Source: Vietnam News

On average, I play nine-holes once per week (if lucky) and try to participate in the usual Wednesday game. That’s about it. If you polled most of the other pros in Vietnam, you’d find roughly the same story…we work so YOU can play.

The truth of the matter is that there is frequently equally as much aggravation as pleasure, especially when working overseas, but we hide it well. Professionals nowadays have to be a master of their craft to begin with, but they also have to become experts in cross-cultural people relations due to the wide variations of nationalities in the make-up of the membership.

People go to the golf course to have a good time and forget about the problems which they encounter in their own office during the week, so we have to do our best to ensure that they can relax, have a good time and return to work on Monday refreshed.

Unfortunately, that is not always the case as Murphy’s Law seems to abound at golf courses and the stress of the players is magnified by the outdoor temperature, the nationalities of the players involved, the seriousness of the incident and the amount of putts taken on the hole before the incident.

Tour professionals are believed to have the best of all worlds, because they get to play golf everyday, but most people forget that if the pro doesn’t win, they don’t eat – especially on the smaller tours. Secondly, less than 1% of all the golfers in the world make it onto the various tours so the mental pressure to perform is a killer.

Club professionals are usually completely misunderstood by the public and inspire comments such as the one cited in the opening paragraph. In a nutshell, our job is to keep everybody happy and that includes: overworked members looking to relax; visitors on a tight tourist schedule arriving usually with little, if any, advance notice; member’s guests; and, of course, the various Boards of Directors who always want more revenue with less expenditure.

This juggling act include soothing ruffled multicultural feathers, finding tee times where they don’t exist, ensuring that the caddies can walk and chew gum without falling into a bunker, and, of course, convincing the Boards of Directors why it’s a good idea to provide higher levels of service – even if it costs a little more.

Teaching professionals have the enjoyment of seeing their students improve over time, but at the same time are in danger of destroying their own golf swings by osmosis. There’s truth to the saying that pros shouldn’t teach for two months before a big tournament as they will pick up every bad habit from their students. I’ve seen it happen to others and have been a victim of it myself. Teaching professionals focus intensely on the flaws in other peoples swings and, thus, can accidentally absorb it themselves.

However, if you were to poll the professionals, 99 per cent would tell you that the job is worth the aggravation and wouldn’t change professions.

To really excel in this business, a good golf swing or proficient management skills is not enough. You have to genuinely care about other people and be willing to make the extra effort to ensure that people have a great time.

Sure, there are times when things get too much and we’re ready to commit a homicide with a wedge, but we’re also smart enough to know how blow off steam in a positive way and keep our sanity.

Some head off to the tavern, some go and hit a crate golf balls as hard as possible, some play with the dog and, of course, some of us write columns in newspapers…

Despite it all, it is very satisfying when everything works right and we get through the weekend or a major tournament event without a hitch.

The world celebrates Woman’s Day, Secretaries Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, etc, and while there’s no Club Pro day... an occasional "thank you" from the members and guests can really make a difference.