Hitting the green can have multiple meanings when it comes to the game of golf.
“A golf course is often considered a great place to do business because it provides a relaxed, informal setting that allows for extended, one-on-one conversations and relationship building with potential clients or partners,” according to Leo Simonetta, director of golf operations at Arizona Biltmore Golf Club. “This arena can be more conducive to establishing trust and rapport than a traditional business meeting. Essentially, it’s a prime networking environment where you can get to know someone beyond just their professional persona while engaging in a shared activity.”
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According to experts, a golf course provides a relaxed and scenic setting that is ideal for building relationships and discussing business deals. The game’s pace allows for meaningful conversations, while the collaborative environment fosters camaraderie and builds trust, making it a unique venue to connect professionally and finalize agreements in an informal, stress-free atmosphere.
“You can learn a lot about someone’s character while playing the world’s most humbling game,” says Brian Kirk, general manager at McCormick Ranch Golf Club. “Now that executives can get work done from just about anywhere, why be constrained to an office when you live in one of the golf capitals of the world?”
As winter ravages most of the country and golf courses become snowcapped, golf enthusiasts and casual players from around the world travel to the Valley to take advantage of the region’s iconic golf courses. With Arizona’s clear skies and higher temperatures, golf has become a major industry in the Grand Canyon State.
Big business
Arizona is home to more than 370 golf courses, where players completed more than 16 million rounds and generated in excess $6 billion in 2021, according to a Rounds Consulting Group report on the golf industry. Rounds’ data comprises not only golf courses but repair shops, brand stores and other golf-related businesses.
“If you were a business leaders, where would you rather close a big deal — in a conference room in a Midwest city where it’s snowing outside or on a golf course in Phoenix where it’s 78 degrees and sunny?” says Peter Madrid, the owner of MadridMedia. As a sports editor and reporter for 45 years, Madrid has covered a fair share of golf tournaments throughout his career. Now, as the owner of a commercial real estate-focused public relations company, MadridMedia, Madrid sees many of his clients sponsor golf tournaments to build their brands and enhance their businesses. Madrid says the golf course is a great place to network and build relationships.
“You’re not in the office,” Madrid says. “You’re on the golf course. What better environment is that? Most of the tournaments feature companies that sponsor a certain hole on the golf course. Most of these companies have raffles, giveaways, etc. Their business development or marketing departments generally staff these holes. They also provide marketing material. You get to meet prospective clients in a more relaxed environment.”
A golf course fosters effective business networking by providing a relaxed, extended time frame for meaningful interactions. Shared experiences on the course — like celebrating good shots or solving challenges — build camaraderie and trust, which are essential for effective networking. The informal setting breaks down hierarchical barriers, making it easier to connect on a personal and professional level, ultimately laying the foundation for strong business relationships.
“It’s all about networking,” Madrid adds. “There are more than 10 industries in the commercial real estate community in the Valley. If you’re an architecture or engineering firm, you want to network with the people from a construction firm and hope you can get their business and have some fun on the golf course while doing so.”
Madrid adds that business leaders can use golf to strengthen connections, in spite of potential career competition.
“The commercial real estate community in the Valley is a tight-knit group,” Madrid says. “Yes, there’s a lot of competition. But the camaraderie that exists, especially when it comes to a golfing event, is pretty cool to admire.”
The fun factor
While many view the game of golf as a semi-formal affair, there is a golf course in Tempe with a laid-back environment that allows for organic networking. Instead of appealing only to golf purists, Grass Clippings is a par 3 golf course that encourages people of all ages and genders to have fun on the course. It is also the only course in Arizona that offers night golf.
“We’re not against tucking in your shirt and doing it the way that always has been doen,” says Jake Hoselton, co-founder and CEO of Grass Clippings. “There’s a place and a time for that. But what Grass Clippings Rolling Hills offers is an alternative option to play in flip flops. If you want to play in a t-shirt with a backwards hat on and blast music in your golf cart and not play in your traditional max capacity of four people per group, you can do that.”
Hoselton played golf in school alongside several of his friends, and that’s where he developed his lifelong passion for the sport. He gravitated toward par 3 golf because its lower stakes and doesn’t take as long to play as a standard round of golf. Hoselton noticed there were very few par 3 courses in the Valley. In 2019, Hoselton and three other partners purchased the course that would be renovated into the current Grass Clippings course.
Hoselton says golf is a lucrative industry for Phoenix because it’s a generational sport.
“It’s something you can play with your grandma and grandpa, your mom and dad, your brother and sister,” he says. “The Phoenix Metro area is one of golf’s largest markets. And this economy in many ways is founded upon golf from a tourist perspective and honestly a lifestyle perspective. People in San Diego surf and people in Phoenix play golf.”
While the pandemic hurt many businesses, it actually helped golf. Research shows golfers around the country played 13% more rounds in 2020 during the pandemic than they did the year prior. The growth in Arizona followed the national trend and continued to grow in 2021. There was a 3.8% growth of rounds played from 2020 to 2021.
As the number of golfers grows, so too are the employees that help run the golf courses throughout the state. In 2021, 19,300 people were employed by golf-related businesses — an 8% increase from the number of employees working before the pandemic started. The growth of golf employment was determined to be directly correlated to the number of golfers playing.
“A lot of people are moving to Arizona, so the whole population base is growing,” says Luis Cordova, senior vice president and COO of Rounds Consulting Group. “And then the rise in remote work gave people a lot more flexibility so they can golf during the day.”
That flexibility offers more opportunities than ever to lock down deals and strengthen business relationships on the golf course.
“The golf course provides a great backdrop to create memories and foster relationships that can last a lifetime,” Kirk concludes.
