Iznad Golf Blog

Lets forget talk of recession and credit crunch, this is boring now! Too many businesses are blaming their failings on this, using it as an excuse when really companies should be adapting and looking for new ways to increase turnover. Golf club membership was down before the recession hit.

This is why it is so important that we continue to change the image of golf in the minds of the general public. Despite golf clubs telling people over and over again that they welcome green fee paying customers, if they don’t get rid of the ‘members only’ signs and scrap dress codes, they will never reach the required amount of people through the door to keep the club going.

At a recent Ogro (Organisation of Golf Range Owners) Conference, Eddie Bullock PGA elect couldn’t emphasise enough the importance of customer service. I wholeheartedly agree with this but want to add that this customer service needs to also come from the members.

There is nothing worse than walking into a club to find all eyes on you glaring to see if you are worthy of entering ‘their’ space. Members need to at the very least offer a smile and a hello; after all, these green fee paying customers may become the future members.

Golf clubs need to not only encourage but also prepare for an increase of customers. If the many junior golf schemes take off (and Sport England are given a good enough reason to fund more golf initiatives) there will be a sudden increase in golfers with new outlooks on the purpose golf serves to them, new golf fashions, new people using the facilities in a new way.

For example golf clubs need to offer ‘quick golf ‘ to those who want to golf but only get a couple of hours a week where they can escape the stresses of life and relax on the golf course. There is no point in paying for 18 holes if you know you only have time for 14. At Stonelees we have concentrated on three separate 9 hole courses, each one becoming progressively more difficult so customers can choose a course according to how they feel at that moment in time.

There is no enjoyment in playing a sport when you are not comfortable in your attire. Golf is a sport so we should let people wear sports clothing. Image and clothing are very important, golfers also now want to look fashionable and be comfortable, and if this helps people to enjoy the sport then this is good for the golf industry. At Stonelees we do not have a dress code. We are big fans of Golf Refugees clothing, its carbon neutral, organic and fair trade golf clothing!

People will be using golfing facilities in different ways to the past. For example visiting the golf course can now be a family activity instead of it being an escape for ‘Dad’. If a golf club has the correct facilities on offer, there can be something for everyone in any type of family, not just the typical nuclear. A coffee shop for Mum whilst Dad and the eldest child go on the course and the other children enjoy the putting green or driving range, perhaps with a parent.

This gets rid of the guilt factor of not spending enough time with the family. At Stonelees we offer not only golf courses but a bar and restaurant, a driving range, putting course, even a golf simulator. Once these facilities are in place, it is important that the fine details are looked at. For example, are there junior clubs available for hire, are the ladies toilets up to the high standards women expect, is there good coffee on offer?

Golf is such a unique sport which absolutely anyone can play, we have a young girl at Stonelees who is 8 and plays golf competitively while on the other extreme, my grandfather took the sport up at 80 and played until he was 89! Golf is a brilliant sport and golf clubs should be shouting about this and encouraging more people to play regardless of age, gender or attire. Golf is one of the most exclusive sports but has the potential to be one of the most inclusive!

He compares caddying skills such as yardages and reading greens to the land navigation skills he learned in the army stationed in Iraq. But Tristen Lane will tell you, it is golf that has taught him the kind of skills that has helped him come to terms with the PTSD he had acquired during his tour of duty there.

“I have come to see the benefits of golf as well as being a caddie as an inspiration to our youth as well as to my fellow veterans.  Children can benefit from the etiquette as a tool of learning as well as for veterans to re-learn life and social skills,” says Lane.

It was a sense of duty that led Lane to join the army in the wake of 9/11. And it was that same sense of duty that led Lane to surf the net following a failed business in hopes of discovering renewed purpose.

“God has put me on this earth for something,” says Lane.  “Being a persistent individual I have got it in my mind that I can do and succeed in anything that I do.  It is survival, and this is a trait that I picked up from being in war.”

When he founded PCA Worldwide, he thought: “A golf caddie? Sounds interesting.” He contacted the PCA and after that conversation, Lane was convinced he had discovered “the rest of my journey in life.”

Lane signed on to the PCA’s apprentice and certification programs, which involved a detailed course of study and testing in all aspects of caddying and forecaddying, from the moment a caddie is introduced to his or her client, through positioning on the course, play and providing advice. The instruction includes application of medical emergency procedures including CPR and application of an AED. Lane then got the first PCA licensing rights to operate a PCA-Idaho caddie service under the PCA brand for the entire state of Idaho.

At a golf expo in Boise earlier this spring, Lane met representatives from Boise’s Shadow Valley Golf Club. The club was intrigued by Lane’s proposal for a caddie program, but more by Lane’s irrepressible enthusiasm for the idea.

“We’re always looking for ways to enhance our operation and offer golfers more,” says Shadow Valley’s head golf professional T.J. Gomez. “We thought Lane’s plan to involve returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan was a fantastic idea.”

So far this spring and summer, Lane has “looped” about 80 rounds at Shadow Valley. While still in its infancy, Lane expects to train ten full-time caddies and a similar number of forecaddies for Shadow Valley, beginning in 2010. It is a bit of a gamble, according to Gomez.

“Given the moderate fee structure in the area, paying a gratuity for a caddie might be a tough sell,” says Gomez. “A forecaddie program, where one caddie would be assigned to a foursome in carts might prove more affordable for golfers and profitable for caddies.”

Gomez does believe that a forecaddie can positively impact pace of play, and believes that’s where the market might lie for caddying in Idaho. Market or not, Lane says he’s in it for the long haul. He’s talked with the Veterans Administration about caddying as a way of coping with PTSD.

“Caddying has taught me patience, how to slow down. I’m happy here. I like being outdoors.”

Lane’s caddying skills may have already begun to show prominently. At home with his four-year old son putting on a makeshift green in home, his son lined up a putt, looked at his father and commanded, “tend the pin, daddy.”

Dennis Cone and Reid Champagne have been GWAA ( Golf Writers Assoc )  members for over 10 years

Dennis Cone founded PCA Worldwide Foundation in 1992. Since then the organization has developed the Caddie Hall of Fame and PCA Association has help train and certify over 10,800 caddie/members worldwide.   Today, the PCA Foundation continues as an institution “where all caddies based on experience, performance and achievement would be able to be recognized by their peers, golfers, the golfing community and the world.”

Oh Tom Watson, what a wonderful story it would have been ‘eh? Maybe the biggest and best sports story ever. At a time when we could all use a best sports story ever. The Depression Era had Bobby Jones and his impossible Grand Slam. And here we are in the middle of something that might be worse and there you were in the middle of the 18th fairway with a one shot lead. Magic is what it was. A sixth Open Championship. Tying a record that no one even bothers to talk about because there’s just no way anyone wins a major six times these days. I’d say a win for the ages but Nance has the copyright on that doesn’t he?

After your round on Saturday, when you talked about looking at your caddy coming up 18 and saying that Bruce was with you and how you both teared up. How many other eyes teared up throughout the world when they heard that? I know mine did. And throughout the world is exactly right. This wasn’t just a US or UK kind of story. I’ve read where some thought that your win would restore some long lost and much needed pride back in a country they say needs it so. That may or may not be, but you transcended all of that. Took it beyond a country thing and made it worldly.

I read a post by one of the golf bloggers before the start of yesterday’s round. Maybe you read it too. After all, a man who got Jack Nicklaus to send his first ever text message just might read a blog or two. This blogger, William Wolfrum, said a win by you “… changes everything. Markets will open, credit will flow like wine and the ever-growing list of pain-in-the-ass despots around will get together and change their ways, sending the world a one-line note: ‘Hey everyone, sorry. We’ll cut all that out now.’” The world was on your shoulders Tom and with all of that it’s a wonder you could even swing the club.

But swing it you did. I don’t ever recall being that nervous over the outcome of a golf tournament. And I’m old enough to have been through a few. You’ve got me by a year in the age category so as you can imagine, I’ve seen a lot of golf through the years. Hogan’s back nine at the Masters when he was close to your age. Jack’s win at the Masters in the eighties. The Duel in the Sun. Those were all great moments but nothing like what you gave us on Sunday. Up and down all day. From fairway to green. From gorse to green. In the lead by one. Down by two. And then finally, on the 18th hole, from the middle of the fairway, a shot struck so superbly, just as you had envisioned it, a shot that should have led to a two putt and the Claret Jug, bounded through the green.

You said in the press conference afterwards that you probably should have played a nine iron instead of the eight that you did. You factored in the wind. The lie. All of the things you’ve done so many times before when you’ve gone on to win. You forgot one thing though Tom. The weight of the world on your shoulders. No matter the club that weight would have carried the ball through the green. Thank you sir, for the best golf tournament I’ve ever seen and for showing all of us how champions bear that load.

The rolling hills, sandy dunes, and blowing breeze off the Ayrshire coast are rich with Scottish history that lay plain in sight and disguised to this very day.

One of the most captivating and powerful landmarks at Turnberry is the watchful Turnberry Lighthouse that was Originally commissioned by the Northern Lighthouse Board since 1873 to warn passing vessels away from nearby Bristo Rock. Besides the remains of the 13th-century castle of Robert the Bruce the Turnberry Lighthouse is the oldest man-made structure on the Turnberry premises.

Eleven miles past the Turnberry Lighthouse sits Ailsa Craig, a half billion year old volcanic island that was once a haven for Roman Catholics during the 15th-century Scottish Reformation. Now completely uninhabited, in the 19th and 20th centuries the prehistoric Ailsa Craig was quarried for its rare stone.

Some people believe that golf’s true beginnings were born not far from where Turnberry’s courses lay today when 12th century shepherds knocked stones into rabbit holes. In 1751 less than 10 miles away in Girvan is also said to be the site of the birth of “modern golf.” A Lack of formal transportation made travel difficult along Scotland’s Sunshine Coast and without any permanent settlement to support the loved pastime golf would remain absent for 150 years.

The 3rd Marquess of Ailsa (Lord Ailsa) Archibald Kennedy owned Turnberry’s 76,000 acres and denied two attempts to establish a formal club on his island. In 1896 Lord Ailsa an active member of the South-Western Railway board and a keen golfer saw the financial opportunity of building a golf course as well as a train line from Ayr to Maidens, Turnberry and Girvan.

Willie Fernie designed the first man-made links course at Turnberry and was open for play on July 6th 1901. A match between two teams headed by the club captain and vice captain marked the occasion of the erection of the clubhouse that soon followed the completion of the course.

Turnberry was an immediate success as the longest course in the west of Scotland at 6,248 yards and was so well regarded after just seven years, it held its first professional tournament four years before the completion of the railway.

On May 17th 1906 the Station Hotel designed by James Miller was open for business for day-trippers, week-long boarders and families to escape the bustling city and offered luxury rarely seen at that time. Electric lighting, central heating, hot and cold running water, and saltwater plunge baths, were to top amenities offered at the Station Hotel and gave the guests at Turnberry a first hand experience of the new way of living. The iconic red pan tile roof and white plasterwork is still part of Turnberry to this day.

During World War I and II the property was used as an airbase where the Royal Flying Corps trained skilled pilots in the arts of aerial gunnery and combat. A landing strip was specially built for this purpose and still exists, now disused under weeds and grass. The Turnberry Hotel was transformed into a hospital for the wounded and it is estimated that as many as 200 died at the base during the Second World War Courses 1 and 2 were rebuilt after the wars and were renamed “Ailsa” and “Arran”. Today you can still see a memorial overlooking the 12th green of Ailsa to honor the all of the lost airmen.

As a result of the war Ailsa was devastated but designer Mackenzie Ross saw the opportunity to enhance the already famous Turnberry. In less than a year bulldozers and diggers reshaped the natural dunes, hillocks, and valleys that had been destroyed during the war.

The new millennium brought a new owner. Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide took over from the hands of British Transport Hotels and included a variety of visions for improvements. The famous red-roofed houses by the roadside were originally built as staff accommodation but have been converted into guest lodges, offering space and seclusion to large groups. Also added were the state-of-the-art Colin Montgomerie Links Golf Academy, the newly built Kintyre course, and Outdoor Activity Centre—which allows guests to make the most of Turnberry’s 800 acres. Turnberry was transformed from a largely seasonal golf-focused resort to a year-round destination with a great abundance of activities that appeal to a much wider audience. Leisurecorp, a division of Dubai World took ownership of Turnberry in October 2008 and immediately closed its doors for refurbishment ahead of the 138th Open Championship that will be held in July 2009.