Greetings Golfer,

This is ridiculous – you know what I mean … I won’t even talk about it.

But, I will talk about South Carolina. Did you watch any of the PGA tournament yesterday at Harbour Town Golf Links on Hilton Head Island? It was sunny and in the 70’s. Our local lad – Tim Herron – posted a 1 under par, 71. He’s always played well there – you have to be a good ball striker to play well there – that’s one of the best courses on Tour.

Harbour Town is the natural next stop after the Masters – Augusta is just a couple of hours away from Hilton Head. How good was the Masters? Every year I say “That was the best Masters ever”. Seriously – I really do … and I said it again last weekend. Obviously the back nine at Augusta National makes for an incredible finale – Bobby Jones and Alister MacKenzie knew what they were doing.

I’m not going to go into the whole Tiger Woods/penalty situation here. I’m not running from it – hardly. Just not enough time to do it justice. But, if you do want to read the rant of a madman about the whole situation, read my column in the May issue of Tee Times magazine – the golf magazine of MN.

We are hoping to open before May (words I thought I would never speak). As I said last week – I’ll keep in touch.

Cheers,

Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com

Greetings Golfer,

I wouldn’t call this Christmas in April. Seeing school closings running on the bottom of the screen while watching the Masters is pretty weird.

As everybody loves to remind me – we had already been open for a month at this time last year. But don’t worry about us, we’ll be ok. Business wise, May is the make or break month. The summer is pretty consistent every year. A long, late fall is not the big deal everybody thinks it is. By November, we don’t have any sunlight and usually have frost – the window to tee off is about from 10am – 12:30pm. Not worth the damage done to the course.

But May has tons of daylight – 6am until 9:30pm – that’s when we can make hay. Make hay? Yeah – we’re like farmers – dependent on the weather.

Now you know “The rest of the story”. But what about the Masters? That’s a better story. Obviously T Woods is the favorite, and off to a good start. Sergio Garcia has been playing well and this could be his time. You’d have to think Sergio will win a Major during his career, and the Masters is a pretty good fit for his game.

But what’s really interesting is the 14 year old kid from China. Think about it – at that age playing on the High School Varsity Golf Team is a big deal… but playing in the Masters? Unimaginable. Hope he makes the cut.

We were planning on opening Monday the 15th… I’ll keep in touch.

Cheers,

Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com

Greetings Golfer,

Have you seen the video of the Rutgers’ basketball coach throwing balls at his players? He was going crazy, also hitting and kicking the kids. This wasn’t an isolated incident – this was his “coaching style.”

Leadership comes in many forms – some not so good, some very good. I just read an article in the Sun-Sailor about the retiring principal of Minnetonka High School. He said “If you really want to have a good high school, it has to be about the culture within the high school. It’s more about expectations than rules. Culture’s tough to build, but when you do it, you know it.” That is what good leadership is all about.

Throwing balls at players? That’s lazy leadership. It’s not putting in the time and effort to build a culture where people grow and thrive.

Let’s hope that the Gopher’s new basketball coach can build a strong, healthy culture – it can’t happen overnight. I hope he’s committed and not just using the U of M as a stepping stone.

At least the U didn’t hire that Rutgers’ coach.

Cheers,

Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com

Greetings Golfer,

It’s not fun admitting when you’re wrong. I didn’t think that T. Woods would come back to the top after his “accident.” In fact, I publicly said so in a newspaper column.

So here it is: I was wrong about Mr. Woods. Why did I make such a brash statement in a newspaper? Well, I thought that Woods was a front-runner. I didn’t think that he had the fortitude to pull himself up from a hard fall. He’d been a star ever since he was a kid – on the Mike Douglas Show as a 2 year old – and won everything as a junior golfer.

He then won 3 US Amateur Championships in a row and took the PGA Tour by storm as a professional. But for all of his success, he seemed to only win tournaments that he was leading after the 3rd round. He was not known for coming back from behind.

But, he has come back from behind – with his golf game. He has won 6 of his last 20 tournaments, and 3 of 5 in 2013.

Will he top Jack Nicklaus’ record of 18 majors? Who knows? But he will beat Sam Snead’s record of 82 wins.

Is Woods a likable guy? I don’t think so – but he has been good for golf – especially tv ratings. Is he arrogant and disingenuous?  That’s your call. But he has more guts and fortitude than I thought – have to give credit where credit is due.

Cheers,

Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com

Greetings Golfers,

Last year at this time (March 15) we were open.

That was crazy – happens about once every 20 years. Normal opening for us is around April 5 – which is what we’re shooting for this year. That’s only 3 weeks away.

So while we’re getting the Course, and the Shop, Clubhouse, Restaurant, Carts, Events, and Leagues ready to go … you need to get your golf house in order, too.

How are your clubs doing? Your golf shoes? Balls? Bag?
Golf swing? Flexibility? Attitude?

I’m pretty fired-up. Watched the Doral on the tube last weekend. How good was that Leaderboard? How about Tiger’s putting?

We’re selling rounds of golf at a discount – known as our Loyal Player Packages – it’s a good deal. As you know, we’re not discount central – we can’t be … not if we want to provide a good product. We have the ground-breaking mission of providing a good product for a fair price. That’s why we’re still in business and still have a nice place.

Enough talk of economics. The golf season is a blink away. Let’s get ready.

Cheers,

Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com

Greetings Golfers,

‘Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.

Did you know that Lord Tennyson was referring to his golf game? Well, maybe not his… but that’s how I feel about mine.

What I’m trying to say is that it’s still worth the heart-ache to keep playing golf. Some people get older, or hurt, or whatever… and decide that it’s not worth playing anymore because they can’t play as well as they used to.

I played a lot of golf this winter. Was it razor sharp? Hardly. Was it frustrating? Golf – frustrating? Naw… never. Of course at times it was frustrating – but most of the time it was a gas… and worth it.

Years ago we had a dog named Woody. I was ridiculously attached to Woody. When he died… I almost died – it was beyond heart-breaking. I told my wife that we could never have another dog – I couldn’t go through that again.

But, a few months later… she started sending me pictures of puppies. Well, you know what happened… we got Harvey. Just a few minutes ago, I looked at Harvey sleeping in his bed – he’s almost 9 years old. I know that I’ll probably out live him, and I don’t how I’ll deal with it… but, it’s still worth it.

Golf, dogs, love, getting old… it’s all worth it.

Lord Tennyson was a wise man.

Cheers,

Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com

Greetings Golfers,

You know how people always say that golf is like life? I agree, and we could make a million analogies. But the golf swing is also like life – here’s my latest analogy:

When I swing well, I loosen up my hold on the club… I don’t overreach on the backswing… I’m in control and relaxed at the top… I drop the club into position so that I can go after the ball… I accelerate the club through the ball into a long follow-through… and finish the swing in balance – poised and relaxed.

It’s the opposite with my bad swing. That’s when I squeeze the club… overreach on the backswing… am out of control at the top… panic and start the downswing too soon, which puts me in a poor position to hit the ball… so then I decelerate into a weak hit with a short, ugly follow-through… and obviously an off balanced, defeated finish.

You think that doesn’t sound like life? OMG. When I’m trusting life – I hold it gently… when I’m not – I’m too tough on everyone and the world, I micro-manage, I squeeze the joy out of living. Then instead of reaching back to do what I need to do… I overreach and take on too much – which leads to panicking, and then rushing, and then being too out of position to accelerate through my goal. Thus leading to not following through, and a defeated finish.

How about staying relaxed, trusting, not overreaching, being steady and relaxed at the top, dropping into the right position to accelerate through your goal, and then following through so you can end up with a beautiful finish?

You don’t think understanding your golf swing can help you understand your life?

Cheers,

Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com

Greetings Golfers,

I’m reading a book about Gurdjieff – the Russian mystic who claimed that most people go through life asleep and need to be awakened. Of course I’m reading this in the middle of the night when I should be sleeping. I probably have things backward.

And the last few days I’ve also been reading the book – “A Course Called Ireland” by Tom Coyne. In his early 30’s, newly married, and not ready for fatherhood, our hero sets out to walk around the coast of Ireland to play golf as if the country of Ireland is one big golf course.

So, Tom Coyne is a dreamer, but lives his dream. I’m all for “waking up”, but I also think that day-dreaming is a good thing (in moderation). I play my best golf when I can day-dream my shot before I hit it. Don’t we need to day-dream to set goals and be creative?

I’ll admit that a lot of people live in la-la land and need a reality check. But most of us need a little more Tom Coyne in us to dream about how we really want to live … and then have the nerve to go do it.

Cheers,

Tom Abts

Greetings Golfers,

So while driving back from the PGA Show on a 6 lane freeway between Jacksonville and Savannah, I started thinking about how a golf course is a one lane freeway. A one lane freeway is what causes traffic jams on the golf course – it makes it pretty tough to pass. I know – you can hit up on a par 3 … yeah, yeah, yeah … but that doesn’t help much. It probably helps the group that went through, but the next group has probably caught up, and it’s jammed again.

You need all of the groups to play at a reasonable pace. If the golf course is full, this becomes vital. If a golf course has huge gaps, pace of play and playing through groups is easy. When we’re stuffed all day and still playing around 4:15 a round in the afternoon, I’m pretty pleased – sometimes pretty smug. Think about it – if you lose just 5 minutes an hour, by 2 PM you’d have lost 40 minutes, and that 5 hour round has snuck up on you … and if the course is full, it’s not fixable.

So, we need everybody to play at a 4 hour pace all day. That’s like everybody driving 60 mph on the freeway. Obviously some people want to drive 80, and others want to go 40 … but, our Rangers try to make them understand that 60 is what we expect and is FAIR. This isn’t easy. Some people have “serious” matches and if they lose a ball, the Rules of Golf allow 5 minutes to search. Some people are just really bad players. Some people are just in La-La Land and never ready to hit their shot.

I think a lot of the problem is that people just don’t know. Same thing on the freeway. So back to my story – we had 3 lanes going North to Savannah. The middle lane is to drive at the speed limit, the right lane to exit/enter the freeway, and the left lane to pass. Rocket science. Think it worked like that? Hardly … cars were passing on the right … driving slow in the left, and then criss-crossing … and then all bunching up in a cluster. Mind-boggling. But why should I care? Driving 70 mph in a metal box … there’s no risk involved. Think about this: the golf course with people swinging metal sticks, hitting rock-hard balls 200 mph, and driving golf carts all over … that’s safe compared to being on the freeway with those maniacs.

Cheers,

Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com

Greetings Golfers,

Live! From Orlando, Florida – the PGA Golf Show!

Well, not exactly “live”, I’m writing this on Thursday night and you’ll get it on Friday morning. But hey – it’s a pretty good opener.

My favorite part of the Show is talking to the people who are passionate about what they do. There’s the guy who built a ‘magic” putter in his garage and can’t wait to tell you all about it. Then, there’s Rick Martin who’s been designing beautiful shirts forever (he founded Fairway & Greene) and now has a new company – he’s still really into it. Or Martin Dingman … or … Scott Barber … these are the guys who’s name is the company and they couldn’t be more passionate about what their doing. Or the crazy guys at Bogey Pro (passionate and crazy).

After the first day of the Show, some of us sat around the lobby of the Rosen Hotel solving all the world’s problems and the problems of the golf biz. I’ll only share our solutions to solving the problems of the golf biz … I’m saving the solutions to solving the world’s problems for a world-wide press conference later today.

Here’s what we figured out about the golf business: it’s not about initiatives and wide arching plans … those of us running golf courses have to be passionate. We have to be deadly serious about being passionate about having fun. How ridiculous of a statement is that? But yet, how true!

That’s it … I have to get some sleep and be ready for round 2 of The Show.

Cheers,

Tom Abts
GM and Head Golf Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com