George Kelley, Owner Greenway Golf at Stevenson Ranch, has been asked to be feature in a chapter in a new book written about people who own golf courses. Here's an excerpt from his chapter...
...at the Golf Industry Show in Atlanta, NGCOA brought in Mike Veeck as a speaker. His topic was “Fun is Good.” Mike Veeck blew me away! He talked about his dad’s life and influence and it reminded me about my dad. I was actually in tears listening to him. After the talk I went up to Ladd Brunner, my General Manager at Stevinson, who was seated somewhere else during the talk, and asked him what he thought about the talk. Ladd said he was in tears too. Ladd is one of the most passionate people you could ever meet. We have people who are just so passionate about our business. We love what we do. So, I got Veeck’s book. I read it twice. The second time I read it I took handwritten notes and read it like a textbook. I put my notes into my computer and sent them to Veeck. Mike got back to me right away. He said, “Wow, George, this is amazing Man! Thank you for sending me your notes. You’ve just written my next speech!” I reminded him that it was his work. I just compiled it.
As a result of those speeches and philosophies, I see myself at the forefront of how we deliver golf to our customers. I believe that we have to make the game more fun. We have to have alternative ways to how we go out and enjoy the game. We have actually hired a Director of Fun. You’ll see on our website we have a Constitution of Fun*. I keep our Constitution of Fun in my money clip at all times. All of our staff carries the constitution with them. It’s become embedded in our culture. We do things differently than most golf courses. We hide colored balls out on the course. If you find one of our colored balls you bring it in to the proshop and you can get a free lunch or a free golf hat or a lesson. We dispense fashion police violations where if we find players whose clothes don’t match we issue citations. The beverage cart girl might say, “Excuse me Tom. Are you aware that your stripped shirt doesn’t go with your plaid pants? Do you know that black socks don’t go with brown shoes? I’m afraid I will have to issue you a citation.” The citation looks official and scary, but if you get one you get a free shirt off the sale rack or you get 50% off any other garment in the shop. Things like that we love to do.
*Greenway Golf's Constitution of Fun:
