Now I’d like to thank Kelly Olive and her food-service staff:
Alexa Allenson
Emma Bigham
Grace Blackwell
Kelli Cole
Courtney Eder
Ellie Eskuche
Lauren Eskuche
Emily Fornetti
Elizabeth Gerebi
Allison Grobel
Riley Histon
Maeve Kelly
Caroline Kohls
Allyson Kuzara
Jocelyn Lindquist
Izzy Lodge
Clare Melander
Jayne Pipkorn
Mara Sandberg
Sasha Snegirova
Elise Wilson
But that’s not all … Ketti Histon and Kathy Fee Jones and Thomas Aragon-Menzel were in charge of the Pro Shop, and the inside and outside staff. They all did a great job:
Dan Abts
Emma Braaten
Jacob Bryant
Kyle Bryant
Tyler Bryant
Avery Charon
Kam Hendrickson
Mike Melander
JT Rathbun
Ben Reiff
Zach Reiff
Danny Renner
Emily Renner
Ty Smith
Ethan Wolff
They all created a great culture. The proof is in this fact - we had no drama amongst staff … zero … seriously. We did great in the annual Tee Times Magazine Readers Choice Awards that can be viewed here … but the lack of drama was the real tale of the tape.
Ok … other vital information. We will continue our tradition of selling Holiday Passes from mid-November to mid-December. The exact dates and prices will be forth-coming.
However, we do have an exact date for our Annual Christmas Sale. That will be on Saturday, December 3.
Wow! Three days until Halloween … then Thanksgiving … then Christmas … then we’ll be teeing-it-up in March.
Hope to see you this weekend … and/or at the Christmas Sale. Don’t worry … I don’t sing that “Halloween III” song anymore.
Cheers!
Tom Abts
GM/Head PGA Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com