Page 46 - GBC Eng.summer2020

The Parting Shot
We are in this together
As I write this article, it is early April 2020 and the world is in great turmoil. COVID-19 has taken over our lives. Everyone is burdened by the weight of uncertainty. When will this end, what will the world look like when we get to the end of this and what state will my business be in?
As I wrote in my previous article, I was really looking forward to 2020. It was to be a year of new vision, a reset and a new approach to my business and some redesign. All those plans are currently on hold as I, like most of you, muddle through the daily media onslaught of graphs, numbers, and new restrictions. I contact vendors to adjust plans made in October and scour government websites to try to understand the programs that will apply to my business. Fielding calls from customers and keeping the skeleton crew of employees informed is a challenge when you really don’t have answers.
I have a teenage daughter completing her grade 12 from home now, and my eldest daughter arrives home tomorrow from the
US where she was studying. I can’t hug her at the airport. She will be in 14 days of self-isolation. I am sad about all this and feeling caged up but my family is one of the lucky ones. No one close to me is sick and I pray it stays that way. So many other families are not so lucky.
I am also very lucky to have my NGCOA Canada family. This will sound corny to some, but I have gained so many wonderful friends in the golf industry through my involvement with the NGCOA Canada. Our industry is very unique in its trials and tribulations, and we all share that common bond when we discuss our “lifestyles.”
I had the opportunity in the past couple of weeks to speak to many golf course operator friends and check in. Simply speaking to someone in the same situation as you, making the same difficult decisions and bouncing ideas off of each other is not only good business but therapeutic. Even if you disagree with the decisions that they are making, you share a common understanding of the weight of those decisions.
I don’t know what the next few days, weeks, or months will bring. I don’t know what the right decisions will be, but I know that I am doing the best with the information that I have and we will all come through this knowing that we faced it with courage. I wish I was the president of this wonderful association in better times, but with the amazing staff, board of directors, and members of the NGCOA Canada, we will get through this.
Sincerely,
Lesley McMahon
Owner, Balmoral Golf Course, AB President, NGCOA Canada lesley@balmoralgolf.ca
46 Golf Business Canada
Message From The NGCOA Canada President – Lesley McMahon