The countdown continues to the Black Enterprise Golf and Tennis Challenge which goes down the weekend of August 28-31 in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
It’s a weekend full of networking events, sporting competitions, lots of partying, and lots of golf.
Understanding that not all power plays occur in the boardroom, the Golf and Tennis Challenge provides a venue and platform for networking and deal-making in a relaxed atmosphere.
So, as we countdown the days, it may be a good idea to polish up on your golfing skills and etiquette— they just might be the tools that land you that mammoth contract or deal that could change your life.
We asked Rodney Green, director of golf at the Innisbrook Resort and Tiffany Fitzgerald who founded Atlanta-based Black Girls Golf to give tips on teeing up and the right ways to grow the game for those seriously thinking about cashing in on the business opportunities playing golf could open up for potential entrepreneurs.
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But when it comes to playing golf, there are too few women of color involved in the sport and they too are missing out on the enormous opportunities for deal clinching on the course.
Fitzgerald is
well aware of the challenges for women. “Men have a tendency when they see women on the golf course to assume that they don’t play very well or don’t know the game very well,” she says. “It’s really important for women to be assertive in a way that doesn’t demean or come off as being aggressive. You’ve got to be assertive in a way that makes it known that you know your way around the course and you know what you’re doing. But do it in a way where you’re still personable and still able to create a connection.”You also have to have specialized equipment. The rules of golf are very specific, and the etiquette very unique. There is so much to learn and so much to know that it can be intimidating to anyone who wants to play.
So what are the things people heading out to the Black Enterprise Golf and Tennis Challenge need to pay special attention to?
“The quiet rule. Golf is a very quiet sport,” Fitzgerald says.”It’s one of the few sports where the top athletes can perform in total silence. Where they are able to focus and get their mental game
together. It’s a gentleman’s game. People are expected to be courteous, respectful, polite, and not that it’s not that way in other sports but in golf because the time that you spend with the other person is so close and intimate that you have to be especially mindful of the etiquette because you don’t want someone to make a judgment about you based on you knowing or not knowing the simple rules and etiquette of the game.”She also says you’ll need to understand it also comes down to the little things such as shaking hands at the beginning and end of a round, being quiet, especially when someone else is hitting, or knowing where to stand, when someone else is hitting. “You’ve got to learn the rules because of how easy it is to misstep if you don’t know them,” she adds.
Check out Golf 101: Rules Of Engagement For Making Money On The Green.