Welcome To The Tour!

 I wanted to start this blog off with a little bit about who we are and some of the basics of what we do here at Tour Golf Revolution. As you may have seen on our web page TGR is based on a league golf model that I and several friends have been playing in, working on, and fine-tuning since 2001. Its original goal was simple, encourage us all to play more golf, have more fun doing it, and provide a framework that would allow us to compete with each other on a weekly basis. We wanted to accomplish this in a way that was motivating enough for the really competitive folks in our group but not so crazy or complicated that the true hackers or more casual golfers were turned off by it. The results have been amazing and somewhat unexpected. Our members seem to be having more fun every year and our rounds played per player are also going up every year.

We recently completed a survey of our entire membership to see how we were doing with our members. While we gained some great insights into the impact our league and importantly our open schedule playing format have on our members the two most important findings from our survey to me were that:

1. 95% of our members told us they are having more fun playing golf than before they joined ( 56% tell us golf is significantly more fun now), and
2. 80% of our members are playing better golf now that they are members, and 33% say they have seen significant improvement (count me among them) in their game.

That is what it is all about isn't it? Play more golf, play it better, and have more fun doing it. It is what everyone who loves this game strives to do.

A golf league can be a great motivator for players to get out and play more. In our league we have had new members go from playing 2-4 times per season to playing over 40 times. Now not everyone does that, but when you get this bug, you can sometimes find yourself planning your week around when you are going to play in the next event. The last 3 golf seasons I have done just that.

Most people I talk to who play golf want to play more and would like to play in a golf league, but they don’t feel like they have the available time to do it. They can’t make a fixed game every week or they are worried that they can’t meet the minimum round commitments the members expect. The Tour Golf Revolution™ format was developed to address those very issues our own members had by pulling back on some of the formalities of traditional golf leagues to make it easier for a wide array of golfers with divergent schedules to still play together in a fairly cohesive format.

The format relies on one simple change to a golf event. What we do is we make an event last over an entire week. We pick a course a week and everyone has the entire week to get their round in. Just get another member of the tour to play with you so your score can count and you are in for the event that week. While this change seems simple, and to some traditionalists a bit counterintuitive, it does wonders for opening up the opportunity for everyone to play over the course of the week. For example, I’m a big fan of the pre-work 6:30AM 4-ball that I can go to work afterwards during the week. Others are pure weekend warriors, mid-afternoon knock off early types, or the retirees who will play whenever someone wants a game. As we have gone from 10 to 50 members we have all types and I can tell you every one of them loves the scheduling of our tour because they can ALWAYS find a game. When players can always find a game during that one 5-hour window they have to play in, their enjoyment level goes up dramatically. It’s one of the main reasons we started Tour Golf Revolution™. We want everyone to have this opportunity.

We’d love to hear your comments on this format. Please tell us what you think about it below.

In the weeks to come as we lead up to our launch, I’ll be back to tell you more about our personal experiences and the different aspects of the Tour Golf Revolution tools that we are building. These tools will make starting and running our golf leagues an absolute breeze. Until then keep working on your game. Spring is right around the corner.