A recent survey by GOLF WORLD magazine listed the PGA Tour players’ top ten courses … I was pleasently surprised.

They picked the older, shorter, classic courses – the courses where you have to hit shots – not just bomb it and make some putts. Number one was Augusta National – maybe obvious, but still a great pick. Number two was Harbour Town – very surprising to me – I love Harbour Town, it’s short for a Tour course and has little greens, and you have to work the ball – you can’t just slug it. From there it’s: Riviera, Pebble Beach, Colonial, Muirfield Village, Shaughnessy, Aronimink, Innisbrook, and Congressional.

That’s great sign for the future of golf. Very often Tour players design courses because course owners want to use their famous names – so if these guys value the good courses, hopefully we’ll see more quality courses in the future.

This could be the The Year. The year when golf courses open in March and cruise through a beautiful Spring, then meander through a delightful Summer, and conclude with a glorious Fall.

We all deserve it.

So, in anticipation of the perfect year, we are making improvements to the golf course, and developing new and better ways to operate and provide service. In other words, our mission is the spoil you – the Deer Run customer.

For example, we’re getting more into social media. Starting this week on www.facebook.com/DeerRunGolf, we’re having the first of weekly drawings for golf passes and other swell prizes – take a look.

Get ready – the fun has just begun.

Happy New Year,

Tom Abts

This is a topic that I’ve been wrestling with since I was in high school.

We did a role-playing exercise in English Class, and I couldn’t figure out how to role-play and not be phony. It’s really tough to be authentic when you’re young … you don’t know who you are and you don’t have enough power to take the chance of being rejected, and rejected because you are being yourself – you could starve to death. So, hopefully with maturity, you can become more secure and self-knowledgable … and thus trust being your self. Being your self means also loving your self – that’s not narcsissm … narcsissm is loving your reflection, not your self. That’s why narcsissists are so concerned with what everybody thinks of them – their self-worth is dependant on other’s perception of them … so they become obssessed with how things appear, not as they really are.

I think narcsississm is basically immaturity. And an immature society is obssessed with appearances … that’s why young and/or shallow people are obssessed with fashion, the latest look, tv, celebrities, etc … sounds like the city of Los Angeles … Also, for immature people, other people are nothing more than things – he’s a golfer, she’s a waitress, he’s an executive, etc … not that he’s who he is and plays golf – no, people are defined by surface roles in society … Ever watch terrible tv shows where the charecters are not developed into real people? but are just caricatures of people who are part of a sit-com format with formula jokes, etc … not watchable … Also, when people are young/shallow/immature/narcsisistic … they turn occasions into spectales instead of just what they were meant to be … for example, these mothers having over-the-top birthday parties for kids … it’s obviously not about the kid – it’s about how it all looks …

The surest way to bad vibes is phonyness … we can all smell it … To be authentic, trust your gut and don’t worry about how people perceive it … you’ll like yourself and the people who get you are the only ones worth caring about anyway …

Here’s the American Dictionary’s definition of the Law of Diminishing Returns: “.The tendency for a continuing application of effort or skill toward a particular project or goal to decline in effectiveness after a certain level of result has been achieved.”

Ok … in my words it means that “you can achieve a certain level with a certain amount of effort.” And that after a certain point, it’s almost wasted effort.
That’s difficult for people to swallow. And, for a lot of reasons. But, that is what real effiency is all about.

Let’s talk about this … it’s at the heart of taking control of your life. The basic reality of life is that we have limited time. We need to weigh how much time and effort is worth a goal. It’s like determing how much money something is worth. Obviously if you have limitless money you can buy anything you want. If you have limitless time you can try to achieve anything you want.
Did you ever see the movie GROUNDHOG DAY? Bill Murray keeps reliving the same day over and over. After a while, he realizes that he can learn a lot of skills because he has limitless time … so he learns piano, ice sculpting, languages, etc … because it’s like he has limitless money – he has limitless time.

Well, we don’t have that luxury of limitless time. Being a boss is tricky because employees need to maximize their time … you need to give them enough freedom to use their time wisely, and hope that they won’t take advantage of you and misuse their freedom.

I’ve learned that good employees respond well to freedom – that they flourish with the opportunity to manage their time. Lousy employees take advantage of freedom and misuse their time … I prefer to let bad employees hang themselves.

This philosphy of mine flies in the face of too many bosses, coaches, cultures, etc.
Micro-management loves to point out the little problems … they always miss the big picture and the main point. Their nit-picking leads to poor leadership – leaders who are afraid to loosen the reins for fear that any minor problem will be used against them … so it all becomes management by Cover Your Ass …

Years ago I had a young Asst. Pro who hit balls 40 hours a week at the range and gave very complicated lessons. I tried to explain to him my theory of the maintenance free golf swing … people don’t have 40 hours a week to work on their golf swing … he didn’t even sort of get what I was talking about … but … years later he sent me an email that he teaches the maintenance free golf swing … wow! stuff like that gives me hope …

I have to wrap this up … people need freedom to manage their time … sounds obvious, but when bosses, family, etc expect perfection … we don’t have enough time to live and to be well-rounded … the more we live in a specialized, perfectionist society … the more we’ll have serious human personality problems … business has to realize that those problems are not efficient, that they’re crazy insistence on control is actually not cost-effective … look at the problems that the military is having with suicide … all of this comes down to a lack of freedom and a lack of understanding the Law of Diminishing Returns …

2010 was an odd year. It felt like the country was on the verge of an economic depression … maybe that’s why the year seemed so unfocused, sort of like everyone was living in limbo waiting to see what was going to happen. It was definitely not a bold, clear year.

Speaking of limbo … how about those Vikings? How come no one is talking about since Childress has left, that the defense is playing with agression and finally blitzing. Obviously, the offense has been more agressive … but why no talk of the defense? And … why all of the hatred toward Favre? He was handcuffed by Chilly all year …or he was hurt … why does Chilly have a free pass? His ridiculous style of football is why the season was a disaster. The local media boys hate Favre and love to pound on him while he’s down … they were always on Chilly’s side … they love mediocrity … they should read a little Nietzsche and grow some stones.

Speaking of Nietzsche … he would have seen this year of limbo as a classic example of modern herd mentality. I just read a moronic review of TRUE GRIT … it’s a great movie, and this reveiwer only saw it from a Marxist point of view … he was disturbed that it wasn’t politically correct … well, the era that the movie takes place in wasn’t politically correct … what does he expect? This constant need to blame independent personalities (Favre) and love the weakness of mob mentality is shocking. I would have thought that the advent of industrialism and technology would have freed up people enough to break away from the herd … instead, the herd mentality seems even stronger than ever … you’ve got the commune weanies on one side and the Babbitt idiots on the other side … where are independent individuals?

Let’s start to loosen up the reigns and start living like real people … how’s that for a goal for 2011?

I just learned of another guy that I went to high school with who committed suicide. You’d be amazed at the number … and the huge number of really unhappy guys that I grew up with. So, obviously I’ve been trying to figure what’s going on. I think it’s a combination of things, but the main factors are Women’s Lib and a lack of spirituality. Slow down … I’m glad that women are freer and stronger – I think that’s vital for EVERYBODY … but, it’s come with a price. Men are now in competition with women for jobs, money, status and financial security … that makes a lot of men feel weak and emasculated. Then, throw in a loss of spirituality – the modern world of materialism (materialism here does not mean yearning for material objects, but rather the Marxist-based philosophical position that only matter exists; that there is no such thing as spirit), and all you’re left with is the shallowness and pettiness of the modern “rat race”.

If a man’s value is only his “success”, it can make him a pretty ruthless animal. Once upon a time, men found their value in honor. You know, being a stand up guy … someone who’s word was gold … and they defended it … in fact, they had duels over honor.
I read horrible things in the newspaper – men beating women, abusing little girls … theses are obviously not men of honor.

Now I’m not saying that men have to be saints … but they should try to be good guys. And there’s nothing wrong with being a guy … in fact, I think we need more of it. I don’t mean that that macho deal – that’s creepy and phony … I mean just being a guy. I thought that Mr. Rogers was a creep and a bad role model … women don’t really want their sons to be like Mr. Rogers … only if they secretly hate men.

The reason that this ridiculous “thug” culture has power is that it has has masculinity … but, it doesn’t have honor … men need masculinity with honor.

That title probably grabbed your attention. Obviously, it’s pretty risky talking about sub-humans … but, I think you won’t be offended and will agree with me … so read on.

What I mean by sub-humans are people who are more like an animal. Here’s what I’m saying: for example, my dog Harvey, doesn’t have moral dilemmas – he doesn’t worry about right or wrong … he does what he can get away with. If I left my steak on a low table and left the room … he’d eat it … or if not, it’d be because he didn’t think he could get away with it … not that he has respect for private property and that it would violate his moral code. Humans do what is right because they know it is right – sub-humans do what they can get away with.

Now, animals function in packs. Dog’s are looking for the pack leader and then obey. Dogs respect power and attack weakness.

Humans want to live in civilization. Civilization is not the law of the jungle … might does not make right. Civilization is based on respect and decency.

Want to spot a sub-human? They take niceness as weakness.

One thing nice about running a golf course is that I don’t have to work with sub-humans. Usually I can spot them during the interview, but if not … I give them enough rope to hand themselves. I don’t manage using fear. If they are only motivated out of fear – if I have to be running around here with a pipe in my hand to keep them in line … I’ve hired the wrong people.

What’s difficult about a society is that we can’t just throw out the sub-humans. But, manners are a useful tool to determine basic civility and respect. But, what if a society devolves? I don’t mean evolves, but actually gets worse. What if sub-humans start outnumbering humans? That makes living in a democracy pretty scary. But remember, the USA is NOT a democracy … it’s a republic. Representatives are supposed to do what’s right for the health of the republic … not for the individual whims of their constituents … people don’t seem to understand that … that’s why it’s creepy when leaders are obsessed with polls … they just want to get reelected … not do what is right.

Remember … humans do what is right … sub-humans do what they can get away with.