How is golf handling our economic crisis? Are patrons showing up to their local courses? Are architects getting financing for new designs? Are managers winning battles to keep their courses open? These are a sampling of the many questions I will attack in this blog. To begin the process, I have assembled a list of the best resources on the Internet to assist my followers in grasping these challenging concepts. In wanting to find all relevant content, I started by casting a wide net. My initial results came search engines (Google, Metacrawler, Yahoo!) and keywords such as “golf”, “golf business”, and “golf news”. Next, I queried various directories for American associations pertaining to golf in order to narrow my focus and finished by searching for blogs relating to my particular focus. As one can imagine, the web contains a vast amount of information on the subjects. To assist my selection process, I divided my results into four categories (Publications, News, Organizations, and Blogs) and applied the Webby Awards and IMSA criteria for assessing websites and blogs, respectively. In Publications, for instance, I selected the Golf Digest Magazine for its content and overall experience (key Webby Awards criteria) because I already knew how well they cover the sport (I subscribe to their monthly print edition). In this category, I also included the Golf Business Magazine for the sites visual design, functionality, and relevance to my topic of interest. The Golf Business Magazine seems to be very in touch with how the game is being changed by our economic struggles. The News and Organizations categories were much easier to fill, as each website has considerable relevance and traffic to ensure quality of content and ease of use. For example, GOLF.com is powered by CNN and Sports Illustrated. It’s tabs, sections, and subsections enable navigation and are visually appealing. However, the blogs were a harder decision. With hundreds to choose from, I had to strictly apply the IMSA criteria. For instance, the blog that, in my opinion, best met the criteria, Business Golf Blog, was founded by a former attorney that started a company focused on teaching businesspeople how to use the game productively. It has timely posts and, at first glance, is very well written. Others, such as A Walk in the Park, are less relevant, but very well written and incredibly interesting. This list of sources I have compiled will surely evolve as my search for answers deepens.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Golf Today: A Blogger’s Search for Golf’s Relevance in 2009
How is golf handling our economic crisis? Are patrons showing up to their local courses? Are architects getting financing for new designs? Are managers winning battles to keep their courses open? These are a sampling of the many questions I will attack in this blog. To begin the process, I have assembled a list of the best resources on the Internet to assist my followers in grasping these challenging concepts. In wanting to find all relevant content, I started by casting a wide net. My initial results came search engines (Google, Metacrawler, Yahoo!) and keywords such as “golf”, “golf business”, and “golf news”. Next, I queried various directories for American associations pertaining to golf in order to narrow my focus and finished by searching for blogs relating to my particular focus. As one can imagine, the web contains a vast amount of information on the subjects. To assist my selection process, I divided my results into four categories (Publications, News, Organizations, and Blogs) and applied the Webby Awards and IMSA criteria for assessing websites and blogs, respectively. In Publications, for instance, I selected the Golf Digest Magazine for its content and overall experience (key Webby Awards criteria) because I already knew how well they cover the sport (I subscribe to their monthly print edition). In this category, I also included the Golf Business Magazine for the sites visual design, functionality, and relevance to my topic of interest. The Golf Business Magazine seems to be very in touch with how the game is being changed by our economic struggles. The News and Organizations categories were much easier to fill, as each website has considerable relevance and traffic to ensure quality of content and ease of use. For example, GOLF.com is powered by CNN and Sports Illustrated. It’s tabs, sections, and subsections enable navigation and are visually appealing. However, the blogs were a harder decision. With hundreds to choose from, I had to strictly apply the IMSA criteria. For instance, the blog that, in my opinion, best met the criteria, Business Golf Blog, was founded by a former attorney that started a company focused on teaching businesspeople how to use the game productively. It has timely posts and, at first glance, is very well written. Others, such as A Walk in the Park, are less relevant, but very well written and incredibly interesting. This list of sources I have compiled will surely evolve as my search for answers deepens.
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