Mike Kelly

Today's summary contains comments from yesterday and today's experiences at GTMO.

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Here is more perspective on the Topgolf situation, from a golf industry columnist. Many casual dining/upper end ticket #restaurant concepts are down SSS right now. One question is if the concept is spun off at say, 6X (selling in a down SSS market depresses exit multiples for sure). What number would lead to a payback of the earlier Callaway merger expenses in its 2021 transaction? From a guest perspective, Top Golf is a fun place for groups of couples, large families and especially, corporate groups. It does require a guest time investment to get full value. The people, food and spirits are good. I visited Top Golf facilities in St. Louis and Las Vegas earlier this year. Other than our corporate groups, they were slower, but not dead. This is a late afternoon/evening venue and I would imagine weekday daytimes are much less intense. https://lnkd.in/g3SexwYP.

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Golf growing just not at public and private courses but as a form of golf tourism!!

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Clock-watcher: An employee who demonstrates a lack of interest in a job by watching the time closely to see how much longer they have to work. We all know that one person and as a golf course operator, so do you. From the 2024 Golf Business Pulse Report: ↪ Most owners and operators reported that finding quality employees and staff development remain critical issues impacting facility financial health. ↪ Wages are up, teams are smaller and you have to do more with fewer resources at your disposal. What if you could free up labor hours by automating what were previously time-consuming tasks for you and your team? Tagmarshal’s optimization technology uses automation to save you and your team time: > Real-time, full line of sight of your course so player assistants no longer need to patrol the field to find groups that are out of position. > Automatic alerts set up for your team to be notified whenever a geofence breach occurs. > Prompt F&B orders on 2Way screens before players arrive at the halfway house or clubhouse, increasing efficiency and reducing turn times. > Tech that records and stores the precise moment a group enters the first tee to drive starter accuracy. > Automated messages to players for weather alerts and other valuable information. Now those hours saved can be redirected towards what is really important - providing the best player experience possible. The lesson = give your team the tools they need to do their jobs well and they won’t be clock-watchers.

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Episode 4 now live. Top 5 Trackman courses you can play now and much more.

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#Golflife: Good morning! Welcome to the weekend. Saturday is now about golf (and work.) “Don’t be too proud to take lessons. I’m not.” Jack Nicklaus, Champion Golfer. Several decades ago, the golf season ended at the start of Fall. In addition, there was no “silly season” to end a year. In other words, there were several weeks with no events to play. Golfers would get rusty and need time to reset their skills. Every winter, Mr. Nicklaus would get with his only teacher, Jack Grout, and begin a new year with several lessons. In these lessons they worked on basics, the fundamentals that Nicklaus had to manage before & during every shot. As the winner of the most major championships (18), it certainly worked. In a career, I have always believed in “great basics.” I believed in doing the everyday things extraordinarily well. If we could do this, we would succeed over the long years of a career. Well, that idea worked for me. Never the smartest person in the room, I plunged into doing those things well that would advance my organization and people. It worked. I had a solid career, keeping the “ball in the fairway” much of the time (with a great deal of help.) it’s a good idea to be solid in the basics, to know how your company makes money and to help it make more. And when you need a “lesson or two” talk to your manager, or find a mentor or coach who will have your back. Thank you for reading. Enjoy your Saturday. (these are my words and my opinions only.) #basics #practice #repeat #repeat.

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#Worklife: Good morning! Today begins the 2nd major of the year in golf…..The PGA. “It’s always too soon to quit.” Norman Vincent Peale, Clergyman and Author. I am stuck. Every day I seem to arrive at the greater conclusion that Persistence is just about the most important trait to acquire if you want to achieve over-the-top success in your career. Persistence is the “secret”, the magic sauce that most people just do not have. In a presentation yesterday, I spoke about Persistence, but without the vigor I am feeling at this moment. If you want to earn something, acquire something, or achieve a new benchmark do it……and don’t quit until you achieve that thing. If you are taking a long drive and your GPS is down, you get lost…….you wouldn’t just stop and give up. You would persist until you arrive at your destination. The Oxford dictionary states that Persistence is: the firm or obstinate continuance in a course of action in spite of difficulty or opposition. Translation: keep going, push forward. Many people give up early, rationalizing the thing was never going to happen, or it wasn’t that important to them. Again, I am stuck on this idea. People give up too early, on too many important things, too many times throughout their careers. Nothing good comes easy! If you want a thing: plan, study, talk to smart people already there and dig in until you own the thing! Thank you for reading. (these are my words and my opinions only.) #persist #learn #ask #grind #push.

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"Operation Club Reclaim" Mission Objective: Create a sustainable fundraising program by recruiting veterans to collect unused golf items from local courses, clean, restore and/or repurpose. This initiative provides veterans with meaningful engagement, builds relationships with golf clubs, and raises funds for Warrior Golf Academy (WGA) to continue operations. Mission Briefing for Veterans: Approach courses with the intent to build rapport and request donations of headcovers, rangefinders, golf balls, clubs, or other lost & found equipment the course no longer needs. Emphasize that the items will be repurposed to support veterans through golf programs and that this collaboration showcases the course's commitment to giving back to the community. Thank golf course staff with small tokens of appreciation (like coffee or snacks) to maintain good relationships. Mission Outcome: "Operation Club Reclaim" offers veterans a simple way to contribute, builds valuable community connections, and helps generate sustainable funding. Through teamwork, veterans can make a positive impact while engaging with the golf world, reinforcing the mission of empowerment through Warrior Golf Academy. Warrior Golf Academy bringing purpose and belonging to Veterans, one club at a time! https://lnkd.in/excT2yds

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I get it - as a Head Pro, GM, Director of Golf, course owner or operator, you’re busy and you don’t have time to monitor everything that’s happening on the course at all times. Technology is supposed to make your life easier, and checking a screen constantly to try and identify groups that might be falling out of position is impossible. Enter AI, machine learning and powerful algorithms that do the hard yards for you. Using data gathered from more than 50 million rounds, Tagmarshal’s system gives you access to: - GPS tracking that gives you full line of sight of where each group is on the course - Color coding that tells you whether they’re on pace, falling behind or delaying other groups - Different-sized icons which show you immediately which groups need to be addressed first - Automated alerts that are sent to staff so constant monitoring is not required All of this is visible from a mobile phone and tablet, so you have a 360° view of what’s happening at any time, even while on the move. Does this sound like technology that will make running your course easier?

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#Golf: Good morning. This new Saturday post will focus on golf, while looking to combine aspects of work in several posts. Welcome. “The only thing a golfer needs is more daylight.” Ben Hogan, Golfing Great. The game of golf, the amateur game played every day by the men, women, and juniors is on fire. Last year more than 530 million rounds were played in the U. S. Understand the “old normal” from 10-15 years ago was consistently in the 441-443 million rounds per year. With Boomers aging out of full time employment and juniors coming to play in ever larger numbers, the game has several green lights ahead. At the same time, like many industries employment is an issue. While Covid made golf a “must try”, the people that did “go” to work quickly became exhausted, with crowded parking lots filled with golfers and less workers to support the explosion. In addition, every golf course had new local and national standards to adjust to, in order to comply to the pandemic standards. Now, in the post Covid light, the game must figure out how to better build consistent value while developing people who want to make golf a career. There is no free lunch. Recruiting and training takes money, effort, and lots of time. With millions of new and returning golfers showing up to the first tee, what will operators do to build staff, develop pay programs that invite retention, and invest in a strategy to keep that first tee humming for years to come. The game is on fire! The fix will not happen on its own. Thank you for reading. (these are my words and my opinions only.) #joy #angst #talent #game.

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Why is this so important? GolfNow built this integration, so the book online button on google redirects customers searching on google to the golfnow.com website. Should a club's organic customer, searching your golf course on google, be introduced to a book online button that takes them to a third-party aggregator website? That is what GolfNow did. This is the competitive displacement of the golf courses customer. GolfBack customers will now be redirected from the google book online button back to the course website. Take control of your online real estate and don't let GolfNow introduce your customers to competitors on their aggregate site.

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Renovations are especially attractive in our high interest rate environment. This applies across all industries.

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Understanding and mitigating risks are key to successful development projects. Peck Hotel Consulting offers comprehensive development services to guide your project from start to finish. Whether acting as a "developer for hire" or providing the insights you need to reduce risk, our expertise ensures your venture is profitable. For more information, visit https://lnkd.in/gedqFphF #Development #Consulting #HotelDevelopment

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As a professional speaker and consultant, life on the road can get lonely and feel siloed. If you do what I do for a living, you know exactly what I mean: We travel solo, speak to large groups of strangers, and most of us work hard to run our own business. How wonderful it is to have a group to meet with monthly to share ideas, laugh, and learn from. If you are interested, consider joining our organization for support and friendship as we navigate this business together. Here are a few activities we have coming up- https://lnkd.in/eJ6EgZWf

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#Golflife: Good morning! Happy Friday. “Golfers should not fail to realize that it is a game of great traditions, of high ideals of sportsmanship, one in which a strict adherence to the rules is essential.” Francis Ouimet, Champion Amateur Golfer. As a 20 year old, Ouimet entered the U.S. Open. He was a local caddy, hoping to move away from a life of poverty and need. He won that Open, beating not only poverty, but the two biggest stars in the “world” of golf: Vardon and Ray. He simply set out to play. He ended up changing the sport for an entire nation. It went from a game for elites, to a game eventually opened to all. By simply looking to play well and change his lot……he changed an entire sport, he moved mountains. Work can do the same. We accept a role, hoping to do well. Hoping to improve life for ourselves and our family, and through execution and excellence, we wind up changing a community, an organization, maybe even an industry. Ouimet simply wanted to play. His play helped create the sport and business we have today. Never underestimate your skills or your passion. Never believe as one person, you are limited in the results you can achieve. We can all be giants if we believe in ourselves and in our mission. By doing all we can, we too can move mountains. It is about enthusiasm, energy, and execution. Thank you for reading. (these are my words and my opinions only.) #desire #skills #focus #growth.

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