Shownotes
This podcast episode features a profound exploration of the intersection of golf and business, as we engage with the esteemed Dave Bisbee. Our discourse elucidates the enduring relevance of golf as a medium for professional networking, particularly emphasizing that one need not possess exceptional golfing skills to leverage its potential for business advancement. Through our dialogue, we reflect upon the historical context of golf as a corporate arena, highlighting its evolution and the significant charitable contributions made by the sport today. Furthermore, we delve into the strategic application of golf in fostering meaningful relationships and enhancing business performance, as articulated in Bisbee's insightful publication, "Back on Course." This episode ultimately serves as a reminder of the multifaceted benefits that golf offers, extending beyond mere recreation into the realms of community engagement and professional development.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Seven Canyons
- PGA Tour
- Waste Management Phoenix Open
- Thunderbirds
- Strategic Links
- Birdie Ball
- Painted Hills
- Kia
- Squares Golf Shoes
This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:
OP3 - https://op3.dev/privacy
Transcripts
It's time for grilling at the Green.
Speaker A:Join Jeff Tracy as he explores a golfing lifestyle and tries to keep it in the short grass for the hackers, new sweepers and turf spankers.
Speaker A:Here's Jeff, Everybody.
Speaker A:Welcome to Girly.
Speaker A:Anthony Green, I'm jt and today I'm very fortunate to welcome as a guest Dave Bisby.
Speaker A:Dave's been around for more than a couple of weeks, and I say that with all, all the vestiges of sincerity that I can muster, and that's quite a bit sometimes.
Speaker A:Dave worked down in Sedona at Seven Canyons for a long time, but he's also kind of takes a.
Speaker A:Has a different look, if you will, at the business.
Speaker A:Not just the business of golf, excuse me, but of doing business with golf.
Speaker A:So we're going to jump into it here.
Speaker A:Dave, welcome.
Speaker B:Well, thanks for having me.
Speaker B:Excited to be on.
Speaker A:So when you were close to the same age when we grew up, there was always the, the look, if you will, of guys and ladies, mostly guys back then playing golf and there was this men's clubs and all that, but there was also this kind of corporate aspect to it of doing business on golf course.
Speaker A:And I think that still exists.
Speaker A:I know I do that.
Speaker A:But I think we've gotten so inundated with the younger guys trying to, you know, hit the longer ball and, and perfect their swing and all that, that this becomes overlooked.
Speaker A:You don't have to be a scratch golfer to do business on the golf course.
Speaker A:So I wanted to get your take on it straight out of the gate.
Speaker B:Well, yeah, and I appreciate that little quip about us being of a certain age.
Speaker B:When you really think back the Crosby clambake, you remember back to that.
Speaker B:Well, that was really a way to get the Hollywood scene together with investors who would put money into movies, making movies.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:To invest in projects and that, that was really kind of the early vestiges of what would have been, you know, golf as a vehicle to raise money or improve profitability.
Speaker B:And then it just kind of went on from there.
Speaker B:I mean, back in those days, all of the tour events were like the big Crosby, it was the Andy Williams.
Speaker B:It was know, there was all celebrity names, the Bob Hope and all that.
Speaker B:And, you know, the money that those guys were playing for back then would be chump change now.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And that's where.
Speaker B:And you know, Palmer was probably, Mr. Palmer was probably the catalyst for bringing that corporate dollar into the professional golf seat and having them start to sponsor, which built the purses up, which started to Create more competition on the tour and all of that.
Speaker B:And you fast forward to today.
Speaker B:There isn't a tournament out there that does not have not only a name sponsor, a title sponsor, but then all of those sub sponsors below that that are feeding both the community that the event's in with charitable contributions, but also feeding the purses that these guys are playing for that are just amazing.
Speaker B:I just saw that Scheffler just went over 100 million in prize money, which is just amazing.
Speaker B:I still have my old Golf Week magazine with Nicholas sitting on that bag of money saying he, he had broken the, the quarter million dollars for a year.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker B:I mean, you know, you make the cut now, you make a quarter of a mil.
Speaker A:Yeah, I was going to say first place back then was about 70th place now, you know, in relative dollars.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:We've come a long ways, but.
Speaker A:And for people that look at that, there's some folks that are like n much money, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker A:But for the individual golfer aside, it's.
Speaker A:My theory is, as you just explained, the purses have gone up, but also the, the community aspect of it have gone up.
Speaker A:You can't go to a, a tour event now, men or ladies, and not see stuff for the kids.
Speaker A:You can't see the.
Speaker A:One of the favorite community charities.
Speaker A:You can't help but see a first tea program.
Speaker A:You know, I can go down as you can.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:But that has really.
Speaker A:To me, it should have kind of quieted the cynics a bit.
Speaker A:Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.
Speaker A:But there's so much more available to the individual communities from even a Corn Fairy Tour event or something like that, you know, Epson, whatever.
Speaker A:There's just so much more for people to engage with, be involved with, and also be able to go to those events and say, hey, I've got a deal here where I'm doing X for the community.
Speaker A:Could we possibly work together and you help fund this project?
Speaker A:Those things are available.
Speaker B:Oh, they're happening all the time.
Speaker B:And to that point, Jeff, the, the PGA Tour and the affiliates, right.
Speaker B:They contribute more to charitable causes than mlb, NBA, NFL combined.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:I mean, if that doesn't just scream that, you know, golf is good for everyone.
Speaker B:Yeah, I mean, that's, that's an amazing, amazing statistic.
Speaker B:We've got a tournament coming up here in my backyard in a week, the Waste Management Phoenix Open.
Speaker B:It.
Speaker B:It just absolutely sets records every year for the charitable contributions that it makes to the community.
Speaker B:And it's, it's not a single charity.
Speaker B:It's a lot of things and really does benefit the entire community.
Speaker A:Well, they work with the Thunderbirds down there, don't they?
Speaker B:Yep, they're.
Speaker B:The Thunderbirds are the presenting sponsors.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I had some interaction with the Thunderbirds years ago when I was in the horse business and they were great.
Speaker A:They were just, they were like a, if you will allow me this, they were a medium level financially of Augusta, but they did a lot, they did a lot of stuff in the community.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:And, and, and they, I mean, they just continue to build on that.
Speaker B:The Phoenix Open is certainly their flagship thing, but they do other things throughout the, throughout the years as well.
Speaker B:But.
Speaker B:Yeah, and you brought up something a little while ago where you said you don't have to, you don't have to be a good golfer to be able to take advantage of that.
Speaker B:That, that is one of the tenets of our book back on course.
Speaker B:Drive business performance through golf people.
Speaker B:You know, I hear it all the time, well, I'm not good enough to play business golf.
Speaker B:And it's like that's just the opposite of that.
Speaker B:You know, the, the fact that you would get out there, play with people, if you understand the rules a bit and you understand etiquette, you can keep the pace of play moving and be a great host.
Speaker B:You not playing well just shows vulnerability right in play and can create bonds that would take six months to a year that you can form in a four hour round of golf.
Speaker A:I can't tell you, Dave, how many times over the years that not by design, but by happenstance, if you will, you're playing, I'm playing and I meet somebody on the course, maybe they paired up, you know, set of doubles or something, whatever.
Speaker A:And more so when I play late in the day, because I live very close to a golf course and I just go over there to get in nine or if the light holds 18, and I, somewhere along the 18.
Speaker B:Excuse.
Speaker A:Me, I bump into another single.
Speaker A:And so we play the rest of the round together.
Speaker A:And I've met some very interesting and interested business people that way.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And I, I sure I'm not the only one that's had those experiences.
Speaker A:I'm.
Speaker A:There's thousands of them every day out there.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, we have in the book, we have little anecdotes through there with business leaders, CEOs, top, top C suite execs of how golf impacted their career trajectory and things that happened on a golf course that would have never happened otherwise, that were, you know, that propelled their, their businesses.
Speaker B:And I, I Tell people all the time that for me, nothing that I have done in my entire life with, with this crazy, crazy game, nothing that I've done happened other than some encounter on a golf course.
Speaker B:It has been the thing that has pushed my career along is just going and playing in a Pro Am and being with a group.
Speaker B:And one or two people in that group end up becoming not only lifelong really friends, but also catalysts for business that I've done beyond that.
Speaker A:Sure.
Speaker A:Dave and I are going to take a break.
Speaker A:We're going to come back here on Grilling at the Green in just a couple minutes.
Speaker A:Don't forget grilling it's green is a proud part of the Golf News Network radio lineup, among other things.
Speaker A:We'll be right back.
Speaker C:Hey everybody, JT Here.
Speaker C:If you need something to practice with in the inclement weather, try birdie ball.
Speaker C:Go to birdieball.com check out the actual birdie balls, their packages, their putting greens, which I happen to have a couple of those and they work great.
Speaker C:Birdieball.com.
Speaker A:Welcome back to Grilling at the Green.
Speaker A:I'm jt.
Speaker A:We'd like to thank the folks, John Breaker and his crew over Birdie Ball.
Speaker A:They've been big supporters of this show and my like the Portland golf shows coming up.
Speaker A:We'll be passing out birdie balls again there at the, at the booth and so stop by and see us if you're in this neck of the woods.
Speaker A:And they also do, you know, putting greens, kind of portable backyard type putting greens.
Speaker A:I have one.
Speaker A:They work out well.
Speaker A:So go to birdieball.com we're talking with Dave Bisbee.
Speaker A:I want to talk to your your about your book.
Speaker A:You have a couple of books or several books out there, but make sure I get the title right back on course Drive Business Performance through Golf.
Speaker A:As I kind of said at the top of his show, Dave, to me that was always there was the fun aspect of golf.
Speaker A:But if I wanted to get something done with potential client, I would invite him to go play golf, you know, and, and I would like you to dive into that a little deeper because now in all fairness, I haven't read the book, but I will, I promise.
Speaker A:But I just think that is to me it's a no brainer, you know, it's just a no.
Speaker B:Well, I think that for people of our backgrounds, it was, it was just kind of a natural way to be able to spend time with somebody, really quality time with someone.
Speaker B:And the book itself is laid out, there's 18 chapters because there's 18 holes.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:And the, the first nine are about strategy, the second nine is about tactics, about how you use this stuff.
Speaker B: lyst for the book was back in: Speaker B:We met at one of my golf schools here in Phoenix and she is a business consultant.
Speaker B:She's a terrible golfer, but that doesn't keep her from, that doesn't keep her from getting out there and playing.
Speaker B:And she was a consultant, executive development, corporate education, that was her thing.
Speaker B:And it was about dealing with the people within an organization.
Speaker B:And she figured out pretty early on that the people who she was dealing with and to get to those C suite type people that really made the decisions for their company, one of the things they all had in common was they played golf.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So we started a company back then called Strategic Links.
Speaker B:And it was, we would use a, a, an experiential day, we call it an executive golf experience, where we would introduce, through an assessment tool, introduce the players to themselves really.
Speaker B:The assessment tool looked at what motivated you to play, what your personal behavioral characteristic strengths were, conditions that were necessary to support those strengths, and then how you tended to react in stressful situations and kind of help build a little mental game strategy for, for the golfer that would be the front end.
Speaker B:And we would morph to taking them through.
Speaker B:If this is you in a golf setting, let's look at those traits in the business setting.
Speaker B:And then we would show that clear connection between who they are and then and what they did.
Speaker B:And it was amazing.
Speaker B:The, you know, companies just ate it up.
Speaker B:We would do team building things, we would do organizational design things.
Speaker B:We help companies with mergers, all of those kinds of things wrapped in a golf experience.
Speaker B:And the, the catalyst for the book was these executives that I was teaching would be, would ask me, well, how, okay, how do I do this?
Speaker B:What's necessary?
Speaker B:What do I need to be aware of?
Speaker B:How do you even go about starting this?
Speaker B:And so I started mentoring executives about how to play golf to a business advantage.
Speaker B:And I'd start, we take notes when I talk to them.
Speaker B:And that just kind of morphed into the book.
Speaker B:And, and Connie's contribution to it was really from the other side, from the business side of it.
Speaker B:And, and, and that's, that was the catalyst for, for writing the book.
Speaker B:What we have found since then, we're, we're about to come out with the second edition.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:The second edition is going to be more focused on leadership and how the golf course behaviors and situational awareness and all of that mimic leadership and so yeah, that'll be coming out soon.
Speaker B:We're not quite sure if it's going to be an actual book book or we're going to just release it.
Speaker A:Ebook type thing.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:Through.
Speaker B:Through ebook or even just digital through the website and being able to, to share it that way.
Speaker A:It's interesting just that you say that as I wrote a book, a cookbook, 15 years ago and I didn't like the way the publishers were handling stuff, so I did it myself.
Speaker A:I knew nothing about it.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:We did have kind of an e book facet of that, but it wasn't anything near what it is today.
Speaker A:I mean it was like PDF pages or something, you know, just like that.
Speaker B:Exactly right.
Speaker A:But I think from a publishing standpoint, it's, it's so incredibly beneficial to people.
Speaker A:You're not a first time author.
Speaker A:I'm not a first time author.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker A:But if you're going to do something like in that field, doesn't matter what the subject matter is.
Speaker A:You can do it now without going through all of the steps of a publishing house which at times cannot be a lot of fun.
Speaker A:I'll just put it.
Speaker B:Oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:It's a butt, you know.
Speaker A:So, yeah, I think it's, I think it's some great opportunities out there.
Speaker A:But I will warn people this, if you're going to write a book about golf, don't just cut and paste stuff from somebody else.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:I got suckered into buying one of those and I was, it was my mistake.
Speaker A:I'll just put it that way.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Anyway, Dave Bisbee and I are going to be back on grilling at the green part of the golf News network and radio stations here, there and everywhere and all your social media and podcast platforms.
Speaker A:Dave and I'll be back in just a moment.
Speaker A:Don't go away.
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Speaker C:Hey everybody, it's jt.
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Speaker A:You won't regret it.
Speaker A:Welcome back to grilling.
Speaker A:It's green on jt.
Speaker A:We got Dave Bisbee today with us.
Speaker A:Squares.
Speaker A:Golf shoes.
Speaker A:I wear squares golf shoes and snow golf balls.
Speaker A:I use snow golf balls.
Speaker A:So those people always support us here on the show, and I appreciate that very much.
Speaker A:We're talking with Dave Bisby.
Speaker A:I want to tell you a story, a real quick one.
Speaker A:This was 20 years ago.
Speaker A:And like I said, I was in the horse world back then, and one of the large organizations had hired me and I went back, they were located in Denver.
Speaker A:We'll just leave it at that.
Speaker A:And one of the things I asked them, I said, do you have a membership to one of the golf clubs around here?
Speaker A:I said, you know, I'm not looking for freebies.
Speaker A:I'm just asking, do you have that?
Speaker A:And they looked at me like I had three heads.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:And I said, yeah.
Speaker A:All these, as you mentioned, C suite executives, the people you need to get to to make the decision to write your organization a check for X.
Speaker A:Most all of them play golf.
Speaker A:And especially in a place like Denver or other northern states where half of the year they're in snow and inclement weather and when the green grass comes, they want to be out there.
Speaker A:It's a perfect time to work with them.
Speaker A:But like I said, I said it doesn't have to be the, you know, the Broadmoor.
Speaker A:It can just be some reasonable course whether you can go in and have a beer or a sandwich afterwards or whatever like that.
Speaker A:And they did not get that concept.
Speaker A:I did.
Speaker A:I didn't work for them very long, by the way.
Speaker B:That's your requisite.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:If I'm going to work with you or for you, there's got to be golf involved.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:And I think, I think a lot of that comes from the naivete these companies for the role golf can play in their business.
Speaker B:There is a, it's a statistic.
Speaker B: plus percent of Fortune: Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker B:So that's, you know, that's a pretty good indicator right there.
Speaker B:And our research has shown that some 70% of those play golf for a business reason.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:It's not, it's not just a recreational thing.
Speaker B:And, and that, you know, that is again, the reason for our next, our next edition of the book is really to push that narrative out there and really shine a light on this connection because it's, it's powerful, it's good, it's good for everybody involved and, and it's accessible for everybody.
Speaker B:I mean, it can help anybody at any point in their career path beginning to end and, and companies and just aligning with the tenets of the game.
Speaker B:I mean, it's all the stuff that, you know, you should be, be paying attention to anyway, you know, with the integrity and the self policing and the discipline and, and all of that.
Speaker A:So let's, let's take it in a kind of a parallel direction here.
Speaker A:I work with a, with a lot of benefit tournaments.
Speaker A:I created this thing up here.
Speaker A:It's the second year now called the North Valley Challenge, where we help veterans get on the golf course and play for some prizes and stuff like that.
Speaker A:And we tagged on to four existing tournaments.
Speaker A:I didn't want to go out and try to recreate the wheel.
Speaker A:You know, we might do our own tournaments later down the road, but I doubt it.
Speaker A:But one of the things that I get hit with a lot because I've been helping benefit tournaments for years now is they, you know, they call and they say, can you get us some sponsors?
Speaker A:Can you?
Speaker A:And I always give them some decent information and if I've got something in the closet left over from our stuff, I'm happy to give it to them, you know, like that.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:But would back on course be something that the people that run these tournaments to say, you know, here, read this.
Speaker A:And it should help you develop some relationships to help your particular needs in your tournament.
Speaker A:Because like I said, they're all scrambles, they're all a lot of fun.
Speaker A:Nobody's taking it overly seriously.
Speaker A:And it's, you know, it is what it's designed to be.
Speaker A:Okay, but they're always.
Speaker A:Non profits are always a different beast to work with.
Speaker A:I know you know that and, but they've always got their hat in their hand a bit.
Speaker A:And I'm not being derogatory towards them, but it's like, if you look at this like a business, even though you're a nonprofit, a nonprofit is still a business.
Speaker A:You need to go out and work with these people.
Speaker A:And I have suggested then I'll get off my own soapbox here, I promise.
Speaker A:In the fall, late summer, kids are back at school.
Speaker A:Why don't you have a.
Speaker A:Excuse me, a little invitational.
Speaker A:Make it at a nice course.
Speaker A:If you're really feeling your oats, bring it down to seven Canyons or whatever, you know what I mean?
Speaker A:But invite 20 business leaders it's a free round of golf and a lunch and put one of, don't stick them in the carts all by themselves.
Speaker A:Put somebody in there to talk with them like that.
Speaker A:And a lot of them are like, well that's expensive.
Speaker A:Well, kind of deal with the golf course by September.
Speaker A:They're, you know, the rounds are slowing down a little bit like that.
Speaker A:Any, a golf course will work with you on that.
Speaker A:But is that a, a sound piece of reasoning?
Speaker B:Yes, it is, absolutely.
Speaker B:And, and one of the things that we cover in the book is really about these charity events each, these scrambles.
Speaker B:Right.
Speaker B:You're, you, it, it's an opportunity to bring together.
Speaker B:It's not, it's just it the, the trap they tend to fall into is that the fundraising is all around the event itself.
Speaker B:At that one day golf tournament thing, if done correctly, there's the lead up to it.
Speaker B:It's the people you get involved that help to promote it.
Speaker B:The golf courses.
Speaker B:Absolutely.
Speaker B:They'll, they'll do that.
Speaker B:And the venue has a lot to do with the ending dollar that you raise.
Speaker B:Right, right.
Speaker B:The better the venue, the more value prop it seems for the people and getting business leaders in the community to come to it.
Speaker B:They're going to be with some of their peers.
Speaker B:They're going to get an opportunity to maybe if this is, you know, if it's a cause that resonates with them, you know, you can get them to come up and talk about at the luncheon or you know, before you tee off and all of that.
Speaker B:We did a lot of that at Seven Canyons over the years.
Speaker B:Did, did two fundraisers up there that broke all the records for any fundraiser ever in, in the Sedona area.
Speaker B:We did a helicopter ball drop that, that raised 200, $200,000.
Speaker A:I gotta tell you, the tournament I was working with last year, I won the helicopter ball drop.
Speaker B:What'd you win?
Speaker A:I won, I think it was 400 in cash.
Speaker A:Just absolutely random of course.
Speaker A:But when they announced it, I wasn't even paying attention to the ball drop.
Speaker A:I was over doing something else.
Speaker A:And they said, okay, number, number 65 is the ball that went in the hole.
Speaker A:Number 65.
Speaker A:And I, I just happened to look in my pocket and there was the yellow ball with 65 written on it.
Speaker A:And because I had donated so much in sponsorships and in products for their auctions and raffles, I, I felt a little sheepish for about three seconds, you know, and then I trotted up there and got my 400 bucks.
Speaker A:It's funny you say that.
Speaker A:Sorry, I did not mean to interrupt you.
Speaker B:Yeah, but no, I, I think the, and, and that's the, a really good way for someone who wants to dip their toe into playing golf for a reason other than just recreation to be able to play in front of somebody.
Speaker B:You know, get that, get that stage fright taken care of, you know, scramble.
Speaker B:Everybody is going to contribute something somewhere along the way.
Speaker B:Sure, sure.
Speaker B:And the rest of the time it's hit and giggle.
Speaker B:But, but absolutely.
Speaker B:Those are fundamental ways that you can get the community, the business community and the golf course together in that shared activity.
Speaker A:The most successful of those scrambles that I've been associated with and the one with the ball drop that I just told you the story about is one of the more successful ones I've ever worked with.
Speaker A:They work on it all year long.
Speaker A:They have one person and she's works there or she's a volunteer, but she works on that and she knows what she's doing and she works on it virtually all year long.
Speaker A:And then the, there's other ones that come up and say, well, we're going to have a tournament in two months, can we get it sponsored type thing.
Speaker A:So, you know.
Speaker A:Yeah, both ends of the spectrum there.
Speaker B:Yes.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's very good.
Speaker A:Anyway, Dave and I are going to take a break.
Speaker A:We're talking with Dave Bisby today, author of the book Back on Course and three Weeks into the golf industry that he's been in.
Speaker A:Dave and I'll be back in just a minute.
Speaker A:Don't go away.
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Speaker C:Hey everybody, JT here.
Speaker C:If you need something to practice with in the inclement weather, try Birdie ball.
Speaker C:Go to birdieball.com check out the actual birdie balls, their packages, their putting greens, which I happen to have a couple of those and they work great.
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Speaker A:Welcome back to Grilling at the Green.
Speaker A:I'm JT Grilling at the Green is in Portland, in Seattle and in Texas, Pennsylvania, I think a couple other places in between and also on all the podcast platforms and part of Golf News Network.
Speaker A:And we're talking with Dave Bisby.
Speaker A:Like I said, Dave's longtime pro, but also is a Very smart guy.
Speaker A:And in the golf business got one book back on course.
Speaker A:He said second edition is going to come out soon.
Speaker A:If, if you looked at things as a whole in the golf business, what is the one, if there is such a thing, a glaring thing that you would say people, if you're going to be doing these types of things in business, not just golf, but in your own, you know, maybe sell widgets.
Speaker A:What's the one thing you're overlooking?
Speaker B:Well, I would say the one thing is product, market, fit.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:Understanding, you know, what it is that you're selling, who the market is and how you fit in there.
Speaker B:There are lots of great ideas out there that, that really have no audience.
Speaker B:And you know, one of the things.
Speaker B:So I was just at the PGA show in Orlando and you've been, you've been a couple of times to that thing, haven't you?
Speaker A:No, I have not.
Speaker A:Not down there.
Speaker B:Oh my goodness.
Speaker B:Oh, it's huge.
Speaker A:I know that.
Speaker B:It is amazing.
Speaker B:And this, this year was, this was my 28th time.
Speaker B:This year was the biggest that I have seen ever.
Speaker B:It just amazing.
Speaker B:There are, you know, technology has grabbed a hold of golf.
Speaker B:If, if it can be measured, if there can be statistics from it.
Speaker B:Technology is embedded in the game now.
Speaker B:Largest, fastest growing segment in the golf market is the off course simulator.
Speaker B:Bay those, those experiences that has become a new business frenzy out there.
Speaker B:I remember not too awful long ago when the NGF and all of the golf industry folks were saying, you know, we could build a course a day, we could open a course a day and not be able to keep up with demand.
Speaker B:Unfortunately, they were looking at, you know, bad statistics back then.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And they did start doing it, but you had people from other that had been very successful in other industries.
Speaker B:They just had money then and they liked golf.
Speaker B:And so it would be like, I like to eat, so I'm going to open a restaurant.
Speaker B:That was the disconnect.
Speaker B:Yeah, well, you're starting to see that now in these off course simulator.
Speaker B:They're everything from indoor putting to very extravagant studio type things with car and all of that stuff.
Speaker B:They are opening everywhere.
Speaker B:And there were companies set up to help people waste their money opening these things without a real plan, just thinking that build it and then we'll come.
Speaker B:And that's pretty specific for the industry, right.
Speaker B:That you would have people with concepts.
Speaker B:It's almost like a restaurant concept.
Speaker B:They're opening these things all over the place.
Speaker B:They're closing about just about as fast.
Speaker B:I mean, you look at how fast you Know, the topgolf facilities, you know, that was, is like this right.
Speaker B:Climb and now, you know, Callaway's sold their interest in it and have distanced themselves from it.
Speaker A:And their first, top, first topgolf I ever saw was down where you live.
Speaker B:Yeah, right.
Speaker B:Right here off of the Indian Bend.
Speaker B:Right there.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:Amazing.
Speaker B:I, I took a corporate group out there, used one of their corporate suites, and then it opened right onto the tee boxes to have a golf experience.
Speaker B:Awesome.
Speaker B:I mean, it was really, really, really cool.
Speaker B:But the business model didn't work and, and the footprints were, you know, they're humongous.
Speaker B:And knowing how simulators have come along, you know, you can have these very immersive experiences now without stepping on a golf course.
Speaker B:But I have a long, long winded answer to your question.
Speaker B:I, I think that it's that product market fit that that is being able to identify a market for what it is that you do, and then, you know, you're filling a need to that market.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:So, yeah, that, that's my answer.
Speaker A:Well, we've got got about a minute left here, Dave, but I will say that up here in the Portland area, I live south of town, but started with one or two, and then we had like six, and then, then they were putting smaller versions in bars and then they, they put one in one of the casinos, which is about 45 miles south of me here.
Speaker A:And so you're seeing that.
Speaker A:But I think, you know, you have the heat in the summer, we have the rain and inclement weather in the winter, and I can see those things fitting to some degree in those markets, especially us, because nobody wants to go out in the pouring bloody rain and, and do that.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:But again, I just worry about market saturation because I' couple of them, as you spoke to, a couple of them have already gone down here.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker A:It's an interesting thing.
Speaker A:Where can people find out more about you, Dave, and where can they find the book?
Speaker B:Back on course, you can just go to backoncoursegolf.com and find out everything you'd ever want to know or not want to know about me.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Excellent, excellent.
Speaker A:Dave Bisbee, thank you very much.
Speaker A:And you will be invited back again.
Speaker A:I'll tell you that I enjoyed this very much.
Speaker B:Pleasure.
Speaker B:Yeah, I enjoyed it too.
Speaker A:No problem.
Speaker A:And don't Forget, go backon course.com, get his book.
Speaker A:If you work with any tournaments in any form or fashion, go get the book anyway.
Speaker A:He's going to stick around for after hours and we're going to get out of here.
Speaker A:So as I always say at the end of every show, go out there, have some fun, play some golf.
Speaker A:But most of all, be kind.
Speaker A:Take care, everybody.
Speaker A:Grilling at the Green is produced by JTSD Productions, llc in association with Salem Media Group.
Speaker A:All rights reserved.
