When Golf & Skiing Tied the Knot

As we push into late December, I'm constantly reminded (via radio, TV and billboard advertisements) that besides being the holiday season, it's also skiing season. Here in New England, the prime ski location is Vermont - and one such ski mecca in the Green Mountain State is a place called Okemo.

Okemo's advertisements are everywhere - images of snowboarders getting major air on a halfpipe or a family of four gliding cheerfully down a picturesque slope. But this excitement conjures up nada in me. Nope, when I hear the name "Okemo" I immediately think summertime and envision one of the top golf courses in Vermont.

In case you haven't guessed, I'm not a skier. I've never been skiing and have never really had any desire to attempt it. But the irony is, I've been to some awesome ski resorts. Let's take Okemo as an example - what was once a name only recognizable by skiers, now boasts several accolades...for golf:

Best Public Course in Vermont, 2006 Golfweek

Top 50 Courses in America, 2003 Golf For Women

Top Modern Club in Vermont, Golfweek

Best New Course in America nominee, Golf Digest

When you think about it, it makes sense to put a golf course at a ski resort. But what's interesting is golfing at ski resorts is a relatively new phenomenon. According to the April/May 2011 edition of Cigar Aficionado, turning a ski resort into a year-round attraction is big business - for both the resort and the surrounding towns:

All of the big ski resort operators such as Intrawest, Aspen Skiing Co., Vail Resorts and Boyne Resorts, along with many smaller peers, have turned their focus from selling lift tickets to selling real estate. To do this, they have had to offer more than just skiing. The new mountain town mantra is "lifestyle," and for more than a decade, once sleepy or even chichi ski towns have been busy repositioning themselves as year-round centers of sport and culture, building performing arts centers, sushi bars, bike trails, village centers, parks, ziplines and, most of all, golf courses.

To me this is extremely smart. Not just because of the obvious (that you can stay open year-round), but because I feel golfers and skiers are cut from a different cloth. Sure there may be some overlap, but for the most part, skiers are adventurers, while golfers are more pragmatic. Economically, this is a brilliant marriage, because the ski resort is not only reaching more people, but also reaching different types of people.

But the golfers have it slightly better (as the Cigar Aficionado article acknowledges):

[Ski towns] are famous around the globe and synonymous with luxury vacation hospitality, but even in ski season, most of their appeal and most of the time spent by visitors is off the slopes. All of these ancillary benefits, from fine dining to five-star lodging, can still be enjoyed in golf season, though without the crowds�and usually at much more reasonable prices.

And this is true - my experience playing at ski resort courses has always been great golf, at a great price, in a relaxed and quite atmosphere. Of course, as more people begin realizing these ski resort golf courses are out there, the more busy they will become.

But for now, the fact that these places have two very distinct atmospheres (depending on when you visit) will remain intact. For example, when you click on Okemo's website during the winter, you don't even realize they have a golf course! It's as if they're marketing department has recognized the two clientele are complete opposites.

Click on that same URL in the summer, and the golf course takes center stage. I've actually had conversations with skiers who mention Okemo and I'll say something like "Oh, I love Okemo!" And they'll look at me rather puzzled - they'll ask: "I thought you didn't ski?"

I guess the marketing is working.

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The Consequences of being a Good Golfer

There's an old Jerry Seinfeld bit that pokes fun at how people view those who won silver medals instead of gold: "What happened? Did you trip? Didn't hear the gun go off?" Seinfeld highlights the preposterous fact that a fraction-of-an-inch is the difference between the "greatest guy in the world" and "never heard of him."

Well, the same can be said of golf. You see, the vast majority of golfers stink - we have trouble breaking 90 or even 100. Then there's a smaller group of "better players" who will shoot in the 80's regularly and break into the 70's once-in-a-while. Meanwhile, the tour players are a tiny, elite group of talented athletes who are making money because they are the best golfers the world has to offer.

But what about that other group? You know - those scratch golfers that can shoot around par most of the time, but are just a smidge shy of that elite "best in the world" class? In my opinion, these people have it the worst.

I once worked with a woman who had just gone through a terrible divorce. Did he cheat on her? No. Beat her? No. Verbally abuse her? No. This guy lost his marriage because he was a really good golfer - the type of player we average hacks are always striving to be.

He consistently shot near par, and won many local tournaments. These talents led him on a quest to make a mini tour (to compare to baseball, this would be the A or double-A leagues of golf, where the Nationwide Tour would be equivalent to triple-A). This kept him on the road and away from home. Friends and family would praise his golfing abilities and encourage him to keep trying to qualify for any tour he could. But he wasn't making any money doing this - in fact, he was spending more than he could make, and at 30, he was neglecting other responsibilities in his life. Thus came the inevitable strain on his marriage, fights with his wife, and subsequent separation. He's never qualified for the PGA tour. I'm not sure he even qualified for a mini tour.

But even if he had made a mini tour, would his life be more stable? Would the money start rolling in? Hardly. In the April 2010 edition of Cigar Aficionado, there's an article penned by Hooters Tour-player, Nick Mackay. Mackay, perhaps unintentionally, paints an uninviting portrait of life on a mini tour - driving across the American South, racking up more than 30,000 miles on his car annually and paying over a grand to enter a tourney where he may not even make the cut (which also means he wouldn't get paid).

Mackay will turn 28 in May, and it appears other responsibilities are catching up to him. "Due to several factors" he only played in 10 events in 2009. And he disclosed that being short on cash forced him to skip the PGA Q School in 2010: "...the hefty entry fee is the main reason I did not sign up to go back to [Q] school for the third time this year. It was a tough decision, but in my circumstance, paying the rent during the winter took precedence over career ambitions." Regardless, Mackay still says he would never trade life on the mini tour for a steady paycheck. I wish him all the luck in the world. But that's a tough sell when you're pushing 30 and are partaking in what he describes as "glorified gambling" for a living.

The reality is we all want to be good golfers. But to be that good yet not good enough? Sometimes...just sometimes, in a fleeting moment of sheer arrogance and/or bitterness, I like to think I'm the one in the better position - glad that I'm not good enough to consider chasing down pipe dreams while wasting my time and money.

But that's all BS. The moment I finish posting this, I'm off to buy a new driver - one that I hope will make me a better player; closer to the level of Mr. Mackay, the divorcee or anyone else who ever had a shot at the gold medal.

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