Weekend plans?

Tiger and friends are playing for $10 milllion and the FedEx Cup this weekend. What are you doing?

The so-called playoff series for the PGA Tour is finally getting interesting. The winner of this event is likely the winner of the series. It isn't necessarily Tiger or Vijay just for showing up. That's the way a playoff series should be - the favourites and top dogs fighting off the contenders.

Sort of like business competition for the big customer everybody wants.

Or maybe not. Am I overstretching the "business is like golf" concept? Help me out here.

Thanks.

Even bad golf is good

Sometimes you just have to learn to enjoy it in spite of the disappointments.

It has been a slow summer for golf for me. Just 10 rounds, so that means the results are inconsistent. Well, not totally inconsistent, mostly bad - not breaking 100 and very few good shots or good holes. It's easy to get discouraged and decide, again, to give it up.

But then, ... it's a beautiful day on a beautiful course and two consecutive days with a few good shots and some pars, even a birdie or two, and "I love this game, even if it doesn't always love me back!"

So where's the business lesson in that? Probably just a reminder not to let it go. Find the good spots, remind yourself of the long-term rewards and enjoy.

Doing what you like and getting better at it is reward enough.

Keep on swinging.

A little means a lot

"The difference between first and second is getting bigger, the difference between first and last is horrendous". He was speaking of CEO salaries versus second-in-command and the lowest on the scale, but it's also true for the PGA tour.

Consider the recent US Open.

Winner Lucas Glover walked away with $1,350,000. Falling just two strokes behind after five long days was Ricky Barnes at $559, 830, tied with Phil Mickelson and David Duval. Tiger was fourth at $233,350 and first round leader Mike Weir was down to $154,600. In last place was Fred Funk at $19, 921. Still better than most of us for a week's work, but far from the $1.3 million first prize.

The difference might be just one too many drives into the long rough, or a missed short putt or the approach shot that rolled off the green into the water. And it cannot be explained by a little bad luck. The number one performers are consistently just a little better every day and keep on winning.

Think about it. Focus and be better.

Tools and technique

In business and in golf , buying better tools doesn't immediately improve your results. (In spite of the advertising promises.) It's never that simple. Sometimes a new driver or a new ERP system just gets you into trouble faster and deeper.

It is important to have good tools. And newer technology can lead to better results. But every tool needs to be combined with good technique if you really want to achieve new levels of success. In golf that means ensuring you have good fundamentals and then build consistency through practice.

In business, that means managing the change process well, supporting it with training and assigning the right staff to get performance improvements.

Now go ahead and make the investment.

Recession hits golf too

In spite of declarations to the contrary, I think the recession is hitting the golf business too.

Some golf equipment manufacturers and course owners are bravely stating (or wishfully hoping) that golfers are too dedicated to their passionate pastime to be affected by the current setbacks to their business or portfolios.

I think the truth is evident right outside my window. I have been following progress on the new 9-hole executive course under construction in near my condo on Nun's Island in Montreal. Recent press reports have it opening "by end of this summer", but activity has completed stopped. I'm guessing the financing dried up and everything is on hold. The same is probably true elsewhere for equipment sales and for green fees.

Are you buying that new driver or playing more this year? I'm not.

Maybe hockey should be more like golf.

I was reading recently a commentary that the new rules in the NHL to avoid a tie are not true to the principles of sport. That is, forcing overtime and then a shootout to determine a winner for every game is simply not right. In real life, great effort, blood, sweat and tears can still result in no clear winner. It's an important lesson of life that we need to learn to accept. Why not in a hockey game?

In business and in golf it also happens that a great effort/shot do not always lead to great results. We've all had great drives off the tee, long and straight, but just ran a little too far into the water or under the lip in a trap. Dammit!

Very much like finally winning a big order from that customer you've been working on for so long - just before he goes bankrupt.

And how about that long, double breaking putt that stops, somehow, just behind the the hole. I think all those short tap-ins from inside 6-inches should just count for 1/2 a stroke. No gimmes, but not a full stroke! Just doesn't seem fair.

And that's the lesson for today. Life, business and golf are not fair. Get over it.

Golf is not like hockey

It's hockey playoff season ( and the Canadiens are already gone!) but I'm reminded that golf is not like hockey.

A recently retired hockey player (or one recently knocked out of the playoffs) was quoted as saying, "What I really like about golf is that after I make a great putt, I don't have to worry about somebody rushing across the green and cross-checking me in the head!" Now there's a difference you can appreciate.

Imagine hockey played by the same gentlemanly etiquette that is expected in golf.

• No blocking the shot, let me give you a clear line to the goalie.


• Excuse me, don't count that goal, I accidently kicked it in.


• You're up, so you go first from the face-off.


• Helmets off, shake hands and have a beer together after the game.

Somehow it just wouldn't be hockey.