Business Strategy from the Golf Course
Professional golfer applies golf strategy principles to business success.
07/06/2025
Professional golfer applies golf strategy principles to business success.
Focus Strategy:
Play your own game regardless of competition.
Play better golf and run a better business regardless of the competition
One of the most difficult situations in professional golf is missing the cut. Most professional tournaments start with a large field of golfers and then reduce the field (the cut) after two days of play. Golfers know when they’re not playing well enough and are likely to miss the cut. It’s aggravating to work hard and not get the result you want.
Winning in professional golf isn’t about being perfect; it’s about having a plan that allows you to play your best under any circumstance. Business is the same way.
The influence of competitors
Naturally, competitors have an influence. When they are thriving, that momentum can throw you off your routine, prompting you to do something reactionary. You spend your time and money trying to impact a competitor’s performance, instead of improving your own.
That’s akin to a golfer thinking that hitting further than their competitor will intimidate them and make their competitors play worse. The real influence is being a player who is consistent, and the results will follow.
So, how do you become a player like that? A player who feels the influence of their competition and still plays their own game.
How do you run a business like that? Where outside factors—competitors, suppliers, economic conditions, employees—are consistently influencing you but not impacting your outcomes.
It starts with a strategy.
How to make your own game plan
When you know the results you want, it’s easier to make decisions to get there. Deciding what you want, onboarding what you need to get those results, and making a plan to do it is the strategy. It trains you to prioritize your goals over the influence of someone or something else. Your outcomes are determined by where you choose to put your focus.
Here's an overview of key elements for an efficient strategy:
Focus on you
Choose a result that doesn’t depend on the competition. Instead of wanting to beat Bob at golf, choose to focus on breaking 90. That way, your success doesn’t rely on anyone but yourself, and you might end up beating Bob anyway.
Instead of working to win a competitor’s client, choose to onboard 10 new clients. This puts the focus on growing your company by 10 clients, not reducing your competitor by one.
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Set up for success
Do what you need to do, regardless of who else is doing it. That might mean getting to the golf course earlier to warm up, even if your friends arrive two minutes before the tee time.
It might also mean attending conferences and networking, even if your business colleagues are not. The more visible you are, the more exposure you have to information and tactics that can help you improve your business.
Keep pursuing opportunities
When you know the results you want, hold on long enough to achieve them. A professional golf tournament isn’t won on the first hole, or even the first 18 holes. In many cases, the winner comes from the back nine on Sunday afternoon (holes 63–72).
In golf and business, you win some and you lose some. However, you can never win if you’re not in the competition. Always show up for an opportunity because there could be unexpected benefits.
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"Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat."
- Sun Tzu
Focus Strategy:
Play your own game regardless of competition.
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Handling outside factors
Your competition is going to get some wins. They might achieve the results you also want to achieve, and they may beat you to it. This doesn’t mean you have lost; you’re still working towards your results. Those results can show up in different ways.
One of the greatest things about golf is that, of the millions who play the game, there are no two people who play the same way.
Even at the professional level, if two players have the same coach, they compete differently. The only criterion for winning is to be playing.
Businesses enter the competition every day. Every day, you have a chance to move toward the results you want. Every day is an opportunity.
Strategy always produces results
In working with hundreds of organizations over nearly two decades, the clients who built a strategy and followed through on it grew revenue, gained awareness, and achieved results.
Those who decided against the strategy, if they were lucky, were in the same place a year or two later. If they weren’t lucky, they were in further decline. It doesn’t have to be that way.
For more information on working with Jennifer as a strategy consultant or a speaker and author, visit her website at www.fwdthink.ca.
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Yes, you can provide text passages or key points from the book so that I can use them in the analysis. If this is not possible, then you can simply provide a
Yes, you can provide text passages
Yes, you can provide text passages
Yes, you can provide text passages
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