It Has Been a Good Year

The 2018 golf season has come to a close for me. There were good rounds and there were not so good rounds (meaning I'd rather not talk about the latter). All in all, I would have to place this year as the best year I have had on the course.

Why? There are many reasons and they all point to 2018 being a year that will be difficult to beat.

I Played Often

When I had the chance to play 18 holes, I played 18 holes. When I could only get 9 holes in, I played 9 holes. In a Nova Scotia golf season that is, at its best, May 1st to October 31st (184 days) I was able to post a score more than 100 times. This does not include the obligatory corporate scramble events I also enjoy, which average about one per month. I am fairly certain that 2019 will not hold as many rounds of golf for me, but I will try!

My Indexed Dropped

I started 2018 with a goal of getting my Golf Canada Index (handicap factor) below 10, from a starting point above 13. I have struggled to get it below 12 most years so this was an ambitious goal. I flirted with it for a while, falling short by the smallest of margins, reaching 10.2 for a week this summer. I will definitely renew this goal for 2019!

Lowest Career Score

A few years ago I posted a 77, and have never come close since. Then, one day this August I did it again. A 77 tied my career low round and motivated me to go lower still. That did not happen in 2018, that is what 2019 is for!

Hole-in-One

After playing the game of golf avidly for the past 6 years, and very passively for the preceding 12 years, I recorded my first hole-in-one. I was fortunate in that I actually saw it go in (many do not apparently). For those curious is was an 8-iron on the 160-yard (from the blue tees) par 3 eleventh hole at the Truro Golf Club. I may never get another one, but I will surely try!

Golf is Social

One of my favourite aspects of golf is the social element, getting together with the guys (and gals) and catching up over 18 holes (and at the 19th hole of course!). It is the camaraderie that exists between us, the joy for each other's good rounds and the support when things don't go quite right. Be it Men's Nights, Invitational tournaments or Club Championships, the competition is fun but the after-play socializing is special.

So thank you 2018 for a great golf year, I am sure 2019 will do it's best to live up your standards!

FORE!

It's March 1st and I have officially had enough of winter at this point. I recently tried to embrace winter, went skiing and actually enjoyed my time on the hill even if I was a bit rusty after a 25 year hiatus. Still, with February behind me and Daylight Savings Time on my doorstep next weekend it is only natural that my attention has fully shifted to my golf game.

More than any other year I am eager to get out on a course (any course) and hit the little white ball around. I played more golf last year than I ever have before and was able to lower my handicap to 16, which is just a bit higher than my goal was. I played on more courses in Atlantic Canada than I have, some for the first time.

2014 will be my best year ever on the golf course, in fact it will be a great year all round for golf in Atlantic Canada. While my personal goal is to shave at least 5 strokes off my handicap, I also want to experience a few more courses this year.

Northumberland Links in Pugwash NS is truly a gem and it has been a few years since I have experienced the fast greens there, I highly recommend this public course to all golfers as it is one of my favourites. I'd also like to play the friendly course at the Truro Golf Club in 2014, the changes there over the past few years have made the course even more friendly.

No doubt I will play my share of rounds in my home province of New Brunswick. With my membership at Lakeside Golf Club I will see the lions share of my rounds there, but also at Fox Creek in Dieppe and Royal Oaks in Moncton. Consistent play with scores in the 80's will be my goal.

In early July the new course at Ashburn Golf Club in Halifax Nova Scotia will be hosting the first ever Canada Cup and the Nova Scotia Open, a Web.com Tour event. I am already making my plans to be there. Not as a player mind you, as a spectator only.

Yes, Spring is still three weeks away and there is way too much snow on the fairways here in Moncton to actually play the game, but I can see the warmer weather coming. I bet I will even be able to get a cold weather round in this month at a course in Nova Scotia... Stay tuned for updates to the best year for golf in Atlantic Canada, and the year I play the best golf of my life!

An Early Winter Wonderland

This week we had our first real snowfall of the season…not winter but autumn.

OK, I can hear you all now. I live in Canada, we get snow year round right? Not quite.

I know that as a Canadian citizen I am supposed to embrace and enjoy winter, and for the most part I do. In Eastern Canada where I choose to live, we have four distinct seasons, each offering it’s unique contribution to our cumulative climate and making this a fairly mild (weather wise anyway) region in which to live. It is this diversity of the seasons I like, not just winter or summer. In fact the milder the winter the better as far as I am concerned.

The temperatures here are rarely too high or too low to bear for prolonged periods, the region is not susceptible to extreme storms like tornadoes or hurricanes and usually the worst of our weather is one major snowstorm in January or February.

I like my seasons to be what they are, not an imitation of one of the other seasons. So when there is still almost a month of autumn remaining, to have old man winter blow in with 20cm (8 inches) of white decorative precipitation makes me a little leery of what is to come in the next few months. The fact that it has mostly melted away already offers me a little solace, but not much.

Was I inconvenienced in anyway but the snow? Not really. I had no need to drive anywhere during the week, I got to work on time and I did not lose my power. All in all for me the week was like any other week since April. It is the principle of it all.

Maybe I should lighten up. If the situation were reversed would I care? Nope, there is not a chance of me caring.

If there was suddenly a day in late February where the temperature soared to 27C (80F) I am pretty sure I would shed my winter jacket and enjoy the sunshine.

So what am left to do?

I have put away my golf clubs for the long Canadian winter, I did not get to use them much this past summer which is still a bit of a sore spot for me. Winter is coming whether I want it to or not so I might as well join in the fun. I think this winter I should learn how to snowboard, I always thought I would be good at that.

Look for me in the chalet, I’ll probably be the guy with the cast on.

Why Sales People Love Golf

As an avid golfer and a seemingly lifelong sales person I am struck by the similarities of my two passions. It is no wonder many successful sales people also enjoy the game I love. Do you ever wonder why?

I have been selling something since my adolescent days hawking chocolate bars door-to-door for a high school fundraiser, but it is only in the past 10 years that I have discovered a passion for the game of golf. At first glance the two seem completely different and unrelated. Sometimes first impressions need a second look and this is one of those times.

When I rang my first doorbell to sell those chocolate bar I had no idea what I was doing. Sure we all received a few tips (be polite, thank them even if they don’t buy etc.) but I stumbled over my words and am sure that my first sale was because they felt sorry for me, not because I had done a great job at explaining what the money would be used for. I had no opening, no value proposition and no closing skills. I needed some coaching – badly.

Thinking of the first time I played a round of golf the similarities more than amuse me. It was about 15 years after I sold my first chocolate bar. The experience was just as thrilling. I went to the course with a good friend, rented a set of clubs, walked to the first tee and hit the ball (I may have hit the ground first, I don’t recall that first shot or many of the 140 others that followed!). I had no distance off the tee, no accuracy to the green and no ability to read the green.  I needed some coaching – badly.

Many sales organizations have “Leaderboards” in their sales bull pens, a stack ranking that gets a lot of attention at month end much like the leaderboard at Augusta National does on Master’s Sunday. Instead of a green jacket sales people get bragging rights, a commission/bonus cheque and sometimes a trip.

So what separates those at the top of a leaderboard from those further down? Is it skill? Is it natural talent? I believe that it is a desire to be better. To be better than you were last week or last month or last year. It is a commitment to developing and a willingness to accept coaching. It is being able to put your hand up and ask “what can I do differently that will make me more successful”?

Even the best golfers on the PGA Tour have coaches and some even have more than one. Phil Mickelson, arguably one of the most aggressive golfers on the Tour, has paired with renowned swing coach Butch Harmon to help his accuracy. It is Phil’s acknowledgement that it is possible to be better, and that he needs help to do this, that impresses me.

Throughout my sales career I was always looking for more coaching, looking to have someone help me strengthen my talk track, to help me get better at my craft. I read books and listened to audio tapes. I wanted to be the best that I could be, to be as close to the top of the leaderboard as I could be. I was never satisfied with the amount of coaching I received (which was more than most others).

Far too often I worked with fellow sales people that did not want to be coached. They felt that it somehow undermined their credibility inside the organization and with their customers to have someone ride along with them, or that they must doing something wrong. Nothing could be further from the truth as the return on the coaching investment is highest with top performers, especially those that eagerly seek out coaching opportunities and adopt the recommendations offered.

My roles have changed over the years and I am now the coach. I enjoy being in a role that allows me to help others achieve their goals, to help them be the best that they can be. I still seek out coaching from my manager and from my mentor on a regular basis, so that I can be the best that I can be.

As for my golf game, I spent most of the winter watching “Playing Lessons From the Pros” on the Golf Channel because I really think this will be the year I break 80. Now that the snow has almost all melted (in NS anyway) I will also be spending a lot of time on the driving range and on the putting green, and will be seeking some coaching to help me reach my goal. Putting in golf is a bit like closing in sales. But that is a topic for another day. Anyone have some good putting tips?

The Good Guys

It has been too long since my last post, more than a week. Sometimes life gets in the way of a blog I guess…As a novice blogger I will do better in the future.

We are nearing the end of February and like all Canadian golfers I admit that I am getting a little twitchy waiting for the snow to melt and the courses to open. The fact that we are still at least six weeks away from playing here in Nova Scotia does not dampen my excitement, I am a “glass is half full” kind of guy so I say we are ONLY six weeks away from golf season, I should start to get ready!

While waiting to place my first drive of the year 270 yards out and in the middle of the fairway I get to do two things. Spend quality time at my local golf retailer and watch the pros play on beautiful lush green courses south of the border. This week it is the Accenture Match Play World Golf Championship in Arizona.

I have never played a real match play event; they are incredibly exciting to watch. When the brackets for this year’s event were posted on line I could not envision any one golfer as the obvious favourite – and that makes for a very exciting tournament! The PGA tweeted a link to the experts’ picks and I thought no way, the tournament is not going to be played on paper, it will be played on the course.

As a Canadian I have a patriotic loyalty to Mike Weir. The most successful Canadian on the PGA tour is always someone I want to see do well each week. Mike was not in the field at this week’s event and that left my choices wide open.

So like any self-professed expert I tweeted back “I don't like any of the Expert Picks: WGC-Accenture Match Play http://t.co/Xbd9ggL I'll go with @stewartcink this week” believing that Stewart had an opportunity to win if he could upset the defending Champ in round one.

He did. I have no particular connection to Stewart Cink as a golfer. I think he is as real a person in a professional sport as you can get and yes, I follow him on Twitter. He is one of the good guys. Any time one of the good guys is contending I want them to win. After winning his first round match I was sure my prediction was right on the mark!

Unfortunately Stewart lost in round two and will not win the match play event this year. My prediction was as accurate as at least 67% of those made by the experts so I am ok with that. The one thing I do know is that Stewart Cink has a new fan here in snowy Canada. After his second round loss he sent out a tweet “@RalphBastarache thanks for having faith but I couldn't quite deliver today!”

Next week at the Honda Classic in Florida I will be cheering for the good guys…if the final pairing on Sunday is Stewart Cink and Mike Weir, it will be the best possible finish as far as I am concerned and I will be hoping they end up in a playoff, that there will be extra holes. When it is over it will be unfortunate that one of them had to lose but I will know without a doubt that the winner is one of the good guys.