Many business professionals will tell you they use golf to build and sustain relationships with business associates. Like them, I used golf early to build my business. This is how I did it.
When I graduated from high school, my parents gave me a set of golf clubs from Sears. I was working in a cotton mill that summer, saving for college. Mill workers could play golf at the Gastonia municipal golf course for 10 cents per day. With my new golf clubs and a dime, I drove to the course to play my first round of golf. It was about three o’clock in the afternoon and so hot I may have been the only person there.
I had never played golf or even held a golf club, but I was an athlete and grew up playing baseball. How hard could it be?
The first thing I learned is that a golf ball is small, very small, light, and dimpled, not at all like a baseball. Of course, it isn’t hurtling through space when you try to hit it with a slim wooden bat. You are supposed to balance the golf ball on top of a small stick called a golf tee. This was easy. I knelt, pushed the tee into the hard red clay that covers much of North Carolina and carefully balanced a ball on top of it. This gave me a great sense of accomplishment.
Now, the easy part, just hit the ball through an opening in the woods which is called a fairway. I lifted my Sears golf bag off the ground and pulled out the driver. A golfer does not hit the ball off the golf tee, they drive it, which means they hit it. It’s complicated. I stood the way I had seen the golfers stand and took a whack at the tiny, immobile ball balanced on its tee. I missed. This surprised me, the accomplished athlete I was.
I adjusted my standing position, concentrated on keeping my eyes on the ball and took another swing. Nothing. The little ball just sat there, undisturbed, smiling up at me with all those cute little dimples.
A grounds keeper walked over. Chuckling, he said, “Your first time?”
“Yes, sir,” I said. “What gave it away?”
“Well, you’re wearing a white tee-shirt and blue jeans, white socks, and sneakers,” he laughed. “And you’re holding the golf club like a baseball bat.”
I nodded. He showed me how to grip the club, stand properly, approach and address the ball. I did that and took another swing. Missed. He laughed again.
“You’re swinging way too hard,” he said. “Slow down and keep your eye on the ball. Shift your weight naturally as you swing through the ball.”
He demonstrated. I tried again, connected, and sent the ball sailing into the woods right of the fairway.
“Sliced it,” he said. “But you’re getting the hang of it. I have grass to cut. Keep at it. You will get better.”
I pulled my golf bag over my shoulder and marched into the woods to find that cute little, dimpled, ball. Within 10 minutes I found nine golf balls. I was excited. I took my clubs back to my car, returned to the second hole with my empty golf bag and searched for balls on the right side of that fairway. I found six balls. Then there was a creek. I walked downstream and found four balls. An hour later I had 70 golf balls in my golf bag. I took them home and washed them in our kitchen sink. Eight were damaged and scarred. About a third of those remaining looked old. But the rest were pristine. I placed them in small paper bags of six and wrote, “Used golf balls, nearly new, $1 per bag.” I had nine bags. I took them to the golf course the next day and asked the man in the clubhouse if I could sell them outside the shop. He said, “Let me look at them.” He did. “I’ll give you $5 for the bunch and going forward, $1 for every 10 nearly news you bring me.” We shook hands.
I kept my day job in the mill, but on weekends or when I wasn’t babysitting my little brother and sister, I went to the golf course to find golf balls.
I was never good at golf, but I am glad I tried it because it taught me that a little initiative can lead to success in any business, even golf. My customers thought they were buying golf balls at the pro shop, but I knew they were just renting them and offering me the gold standard in business success: recurring revenue. This is how I used golf to jumpstart my business career.
Michael McMahan is a resident of Gaston County.
This article originally appeared on The Gaston Gazette: YOUR TURN: How I used golf to jumpstart my business career
