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| Tony Ramos - Publisher |
Watson
For anyone who has ever played the game of golf (and even for a 20-handicap player like me), the cardinal rule of putting is never to leave a putt short that you have to make. In a must situation, long is better than short, if you miss, since your ball at least had a chance. One professional golfer who knows this old adage better than anyone else is 59–year-old Tom Watson, who left one putt short in this year’s British Open. As it turned out, it was one of the most important putts he had ever attempted in his long and illustrious career.
Last month, in the British Open at Turnberry (in South Ayrshire, on the Atlantic Coast of Scotland), Watson had a one-stroke lead going into the 18th and final hole of what many people consider the best open tournament of the year. At 59 years of age, Watson would have been the oldest professional golfer, by more than a decade, to win an open tournament. Needing to make par on the 18th hole for the win, Watson faced a 6-foot putt.
For most professional golfers, a 6-foot putt can be made successfully 75 percent of the time. For Watson, it’s a gimme. No one is better at making putts from this distance than Watson is. Prior to the putt, one of the television announcers even predicted that Watson would make the putt and win the championship. Instead, Watson missed the putt by a foot. Given the opportunity to do it over, Watson would have made that putt 100 out of 100 times. Worse was the fact that as soon as Watson hit his shot (or in this case, did not hit his shot), you knew that the ball would not go in; Watson’s stroke was hesitant. It had no follow-through, and Watson appeared to pull back on his putter as soon as he had struck the ball.
It was as if I were watching myself putt, not watching someone who is a five-time winner of the British Open and someone who could give putting lessons to Tiger Woods. It was heartbreaking. The missed putt sent Watson into a four-hole playoff with Stewart Cink, the eventual winner of the tournament. After Watson left his putt short on the 18th hole, I’m sure that the engraver of the Claret Jug (which is presented to the winner of the British Open) started to engrave Cink’s name on the nameplate. After Watson missed his putt, it was over before it was over.
What do a missed putt and a putt left short have to do with the patio, hearth, barbecue/grill, outdoor-kitchen, and outdoor-living industry—and business in general? Plenty: I don’t claim to be a sports psychologist, but my guess is that Watson left his putt short due to a combination of factors that have to do with
- a momentary lack of confidence,
- nerves that got the better of him,
- making a putt stroke that was not reminiscent of any previous strokes in his playing career,
- leaving out any sort of follow-through, and
- playing it safe when he should have attacked the putt to close it out and win the British Open.
With all of us having faced a challenging business and economic climate for the better part of a year, it’s tempting to pull back, cut back, and just wait out the storm. Unfortunately, operating with a lack of confidence and in a tepid manner, with a focus that does not go beyond the end of the week, while looking only at cost-cutting measures (and ignoring ways to increase and drive revenue) and abandoning time-honored and time-tested business principles is no way to run a business.
Yes, a focus on the bottom line is prudent and wise, as it is in any business climate, good or bad. Drastic cost cutting, the elimination or near elimination of sound sales/marketing practices and strategies, ignoring employee training, and reducing the level of customer service, however, are not going to serve your business well, today or tomorrow.
To specialty stores, retailers, and dealers selling outdoor furniture and outdoor-living products: Don’t even think about missing Casual Market in September. Go to Chicago and take advantage of what the show has to offer in terms of educational seminars and the opportunity to network with your peers. Visit the manufacturers in their showrooms and the temporary exhibits to see what new products you should be carrying. If Watson were this year’s keynote speaker at Casual Market, I’m sure that he would encourage you not to leave your business short.
Tony Ramos
Publisher
tramos@peninsula-media.com
PHPR July/August 2009
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