A Golf Gedanken to prove the Golf Theory of Relativity

If you were paying attention in school, somewhere along the way you were introduced to the ‘mind experiments’ of Einstein.  In his native language these were referred to as ‘gedanken’… or to be more precise ‘gedankenexperimente’.

Einstein used his gedanken for such pedestrian pursuits as developing and proving the theory of relativity… we’ll apply a gedanken to the much more challenging problem of how to get golf growing again.

Imagine for a minute… that you received an invitation every day of the year to eat out at a restaurant that is conveniently located… that you know has good food and good service at a reasonable price… and that the invitations included an opportunity to spend some time with people that you enjoy being around.

Do you think that you would eat out at least one more time during the year as a result of these invitations?

Now imagine… that you received an invitation every day of the year to any other activity that you enjoy… you pick the activity.  The invitations make it really convenient for you to partake of that enjoyable activity.

Again… do you think that these invitations would entice you to take part in that activity at least one more time during the year?

You can see where I’m heading with this… let’s apply our experiment to the game of golf.

Imagine that you are a golfer… someone who plays the game at least a few times a year and enjoys those outings.  What if you received an invitation to play golf every day of the year at a course that was conveniently located, that you knew provided a high quality experience and that these invitations included a chance to play with people that you would enjoy being around for a few hours.

Would those invitations stimulate you to play at least one more round of golf during the year?

I know that in my case it would probably result in at least 5 additional rounds… maybe even more.

We tried this experiment on some random visitors to our Minnesota Golf Show booth this year and the only golfer who even hesitated to agree that the invitations would result in at least one more round was a gentleman who said “I already play 110 times a year… I’m not sure I have time for more”.  But, when pressed, even this gentleman agreed that a steady stream of invitations would probably lure him out to the course at least one more time.

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As a golf industry… let’s be MORE INVITING.  All you have to lose is those empty slots on your tee sheet.

The MORE 18s IN ’18 program being conducted in Minnesota and Wisconsin this year is an attempt to make sure that every golfer has more invitations to play golf during 2018.  You’ve heard the math… if every golfer plays an average of just one additional round of golf in 2018 the incremental revenue per golf course will be $100,000.

Think of it as the Golf Theory of Relativity…

Golfers who receive more invitations to play will play relatively more often.

So… be more inviting… participate in one or more of the MORE 18s IN ’18 initiatives.  And while you’re at it, invite me to play at your course this year… you might just squeeze an extra round out of the old Golf Gadfly.