Community - GolfBusiness

Playin’ In the Sand
he shortest distance from stodgy,
Tconventional, 18-hole golf to a
looser, more lively experience is
through the junior-golf activity manual.
So, if your staff is brainstorming about
how to boost business, add sizzle and
become more customer-friendly, invite
a talented junior-golf promoter to
the meeting. Recently, Kevin Weickel,
a golf professional at Walt Disney
World Resort, let the juices flow while
programming for the Orlando Minority
Youth Golf Association.
“We created ‘Bunker Day,’” says
Weickel, “which involves roughly 50
to 70 kids using our practice area for
the day. We had a Toro Workman
vehicle filled with sand, and then
shoveled mounds of sand all over
our range surrounding the target
greens, so we could practice bunker
shots out of the sand.”
Under this creative use of the
practice complex, each junior was
paired off with a partner, and participants
made semi-circles around
the four target greens. It was the
kids themselves who helped shovel
and form the sand beds into bunker-like
configurations—a part of
the process that proved enjoyable
on its own and a bonding experience
as well, in Weickel’s view. The
preparation activity “really eased
the stress for the juniors, and it took
away any intimidation or nervousness
they felt about playing from
sand,” he explains.
Ironically, golf’s rulebook prohibits
“testing the surface” of a sand
bunker because of the advantage
that provides when it’s time to play
an escape shot. The Rules of Golf are
onto something with that prohibition.
Enough so that they create a great
learning tool: Have golfers physically
shovel and rake sand—they’ll end up
knowing its consistency better than
ever at that point, and their golf shots
will show it, as Weickel discovered.
So, even the fussiest of golf’s traditions
and regulations can give rise to new
outreach efforts. —David Gould
Numbers of note
$4.3
million
Amount raised for Folds of
Honor Foundation through
Patriot Golf Day events in 2012
$17
million
Total raised for educational
scholarships through Patriot
Golf Day in six years