It's OKAY To Play Golf For Fun

GUILTLESS WAYS TO MAKE GOLF MORE FUN WHILE LEARNING

from PGA.com – Play Golf America

1. It’s okay to not keep score.
2. It’s okay to play from the shortest tees or start at the 150 yard marker.
3. It’s okay to give yourself a better lie by rolling the ball around a little. It’s okay to tee the ball up anywhere when you are first learning.
4. It’s okay to only count swings when you make contact with the ball.
5. It’s okay to throw the ball out of a bunker after one try.
6. It’s okay to forget about a ball that may be lost or out of bounds. It’s okay to drop a ball where you think it might be…or where you wanted it to be.
7. It’s okay to play a scramble with your group…scrambles are very popular.
8. It’s okay to just chip and putt on a hole when you feel like it.
9. It’s okay to pick up in the middle of the hole and enjoy the outdoors and scenery.
10. It’s okay to skip a hole if you need to take a break.
11. It’s okay to play less than 9 or 18-holes and call it a round of golf.
12. It’s okay to move your ball away from trees, rocks or very hilly lies.
13. It’s okay to hit the same club for the entire round, while using a putter on the putting green.
14. It’s okay to play golf in your sneakers. Be comfortable!
15. It’s okay to get enthusiastic! (High fives, fist pumps and big smiles are encouraged)
16. It’s okay to talk on the golf course…enjoy a nice conversation or tell a few jokes.
17. It’s okay to bring your kids to the course, whether they are 5 or 35.
18. It’s okay to PLAY GOLF JUST FOR FUN!

Golf 2.0

What started at the employer roundtable discussion at the 2009 PGA Annual Meeting in New Orleans has evolved to the new strategic direction of The PGA of America, known as Golf 2.0. It was at that meeting where the Association acknowledged the prolonged impact of the recession and the term “reset” was born. In 2010, the PGA hired the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to gain the perspective of one of the world’s leading consumer research and consulting firms. Their findings, which included interviews withindustry leaders, surveys of some 2,700 PGA members and employers, consumer focus groups, and more than 2,000 quantitative consumer studies, are the foundation of Golf 2.0.

The findings showed that, left unchanged, our industry might face 10 years of flat participation and revenues, but the opportunity exists to engage an interested and willing population of lapsed golfers referred to as “Latent Demand” to take up the game. The goal is to increase the number of golfers from the current 27 million to 40 million by the year 2020.

excerpt from July/August 2011 Career Notes, PGA Employment Services