If you don’t play golf, the corporate golf outing, where business is done and careers sometimes decided, is terrifying. How do you survive it? How to you become a team player? How do you make it to the 19th hole with your confidence and pride intact?
Well, first, you don’t do what Jackie Gleason did on The Honeymooners and try to learn the game overnight. You don’t say, “hello ball” when you address the ball. What you do is ask someone who has seen it all, especially when it comes to company outings and ask them how to survive the event, contribute, and most of all….have fun.
“The real first step is not to panic,” says Grand Geneva Resort & Spa’s golf pro, Kyle Kunash. “Everyone was a first-time golfer at some point and there are a plenty of ways to familiarize yourself with the sport and its terminology beforehand. And the fact is, most golfers are not really that good, less than ten percent of all golfers in American ever break a score of 100.”
“The second point is you don’t need to hit the ball 300 yards. Eighty percent of the game is scored less than 100 yards from the hole. And even more important, maybe the most important thing is that a six-foot putt (which anyone can do if they practice at home a bit) is just as important as that 300-yard drive. The moment of glory is on the green (where the golf hole and flag is) not on the tee.”
Kunash, a golf pro with over 17 years experience, has trained and played with golfers of all levels on Grand Geneva’s award winning courses, The Brute & The Highlands. Here are his top 10 tips:
