This is Part 3 of my series, How to Leave Something the Right Way.
Golf has a kind of etiquette that gets passed down from one generation of golfers to the next.
You replace your divots.
You rake the bunker after you hit out of it.
You repair your ball mark on the green.
And if you see another ball mark nearby, you fix that one too.
If your footprints cover a section of the bunker, you don’t rake only the exact spot where you stood. You rake a little more.
Nobody gives you credit for it.
Nobody puts it on the scorecard.
Most of the time, nobody even knows you did it.
You simply do it because you’re a golfer, and because somebody else is coming behind you.
I’ve come to realize that I try to approach my work the same way.
We Are Only Taking Our Turn
No matter how important our job feels while we’re doing it, eventually somebody else is going to have it.
Golf courses make that especially obvious.
General managers change.
Golf professionals change.
Superintendents change.
Owners change.
Employees come and go.
The golf course remains.
For a period of time, we are simply the people responsible for taking care of it.
I spent almost 15 years connected to Virtues Golf Club. I had several different roles there and eventually became the general manager.
When I look back at that time, I’m proud of many things we accomplished.
But what matters more to me is knowing the place kept moving forward after I left.
That’s how it should be.
Fix More Than Your Own Ball Mark
This became especially clear to me during my time managing a golf course in Michigan.
I wasn’t there very long.
But one thing I pushed hard for was tree removal.
Over the years, trees had changed how parts of the golf course played. Some had grown into places where they affected strategy, shot shape, sunlight, and the overall experience of playing the course.
Some of those trees needed to come down.
Tree removal is not glamorous.
It costs money.
It takes work.
And at a golf course, somebody will almost always disagree with you about cutting down a tree.
But we did it.
Now I’m gone.
I don’t get to stand there every day and enjoy what those changes did for the golf course.
The golfers who are there now do.
And I know they are enjoying it.
That makes me happy.
In a strange way, it’s exactly like repairing somebody else’s ball mark.
I don’t get anything from it.
The golfer coming behind me does.
That’s the point.
Better Does Not Mean Finished
There is another part of this idea that matters to me.
Leaving something better doesn’t mean leaving it finished.
Nothing is ever finished.
There were projects I wanted to complete at Virtues that I never completed.
There were things in Michigan I would have kept improving if I had stayed longer.
I’m sure there will be things at every golf course I work at that I won’t get to finish.
That’s okay.
Continuous improvement does not have a finish line.
Your responsibility is to move things forward while they are in your care.
Then somebody else gets their turn.
Hopefully, they improve what you left them.
Then somebody comes after them and does the same.
That’s how good places become better places.
Not because one person arrives and fixes everything.
Because generations of people care enough to keep improving what was handed to them.
Golf Etiquette Is Really About Stewardship
The older I get, the more I realize that golf etiquette teaches something bigger than how to take care of a golf course.
It teaches stewardship.
For a little while, something is in your care.
A green.
A bunker.
A golf course.
A team.
A business.
A relationship.
A community.
You take care of it while it’s yours.
You don’t have to make it perfect.
You just try to make it a little better.
I’ve told my kids versions of this for years.
Replace your divot.
Fix your ball mark.
Rake the bunker.
And while you’re there, do a little more than you’re required to do.
Maybe that’s not just good golf etiquette.
Maybe that’s a pretty good way to live.
When you leave a job, what did you improve?
When you leave a team, did you make the people around you better?
When you walk away from something you’ve been responsible for, is the next person starting from a slightly better position than you did?
You don’t need your name on it.
You don’t even need anybody to know you did it.
The golfer behind you doesn’t know who repaired that extra ball mark either.
They just get a better green.
That’s enough for me.
Fix your mark.
Fix another one while you’re there.
Then keep walking.
Someone else is coming behind you.
This is Part 3 of my series, How to Leave Something the Right Way.
What’s something you learned to leave a little better for the person coming behind you? I’d like to hear about it in the comments.