Royal St. Patrick's Golf Links
in Wrightstown, Wisconsin
920-532-4300
Below are the "Links" to our most recent Newsletters that are emailed to our loyal listeners. If you think you may have missed one of our emails, or you remember it being so good you want to read it again...this is where you will find it. Enjoy!
Stumbled upon a great little article by Andrew Wood who runs a golf marketing business that chronicled the reasons why it’s important to get kids into the game of golf. Personally, with two daughters age 7 and 10, who are just dabbling in sports, I’m beginning to see the downside of other sports / activities and I can see so much upside in his golf suggestions. 1) Anyone Can Play. Shape & size has no boundary, and as your shape and size changes, there still is no boundary. 2) Minimal Risk. I’ve seen a few twisted ankles, couple bloody noses and a lot of hurt feelings. Golf is basically free of that. 3) Safe & Positive Environment. Golf courses are safe havens and relationships are based in mentoring. 4) Lifelong Friendships. You never know who you will meet, but you are going to meet to meet someone. Relationships lead to opportunities. 5) Prepares You For Business. Being around adults can teach you how to develop relationships and teach you how to behave in social situations. Lots of business is done on the course, without golf, maybe I wouldn’t be the business man I am. 6) Time Spent Outdoors. We don’t see kids playing outside like we used to. Enjoying nature and learning life long healthy exercise habits is a good thing. 7) Important Life Lessons. Respect, integrity, discipline for life can all be found in the highs and lows of the game. 8) College Scholarships. While many kids are fighting for major sport scholarships, no one is fighting for golf scholarships. The odds are simply in your favor. Especially if you are a female player. 9) Spending Time With Family. Maybe you don’t eat dinner together, but you can make golf a family affair. Many adults still play golf with their parents because that was family time. Hopefully that will be passed to their children as well. 10) It’s FUN. Fun seems to be the new mantra. If it’s not fun, people don’t want to do it. Now fun is certainly in the eye of the beholder, but with so many facets to golf, so many courses, so much equipment, so many playing partners, competitions, outings, so much room for improvement, how could you not find something about it that you like. I love architecture, others love shaft physics. We all find golf FUN. Can you name another sport or activity that accomplishes all these goals? Start your kids today.
This past weekend I was watching the Golf Channel. The talking heads had set up their studio at the actual tournament site. That’s how you know it’s a big tournament! Anytime, there is a big tournament, they love to watch the players hit on the range, and the panel of Insiders offers insight into practice habits, but more often than not they speculate on a defect that might be causing that player to have lost his or her form. Big tournaments are famous for something else, they seem to bring out all the coaches / instructors who stand on the range, arms folded presumably making wise cracks that only the nearby caddies seems to soak up. Then they stop joking around, and approach the player. The player intently listens and tries to execute. Now that I set that up, let me switch gears. I have personally watched a lot of these famous instructors videos, read their books, heard them interviewed, even saw some of them in person, or was lucky enough to hear them speak or give a lesson. To be honest, and you know that I am, I was expecting so much more. These guys are teaching the best in the world, somehow DJ, Rory, Jason, Phil are listening to these people, and listening closely. When you hear them talk, see a YouTube video, it all seems so boring, so generic. Let’s face it, you can hear that stuff from me and save like $700 and hour. Are you telling me Hank Haney was telling Tiger the same things he had just put in his most recent Haney Project episode, I doubt it. I think those teachers know something we don’t. I think the players know that those teachers know something that others don’t. I think those teachers have some kind of secret society where they have been privy to certain swing information, and they protect that information from getting on the cheesy DVD’s, lame podcasts and dull Golf Channel features. Some gain entry to the society, but I don’t know how to get in. In the meantime, they feed us dull fundamentals, but somehow they can say like 2 sentences to the greatest player in the world and that player will stop, and then make an adjustment right there on the spot. While some of you might think I know a lot about golf, I’m not part of the secret society. Writing articles like this is not helping me get an invitation either. Pay attention to what you see and hear, and ask yourself, is there chance that somehow the secret to golf exists with a lucky few, or has Nick completely lost his mind?
June Edition
Golf's Free Masons...
May 16, 2017
May 2, 2017
Tales From The Tall Grass
Articles From The
Wandering Mind of
Nick Stephens, PGA
Now It All Makes Sense...
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Our tag line is a line you see throughout our website, emails, facebook, letterhead, etc. Years ago we had a tag line that a fancy marketing agency developed which was “Great Golf is Just The Beginning”. At the time, it seemed serviceable, but it was never something that resonated. Yes it was great golf, and we wanted people to think there was more to this place than golf, but it just seemed too much like a cliché. After all, doesn’t everyone describe their business at great? A cold winter day, maybe 6 or 7 years ago, I got the department managers together and said, “we need a new identity”. Something that is simple, something that encompasses golf, and creates an emotion. Something that defines where this golf course stands in the marketplace, maybe even where we want it to stand in the future marketplace. We went to work. We came up with our four words, “you deserve this golf”. “You” because it’s always about you. You play, you support, you decide if this place makes it. Sure, I want it to be great, but you decide if it is great. That’s why some courses struggle, you decided that they should struggle. No owner on earth can overcome what the marketplace has already decided. “Deserve”, it’s the essence of what we are. We are a nicer place than some. We are more expensive than some. If you “want” to go to the cheapest place; you will. If you deserve something nice… something better…if you want to treat yourself…if you can’t play as much as you used to, but you want to make this round special, then you deserve to come here. “This” is about our establishment. There are many golf choices, probably too many. I promote the general golf and restaurant business every day, but it is my desire to promote “this” place first. It is the place we love, the place where over 60 people work hard to give you a great experience. Finally “golf”. Golf is who we are. It is our core. When you think about RSPGL, the first thing you think is golf. Passionate golf loving owner, impeccable conditions, constant improvements, beauty, toughness, outing fun, league bonds, instruction…golf is always at the core. It’s funny the phrase is not grammatically correct, I have heard people say it many different ways. They seem to insert a comma wherever it makes sense to them. Every way you say it, the context or emphasis changes slightly, the emotion stays the same. In all my years, I never heard any business explain how their tag line came to be. Maybe you can say the same, until today. When you see those words going forward, you will know exactly why they matter to us. And let’s face it, you deserve this golf
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