Golf and Corporate and Employee Wellness Programs

Article by Herb Rubenstein, PGA

Introduction

Golf is not new to corporate or employee wellness programs, but it is rare, too rare. Through the pioneering work of Russ Gorman, golf has been offered as part of corporate wellness programs at numerous companies for several decades. This White Paper explores how and why “Introduction to Golf” programs and “Golf Instruction Programs” maybe the next wave in corporate and employee wellness programs.

The Current Benefits and Barriers To Golf

First, the benefits and the barriers to learning and appreciating golf as a physical and mental fitness activity are both well known. The barriers are:

• The high cost

• The maltreatment of women, minorities, low income, and immigrant populations

• The enormous time it takes using traditional golf instruction approaches to become a “good” golfer

• The huge amount of time it takes to play a “round” of golf

• The inaccessible nature and location of golf courses

The benefits of golf are:

• The mental and physical enjoyment of hitting a golf ball into the air and watching it “fly”

• The appreciation and enjoyment of the physical beauty of a golf course

• The joy of hitting a putt into the hole

• The variations and complexity of golf

• The comradery created between people playing golf together

• For some, the competitive nature of golf and the golf scoring system balancing risk and reward on every shot

• For some, the spiritual nature of the game of golf, best exemplified by Michael Murphy’s classic, Golf In The Kingdom

• For some, how knowledge of and some skill in the game of golf promotes the creation of business and social relationships by people, as described brilliantly in the book by Connie Charles and Dave Bisbee, Back On Course: Drive Business Performance Through Golf

The Changes To Golf and How Golf Is Now More Appropriate to Corporate and Employee Benefit Programs Than Ever

There have been three fundamental changes in golf in the past several decades, all of which are accelerating today, that make golf more appropriate than ever as a component of wellness programs.

• Greater inclusion and creation of a much more inviting environment of women, minorities, low income persons and immigrants to the game of golf

• Improvement of golf equipment technology and golf instruction to quicken the ability of a person to become “good” at golf

• Improvement in and cost reduction of golf simulators, including portable golf simulators patented by Golf Pro Delivered, www.golfgpd.com, thus making it feasible to bring excellent golf and excellent golf instruction to office buildings, plants and factories, employee and corporate retreats and training sessions, and charitable events

Each of these changes in golf over the past several decades, all accelerating today, are essential in making golf today a better component of “wellness programs” than ever before. First, there are more women who are great golf instructors, and it is essential for wellness programs to have readily available women and men to provide “introduction to golf” and “golf instruction programs. Second, good new and used golf clubs and balls can be purchased more cheaply than in the past and systems are being developed to help people pick the right clubs and balls for how they play the game. Third, golf simulators not only help golfers indoors (or in an outdoor simulator) see what the golf ball does when it is hit, (carry ad roll distance, height and curve of shot, golf ball spin characteristics, location on the clubhead where the golf club strikes the ball, and also shows the golfer very important information about their golf swing in a way that promotes better instruction and self-instruction even for beginner golfers.

Modern cell phone technology can even record by video a golf swing sharing very useful information and providing a new element of enjoyment for golfers that was not available just two decades ago. Finally, golf simulators have actual golf courses simulated on them so there can now be fairly realistic golf, even competitive golf based on score using various formats, long drive contests, closest to the pin, hole-in-one contests, and many other game formats based on hitting a golf ball. In addition to the highly sophisticated golf simulators, we now can set up golf putting areas and chipping areas in a golf ecosystem environment surrounding the golf simulator.

Golf and Wellness

Wellness programs have two types of activities associated with them. The first category is the “cost reduction/risk reduction” approach where elements of the wellness program are designed to help employers reduce the cost of health care and, at the same time, promote a healthy work force. Such elements as regular checkups, flu shots, early diagnosis and treatment protocols, better patient – doctor/health facility communication, and alternative medical approaches including chiropractic, acupuncture, meditation, stress reduction programs, breathing programs, mindfulness, Feldenkreis, Alexander, and Egoscue movement techniques, Yoga, Zumba, fitness classes, all fit squarely into the category of helping employees become healthier, stay healthier, and reduce their insured and out of pocket health care costs.

Golf fits into this category since it is a sport that improves mobility of the participant. In addition, it is a sport that requires and promotes visual acuity, and for those who walk when they play golf is a body and cardio strengthening sport. It is reported that the great golf course architect, Alistair Mackenzie, was originally trained as a surgeon, but saw that his patients who played golf recovered from surgeries and illnesses faster and more thoroughly than those who did not. It was this insight that contributed to his changing professions and designing many of the best golf courses in the world including Augusta National, Pasatiempo, and may others. Teaching the golf swing and teaching the body mechanics aspects of how a person’s body performs a golf swing safely and in concert with the law of body mechanics, is a great addition to a person’s physical ability and awareness of how their body works.

A second category of wellness programs are designed less with direct health care/insurance cost reduction in mind, but rather focus more on to promote employee happiness, morale and stress reduction. There is certainly overlap with the first category in the sense that yoga, breathing exercises, mindfulness, meditation, and other similar programs fit in this category as well as helping keep employees happy. Golf also fits into this second category as well. category. John Reh recently published an article regarding how effective golf is as a team building exercise, even for non-golfers. See: https://www.thebalancecareers.com/golf-as-a-team-building-exercise-2275296. TopGolf has been promoting team building and better employee relations through golf since 2012. See: https://topgolf.com/blog/post/2012/07/i-need-to-organise-some-sort-of-team-building-activity/

Cost and Implementation Issues Regarding Golf and Wellness Programs

The costs of a golf wellness program depend on several factors:

• The quantity of golf related services (introduction to golf classes and golf instruction) provided

• The quality of the golf ecosystem built at the employee’s location

• Whether employees will be allowed 24x7 access to the golf facility vs. only when golf instructors are present

• The extent and quality of the data collected, analyzed, and shared related to the golf program and the employees who participate

• The take up rate by employees

The key implementation issues that need to be addressed to make a golf wellness program component be successful include:

• Setting up in a cost effective and robust manner (limited maintenance) the right golf simulator and golf ecosystem (on a temporary, movable basis so it can be moved from location to location or more stationary), in the right physical setting for proper golf instruction, including some on golf course activities, all configured consistent with the number of employees to be involved over time, the budget and the stated goals of golf wellness program.

• Providing skilled golf instructors who are as diverse as the employee population being served by the golf wellness program.

• Identifying what data to collect pre-program, during the wellness program, and post wellness program period to assess the efficacy of the program based on all factors considered relevant to the wellness program administrators, plus creating feedback systems to insure that information, suggestions, and data from employees regarding improvements they would like to see are incorporated as early and thoroughly as possible to insure the best experience for the people involved in the golf oriented wellness activity.

• Promotion of employee-to-employee golf-oriented communication via company private chatrooms, Facebook or LinkedIn platform offerings, or other types of peer support where people learning about golf can have their questions answered.

• Continuous improvement in the programming, curricula, instructor quality, course quality, follow up by golf instructors, quality of on-course experiences, and overall golf experience by the employee as part of the wellness program.

Conclusion

The time for golf to emerge as a viable contributor to wellness programs has arrived. Selection of the vendor to provide both the golf clubs, simulator, technology, data evaluation services, and introduction to golf classes must be done with great care to ensure quality, proper recording and analysis of empirical data, and the constant focus by the vendor on the employee’s well-being.

This vendor must be sensitive to the demographics of the employees in the wellness program and provide instruction by appropriate golf instructors for the populations being served by the program. To be successful, any golf element of an employee wellness program must be valuable both to the employee and the company or employer, and it must spend the employer’s resources in a cost-effective manner.

Important changes in golf technology, golf culture, golf popularity, and golf awareness all are finally aligned to help make golf a very viable component of a wellness program.