By Jay Karen, NGCOA CEO
I just finished reading a report called the “State of Associations,” published by the American Society of Association Executives. The report is a snapshot of the association sector, and like our Golf Business Pulse Report, it captures the sentiment of associations and their leaders in these interesting times. The report bookends two uses of the acronym VUCA, describing our current business and social environment using a U.S. Army term for “volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous.” Association leaders, however, are encouraged to lead with a different VUCA: “vision, understanding, clarity and authority.” With the nation’s 250th birthday coming up in a few months, it’s hard not to notice that associations of all kinds have been leading and contributing throughout our entire history — through a war for independence, a Civil War, the explosion of new industries, a Great Depression, World Wars, the growth of the middle class, civil rights movements, recessions and then booms.
Today is different, and yet it is not. There is real dissonance and complexity when trying to make sense of what is happening in our larger world, our smaller golf industry, and down to the individuals who come to the nation’s golf courses — still at a very robust pace — looking to tee up a little white ball and hit it as few times as possible into a 4.25-inch hole in the ground. Our customers want to leave dissonance behind and enjoy the fresh air, camaraderie and physical pursuit of the game. And in order for them to leave dissonance behind, golf course owners and operators know that whatever is happening in society, the show must go on.
Will instability in the Middle East spike the fuel you must buy for your equipment, and bring back fuel surcharges on everything delivered to your course? Will feeding artificial intelligence with all of our questions lead to someone else’s job loss, yet also remove friction from the tee time booking process? Will inbound travel to the United States continue to take hits, and will that eventually be felt at our great golf resorts? If the economy nose dives, how many golfers will choose to hit a ball into a screen instead of hitting a ball over land and water? And yet how many golfers will have the privilege of hitting a ball when the sun has set or when temperatures dip below 40, and how is that not healthy for our industry? What about the communities losing their places to play as golf courses are converted into solar farms, housing developments and data centers? But as an association for course owners, how can we not applaud a successful business exit? Happy for the former golf course owner, but sad for golf? Will rolling back the flight of the golf ball in 2030 to slow elite distance and protect some of golf’s “cathedral” courses be a net gain for the game and business? Or will bifurcation be the inevitable conclusion? We are getting used to so much change and disruption — what’s another one to pile on?
This column is not commentary on what is happening in the world — because disruption, despair, recovery and booms will always happen — but rather a reminder that no matter what is happening, associations must try to provide understanding and clarity, and course owners and operators must open the doors, cut the grass, warm up the grill, and decide whether you’re going to keep absorbing higher merchant processing fees because your golfers are prepaying online and earning loyalty points, or whether you’re going to surcharge to recoup tens of thousands of dollars in those fees. See what I did there?Keep doing what you’re doing, course owners and operators. Americans and our golfing visitors need you and what you do. And be sure to register for one of NGCOA’s AI Workshops — one in April and one in August (seating is limited to the first fifty registrants). See what I did there?
Jay Karen, CAE
Chief Executive Officer
