Three good stories this weekend

Stephen Ames won the Children's Miracle Network Classic at Disney World accompanied by his son for the tournament. How special is that?

Michelle Wie wins her first LPGA Tour event - finally! The biggest sideshow in women's golf since she was 12 years old, the "next one" has finally arrived at age 20, beating a quality field by two strokes at the Lorena Ochoa Invitational in Guadalajara.

And of course, Tiger Woods proved he was worth the $3 million appearance fee by winning the Australian Masters. As he put it "I can now say I've won tournaments on every continent except Antarctica." He's waiting for the invitation. The fee may have to compensate for the challenging "conditions". But he's worth it.

(Thanks to National Post Sports for the original articles. )

Competition is good

So Tiger and Phil meet again in Shanghai and the winner is... Phil again!

Should Tiger be worried? The analysts will be talking of a slump, end of his reign, the new Phil becoming number 1. It all adds to the excitement and attraction for fans and golfers everywhere.

No competition is no fun for anybody, and certainly doesn't inspire the players to try harder or do better. Competition is good. It forces us to be wary and keep learning and improving in order to keep winning.

Just like in business, don't you think?

And the winner is ....

Tiger and Phil? Why not?

Phil wins the Tour Championship and Tiger wins the FedEx Cup. Or Phil wins a battle, but Tiger won the war - this year, again.

It all seems to make sense that consistency is worth $10 million and a few wins are worth only about $4 million.

Sure beats my summer of golf though, how about you?

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.