Are you in a rut? Are you haunted by last year’s problems? When was the last time your club introduced something truly innovative?

If the answers to these questions are “yes,” “yes,” and “I can’t recall” then you could use some innovative thinking to revitalize and reinvigorate your club.  In his most recent contribution to Golf Course Industry magazine, Henry DeLozier explains how innovation can help your club and offers 3 preliminary questions useful to changing how you think about problem solving.

Read the full length article here.

In an article for Golf Course Industry Magazine Henry DeLozier observed that there is a sense of optimism and positive momentum moving about the golf industry, a feeling he noticed after participating in several major industry events this year including the PGA Merchandise Show, the Golf Industry show, and the CMAA World Conference.  Yet despite the feeling of optimism that Henry perceived at these events, he claims that “golf must lift itself up by its own bootstraps.” But how?

Read the full length article here to understand how to turn a small ripple of opportunity into a wave of positive change.

TORONTO, Ontario (April 5, 2013) – Global Golf Advisors, the leading authority on successful ownership and management practices for golf and private club businesses, announced that George Pinches, a longtime club management executive, will join the firm as a senior associate.

Pinches is currently the chief operating officer of the Hamilton Golf and Country Club in Ancaster, Ontario, a position he has held for the past 10 years.  He will join Global Golf Advisors at the end of the 2013 golf season in Hamilton.

Pinches, who has more than 30 years of experience in private club management, will focus on club governance, management coaching and executive search, according to Stephen Johnston, the firm’s founding partner.

“George adds considerable experience and expertise to the GGA team,” Johnston said. “He is particularly skilled in private club governance and understands how boards and committees must work together to enable effective club management.”

Prior to becoming COO at Hamilton G&CC, Pinches was a general manager at four other clubs in three Canadian provinces.

Pinches also has been active in the Canadian Society of Club Managers and the Club Managers Association of America, serving as president of the Alberta and Pacific branches. Pinches received the 2007 Golf Manager of the Year Award fromScoreGolf, a leading Canadian publication.

Pinches has led preparations and support for a number of professional events hosted by the Hamilton G&CC, including the PGA Tour’s RBC Canadian Open. Hamilton consistently ranks among Canada’s top clubs by leading golf publications.

Currently an instructor of golf club governance for the Golf Management Institute of Canada, Pinches also has taught in the golf management program at Grant McEwen University in Edmonton.

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Our final honoree of National Women’s History Month is Mary Kathryn “Mickey” Wright, arguably the greatest female golfer of all time.  Mickey was a successful LPGA member, winning thirteen major championships and eighty-two tour events in all.  She is also a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Hailing from San Diego, California, Mickey won the 1954 World Amateur Championship and turned professional, joining the LPGA later that same year.  Her eighty-two tour wins slot her at second place on the all-time win list behind Kathy Whitworth who won eighty-eight times.  She also holds second place for all-time championship wins behind Patty Berg, who won fifteen majors.  Mickey was a perennial winner, winning at least one LPGA title for fourteen consecutive  seasons from 1956 to 1969.

At certain points in her career she held records for lowest score in LPGA history and largest final round comeback in LPGA history.  Ben Hogan stated that Wright’s swing was the best one he had ever seen.  She is the only player in LPGA Tour history to hold all four major titles at the same time. In the most recent decade, golf experts have consistently voted Mickey Wright as the ninth greatest golfer of all time, the eighth best player of all time, and the top female player of all time.

Today we remember Mickey’s beautiful gift of the game of golf, her passion for the sport, and her status as a competitor.

Another woman of significance was LPGA Tour icon Elizabeth Earle “Betsy” Rawls.  A former American professional golfer, she won eight major championships and fifty-five LPGA Tour events which earned her induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame.

Betsy began playing golf as a seventeen-year-old, winning back-to-back Texas Amateur victories in 1949 and 1950.  At the same time, she won the 1949 Trans-National and the 1950 Broadmoor Invitational.  She finished second place at the U.S. Women’s Open as an amateur that same year.

After attending the University of Texas, Betsy joined the LPGA Tour in 1951 and began an illustrious golf career.  In 1959 she earned the LPGA Vare Trophy for lowest scoring average.  She was the tour’s leading money winner in 1952 and 1959 and finished in the Top 10 on the money list a total of nine times.  She served as LPGA President from 1961 to 1962 and was one of the six inaugural inductees to the LPGA Tour Hall of Fame in 1967.

After retiring from tournament play in 1975, she served as a tournament director for the LPGA Tour.  In 1966 she was voted the Bob Jones Award, the highest honor given by the United States Golf Association in recognition of distinguished sportsmanship in golf.  She was also inducted into the Hall of Fame of Delaware Women in 2006.

Betsy is also a breast cancer survivor, having been diagnosed in 1999 she shows no evidence of the disease in 2006.  When asked to comment on the issue, she simply reported that it was a “small blip in my life.”  Betsy is recognized as an athletic champion, natural leader, exemplar sportsman, and a fearless competitor.  Let’s remember Betsy Rawls and her commitment to the game we love so much.

Our second honoree of National Women’s History Month is LPGA Tour professional Mary Bea Porter.  An accomplished athlete, Porter played golf, basketball, volleyball, and softball while attending Arizona State University and would later go on to be inducted into the Arizona Sports Hall of Fame in 2001.

After her time as a multi-sport athlete, Porter’s subsequent years focused exclusively on the game of golf with her joining the LPGA Tour in 1973 after winning the qualifying tournament that same year.  Two quick years later, Porter emerged from the 1975 LPGA Tour victorious.

Without doubt, Porter’s most estimable moment came during a 1988 qualifying round for the Samaritan Turquoise Classic.  While playing the thirteenth hole at the Moon Valley Country Club, Porter spotted a child floating facedown in a pool adjacent to the golf course.  By the time Porter arrived on scene, the boy had been retrieved by his father but was without a heartbeat or lung function.  Having no training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation, Porter made several failed attempts to revive the child and eventually succeeded, saving the child’s life.

In 1989 Porter-King moved to Hawaii after her marriage and helped found the Hawaii State Junior Golf Association.  She was inducted into the Hawaii Golf Hall of Fame in 2004 and awarded the PGA First Lady of Golf Award in 2011 by the PGA of America.

Mary Bea Porter-King is credited for being an accomplished professional golfer, for growing the game of golf within the United States, and for her selfless concern for the well-being of others.

Housing permits are booming along with the oil and gas boom in Texas.  In the 2012 summary of single-family housing permits which was recently reported by the U.S. Census Bureau and John Burns Consulting, Texas cities make up 25 percent of the list of most active markets.  Conspicuous by their absence are the once burgeoning markets of California and south Florida.  No California city cracked the top 20 based on permits drawn.

What should those in the golf and club businesses take away from these numbers? At Global Golf Advisors, we forecast the rejuvenation in the housing market will be followed by the development of a number of new club communities in Texas.

Naples and Miami/Palm Beach have not restarted yet; but new permit activity – now underway – will increase as south Florida projects clear planning and entitlement hurdles.  Water access in south Florida will continue to be a drawdown on new club activity in the Sunshine State.

What about the formerly white-hot housing markets such as Phoenix, No. 3 on the list, and Las Vegas, at No. 10?  In those markets, a recovery is underway after a four-year dry spell.  Phoenix and Las Vegas clubs may decline as a result of water policies and operational costs.

Overall our view has not changed: clubs that emphasize families and value will win the day in the new economic cycle.