Q&A with Bruce

THE PLAYER

Have you ever shot a hole-in-one?

I have had six holes-in-one in my life, so far. One of those was on a par 4 hole.

In your professional playing career, when and where did you have your best ball striking streak?

My best streak was in 2011, at two tournaments, back to back, on the Sunbelt Senior Tour. The first tournament was at the Callahan Golf Links, and the second was at BridgeMill Athletic Club, both in the Atlanta area. Between the two back-to-back tournaments, I hit 50 greens in regulation in a row. In a 3-round stretch, between the two tournaments (a total of 54 holes), I actually hit 53 greens in regulation. But 50 of those 53 were in one single streak.

Why do you prefer golf over team sports?

I like the fact that I am playing against no one but myself. The only factors involved - other than weather and course conditions - are my own skill and my own decisions on every swing. My score is not impacted by other players. I am out there completely on my own. I am solely responsible for my success or failure.

Also, sports like baseball, basketball and football feel confining to me. You move around a diamond, or back and forth across the same floor, or up and down the same field. In golf, you travel. You journey across an expanse of land. You walk up and down hills, you cross bridges over water.

Golf is, to me, more challenging than other sports. For example, a lot of non-golfers aren’t aware that the “goal” moves from day to day. The first task of each day on a golf course, before the course opens for the day, is for the staff to change every hole position. The clubs, yardage readings and greens reads I do one day will change the next day, since the hole will be in a different location on the green every single day.

Of course, there is the social aspect to golf as well. You can carry on conversations during a casual round of golf. That’s difficult to do in faster-moving sports.  

Golf is often referred to as a gentleman’s game. It has had a cordiality to it from its inception. In other sports, players may sometimes be coached to skirt the rules, but golfers are supposed to be self-policing. We are expected to call penalty strokes on ourselves. 

What do you like most about golf?

I love being outdoors. Most golf courses are beautiful, and you’re outside with nature. And since golfers often play by themselves, or with just two to three other people, you almost feel as if all that green space was prepared just for you.

Who is your favorite golfer?

I like Jack Nicklaus a lot. His swing is radically different from mine, however. I also like Johnny Miller. He was, for a time in the early 70’s, the best ball striker I have ever seen.

Those players you mentioned are “old school” golfers. Do you see differences between the styles of older players versus that of the younger players of today (2012)?

Two of the differences – and I consider them detriments – that I see in most younger golfers today are pace of play and lack of strategy. I believe golf instructors are to blame for some of this. I’ve seen instructors tell kids to “take your time” – they tell the students if they don’t feel confident before the shot, to step back, take more practice swings and then set up again.  

This slows play down considerably – for everyone. And all it does is create more doubt for the player and break their rhythm. Golf is a long game compared to other sports, and it is difficult enough to hold your concentration and focus. It is even more difficult when you overthink every shot and question every address.

And the strategy of many younger players seems to be simply to hit the ball as hard and fast as possible from the tee. This often means they will hit it into the rough, and then have to battle their way back to the fairway or green, which can ultimately mean a lot of lost strokes.  

The great players will strategize every shot, map out the angles, and maneuver from here to there. You don’t want to just whack the ball with maximum force in the general direction of the green and then have to pay for it later. Players can lose many strokes when they have to recover from a powerful but poorly placed tee shot. This often results in players having to hit more tactical, “recovery” shots to get out of a jam, rather than advancing more easily from well-placed strategic shots. Younger players are often so caught up in hitting the ball far that they forget the object of the game, which is to shoot the lowest score.

What is the thing that irks you the most about the game?

Without question, it is pace of play. Many golfers proceed at a funereal pace. In most cases, this is simply because golf is mainly a social activity for them, and most courses do not enforce a reasonable pace, which should be a maximum of four hours for 18 holes. By myself, with no one in front of me, I can play 18 holes in an hour and 20 minutes. Playing slower has nothing to do with how well you play, and can actually break your rhythm. 

Another thing that slows pace of play is when the other players in a group are not out of the cart, standing to the side, and ready to step up to the tee immediately after their teammate has hit their tee shot. The extra seconds or minutes it takes each player to walk up to the tee, take practice swings and position themselves for the shot, compounds geometrically with each hole. This is why it takes some groups five hours or more to play 18 holes.

When I play with current pros, former pros, and serious amateurs, if no teams ahead of us are slowing us down, we can finish in under four hours. And that’s with a foursome! This is due in no small part to the fact that each team member is ready to go as soon as the previous golfer has teed off. While your partners are walking up for each shot, you should be doing your prep – warming up, taking taken some practice swings, and figured out your yardage by using your rangefinder or eyeballing it from yardage markers. 

Once your partner moves into address position, however, you must freeze! Nothing is more maddening to a serious golfer than seeing or hearing someone talking or moving around while you are at address and trying to focus on the shot.

You have played in Europe as well as in the U.S. and Canada. What are some of the differences you see from country to country?

Most public facilities in the U.S. are so afraid of losing revenue that they allow players with no skill to play at any time, rather than reserve certain days or hours for beginners. As long as you pay your money, you can play whenever you want, no matter your ability. 

By contrast, at many courses in Europe, before you are ever allowed on a golf course, you must pass a proficiency test. They don’t just let anyone walk onto the first tee. 

There are similar rules for some U.S. courses. To quote Jackie Burke at the Champions Club in Texas:

"To get into Champions, your handicap has to be 15 or less. I don't care how much money someone has, what race, sex or religion they are, none of that stuff. All I want are people who have invested a lot of hours in the game. A respectable handicap usually reflects that. I have nothing against high-handicappers, but I don't want them in the majority. It doesn't make a lot of sense filling a yacht club with people who can't sail a boat."

Read More http://www.golfdigest.com/magazine/myshot_gd0405#ixzz1qMwO5Nfm

But how would beginners ever learn?

Even a public course can set aside certain days or hours just for beginners, or certain days or hours for advanced players. Courses with more than 18 holes can set aside an entire course for the less advanced player. 

Ski resorts deal with this by offering beginner slopes and black diamond slopes. Tennis courts rent by the hour, and you have to give up the court after your reserved time, even if you have not finished your game. On a running track, you wouldn’t force advanced runners to stay behind beginner joggers and run at the beginner’s pace. It would ruin the enjoyment of the sport for the more advanced participant. 

In golf, going around slower players is more tricky, of course. "Playing through" is a courtesy that many slower players will allow, but it requires the slower team to stop their game for perhaps 10 minutes or so. If this happens more than once in the round being played by the beginners, slower players, and casual social players, and they continue to see faster players constantly encroaching on their game, they may simply refuse to allow additional play-throughs. 

If this is a chronic problem at your course, setting up specific days or hours for slower players or advanced players may be the best solution. If you don't want to do that, then you might want to enforce a reasonable pace of play for all. A Course Marshall can routinely police the course, or at least be prepared to respond to calls coming in from the range with reports of interminably slow play. As an official of the club or course, the Marshall can inform the player or team that has fallen behind the standard pace that they must move on to the next tee, even if they have not finished the hole they are currently playing.

THE COURSE MANAGER

What do you see as common problems in golf course management?

There's the physical management of the course itself - the greens and fairways - and there is the management of the course as any other for-profit business. Regarding the former, good grass management is first and foremost. Many course superintendents use too much water and too much fertilizer.  

That said, players’ expectations are often too high. Some players expect their local golf course to look like Augusta National. You have to manage club members’ expectation just as skillfully as managing the operations of the club itself.  

Regarding club operations, managing a profitable golf course is not entirely different from managing any other business into profitability. You have to have the right person at the helm - someone with experience, a proven track record, great people skills (because so much of what you do is deal-making), and a really good nose for business in general.

What is your approach to golf course management?

I tackled golf course management in a similar fashion to my playing technique - with strength but with strategy. Just as the primary goal in playing is to shoot the lowest score (and if you can do it with style and grace, so much the better), so the primary goal in golf course management - or any business - is to drive down costs and drive up revenue.  

In both playing and course management, there is a balance to be struck between the overarching vision and the day-to-day details. You have to pursue both at the same time. Your goals are always to decrease costs through deal-cutting or restructuring, and increase membership and revenue through price points, aggressive marketing and investment. And you have to manage expectations all along the way as you grow.

Why do some courses flounder or fail?

The owners of many failing courses suffer from change-aversion syndrome. Everyone wants the course to do better, but no one wants to do anything differently from what’s been done before. 

It’s amazing to me how many golf course owners (Country Club Boards, etc.) are non-golfers and/or have zero experience managing a golf course. Yet they will fight an experienced golf course manager on every one of his or her decisions. They wouldn’t try to tell their brain surgeon how to excise that tumor, but they will try to tell the course manager how the greens should be watered.  

A lack of good marketing can be another cause for poor performance. 

Shifting ownership of properties around a golf course has become an all-too-common cause of course failure over the last 30 years or more. Most people who buy and live in new homes built around a new golf course are frequent players, and are actively involved in keeping the course vital - not only for their own enjoyment but for maintaining their property values. 

When those original owners pass on, their heirs may move into those homes, or sell them. If the new owners are not that interested in playing golf or at least maintaining the course, it will start to decline, becoming unkempt and unplayable. This creates a boomerang effect - a little-used and deteriorating golf course causes the property values of the surrounding neighborhood to tank, and lower property values and fewer players means less revenue for maintaining the course.

When it comes to caring for the course itself, where do you put your focus?

Good greens and good tees are paramount. Greens especially, because that’s where the real scoring takes place. Players will often forgive spotty fairways. But if the putting surface is in poor condition, people simply won’t play. They will get too frustrated.  

Even a high-handicapped player will tire of playing a course where he or she shoots much higher than their usual scoring on better-maintained courses. The condition of the greens matters above all else. 

That said, if your course is a wreck everywhere but the greens, you’re still not going to reel in many players. So you can’t ignore the rest of the course either. Golf is played everywhere along the journey to the hole. The entire experience must be pleasant or your players won’t come back.

THE INSTRUCTOR

Where do some instructors make common teaching mistakes?

Some instructors have a one-size-fits-all approach to coaching. But every player is different. Your height, weight, body structure and personal style all factor into your swing. I always preferred to teach one-on-one, or with a group of no more than three students at a time. 

In a group, I would often tell the other members of the student group to stay by the cart until it was their turn to swing. I didn't want one player trying to incorporate into their own game comments that I was specifically tailoring to another player's physique and style. What works for one player may not be the best approach for another player.

The psychology of every player is also different. You have to factor that into your teaching as well. The shy player can and does react differently to criticism than the cocky, overly confident player.

THE EVENTS PRODUCER

What makes for a successful events producer and/or charity fundraiser?

Networking is essential. Sometimes, you must seek resources from every conceivable corner to pull off a successful event.

There is salesmanship as well, of course. One must be a type of ambassador for the company, the club or the cause. And that means the ability to sell yourself, as well as the event.

A dash of the entertainer helps. You must have the ability to engage people, to garner their interest, to entertain them, but also to educate them.

PHILOSOPHY

What's your philosophy on golf, or life in general?

Ultimately, you have to love what you are doing. And that is true, no matter what. I love playing, teaching, managing courses, and producing all kinds of events, particularly golf tournaments. Naturally, doing these things for a living and for profit is terrific. And if I can also help charitable causes with my skills, so much the better.