What’s That Strange, Yellow Ball In The Sky?

It’s amazing what a yellow ball in the sky will do to people’s morale, but the deluge that I wrote about in a previous blog is over in this area and everybody is happy to see summer.

When the weather is good, members are more apt to hang out in the shop and visit with the staff, or maybe buy something, try a demo club, have lunch or sit on the patio.

The mood is just that much better. They’re sick and tired of playing in the cold, so now, they’ve got a zip to their stride. Our flowers here have started to come up, the fairways are filling in and the greens are getting faster. It’s all good.

Of course, that mood is shared by the staff. Everyone’s just a little happier to come to work and they’re busy, so their days go quickly because there’s lots going on.

The downside to that is that they haven’t been busy lately, so the staff needs to go from zero to 100 in no time as the weather situation changes. Members were pretty much shut out of golf in May and early June and now, they’ll be looking to make up for lost time.

Fortunately for me, I’m not training a bunch of new, front-line staff members, so they know they have to hit the floor running some days because it is so busy and expectations are high and so they should be – it’s not a bad thing to raise the bar in service a little bit.

It’s difficult when you have seasonal, hourly staff and they get tired of hearing your voice every morning at 7 a.m. telling them not to come in.

Food and beverage people depend on tips and the backshop staff are often trying to pay for school. It’s tough trying to find things for the staff to do because the make-work projects were getting a little boring.

It’s just so nice to have so many food and beverage, maintenance and front shop staff all get a chance to work.

We were able to find other dates for the corporate events that we had to reschedule and the pressure is going to be on in August and September with all of those dates locked up, but the good thing is that the nasty weather broke in time for Canada Day and the Calgary Stampede.

Stampede time can be hit-and-miss. You’ll find your weekends probably aren’t as busy because people are either going to the grounds or because people in Calgary often go away at that time. It’s busy in Calgary, there are a lot of tourists, it’s tough to get around the city. It’s a tough time to get a hold of anybody.

The flip side is that people are bringing guests out or entertaining clients and customers. Some like to get out of the city just to play golf.

That’s fine by us. We have some time to make up for this summer after all that rain.

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