Winter Storm Shows How Things Change Quickly

If you’ve been paying attention to the news and weather, you’ll be aware that we’ve been hit by a major winter storm, which illustrates that anything can happen in the golf industry.

A lot of the golf courses in Alberta opened in good shape and wintered really well, so this will provide some great moisture. At the end of the day, you have to remember it was still April and you can never assume that winter won’t make a return at this time of year.

While the weather was a challenge, we can never assume that we’re safe from other storms that might affect our golf operations and they may not have anything to do with Mother Nature.

The recent winter storm interrupted a positive start to the season out here. People are projecting more rounds of golf and I think corporate tournament business is looking a little better overall.

People are pumped and everybody I talk to is excited, whether it’s a rep or a golf professional or a club manager. Everyone wants to turn away from how it was last year when the recession was in full swing and bad weather became a major factor in many parts of the country.

As the winter storm has shown, we are vulnerable to so many factors in the golf industry and many are beyond our control. While it’s great that people are excited and optimistic, including myself, I still believe in cautious optimism at this point.

Despite the positive signs, we’ve got to get better at tightening the purse strings a little bit and watching our expenses. Last year, everyone had an opportunity to take a hard look at better ways to do things. They had to go back to the drawing board and find ways to be a little more creative.

The life lessons that we learned last year still apply after we learned how vulnerable our industry is and I still believe remaining cautious is important.

The winter storm that struck this week is a good example of how things can change and flip around suddenly.

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