Golf courses should be more like "big parks."

There is one thing that surprised me when I first moved here.

The days are overwhelmingly long. In the summer, it stays bright outside until nearly 8:00 PM. It is a strange feeling to finish work and step outside, only to find that the lingering atmosphere of the day still remains. When I first moved here, every time I looked up at the sky, I would think to myself, "I could easily play a full round right now."

However, golf course operating hours are pretty much the same everywhere in the country. You start at 7:00 or 8:00 in the morning, and the final group comes in around 5:00 PM.

Of course, there are some minor variations in operating hours, but this schedule has become an "unspoken rule" in the industry.

But I sometimes wonder: when and who decided on this time frame?

What lies beyond "because it has always been this way"

When trying to propose new initiatives, there are words I always encounter within the organization.

"Because this is how we have always done it." "Because all other golf courses do it that way."

I am by no means trying to deny those words. There are reasonable justifications for systems that have continued for many years, and I understand all too well the circumstances that make it difficult to easily change operating hours when considering staff allocation and safety.

However, I feel it is a bit of a waste to just stop thinking and accept that "that is just how things are."

The protagonist of business is always the customer. If I put myself back in the position of a user, endless things I would want to do come to mind.

I want to play a quick 9 holes after work on a weekday. I want to avoid the intense direct sunlight of summer and play from the evening when it starts to cool down. I want to go surfing first thing in the morning and then play a through-round in the afternoon.

These kinds of raw needs surely aren't just mine.

Forgetting the premise of a "golf course" for a moment

That is why I decided to try and completely forget the fixed idea that "a golf course is this kind of place."

Operating hours, front desk service, reservation systems, and the way restaurants function. To put it extremely, I even think it might be okay to rethink a golf course as something like "a big park with vast lawns."

When you reset the framework like that and look at the site from the customer's perspective, you realize that there are actually many points where we have just arbitrarily made rules for our own convenience.

The height of the wall and not stopping one's progress

Of course, implementing ideas conceived in one's head into the field is not as easy as it sounds.

"If we extend operating hours, what about the burden on the staff on-site?" "Will there really be any profit left after costs?" "How will safety management be guaranteed after dark?"

A business cannot run on ideals alone. To make it work as a management entity and as an organization, there are many gritty obstacles that must be overcome. That is precisely why I understand why 'following precedent' is chosen in so many places.

But 'being difficult' and 'not doing it' are two different things.

The place called a golf course still holds possibilities that we have yet to notice. Loosening the invisible constraints of 'how things should be' just a little bit. I feel that only from there can the form of the golf course for the next era be seen.

In fact, over the past four years, I have faced such invisible internal walls many times, and while involving the staff on-site, I have brought several new initiatives to fruition.

I intend to reveal the specific processes and the behind-the-scenes stories of that gritty persuasion little by little here.