As mentioned in previous Bad Golf Guy “Behind the Counter” posts, I am employed, part-time as a counterman for a public golf course which entails various duties including, but not limited to, answering the phone, scheduling advanced tee times, maintaining the appearance of the Pro Shop, checking our patrons into our system, accepting cash/credit card payments and wishing our patrons the very best on their adventure.
The mix of our clientele varies depending on the time of year. In the winter months we count on our local, mostly retired patrons, destination golfers from our northern climates as well as travelers from the United Kingdom, Finland, Denmark, Nova Scotia and France, to name a few. During the hot steamy Florida summer months, our organization relies on our local, mostly retired patrons to fill our morning tee sheets.
The revenue generated from our Pro Shop merchandise (hats, shirts, jackets, etc.) rises and falls with the presence of our destination golfers, wanting to bring home a trinket or two as compared to our local clientele who are a bit fonder of the contents of their wallets. Come May, our Pro Shop merchandise revenue dries up like a shriveled prune.
Early in the month of September, late in my shift, I was somewhat surprised to process two sales, minutes apart.
Sale #1: A gentleman entered the side door of our deserted Pro Shop, walking without hesitation, straight for my counter station. Our patron suggested he needed my assistance as he “wanted to get ahead of the situation!” He went on to explain that he was paired with a player for the afternoon round, the same player who verbally accosted him a month earlier for not having a ball marker. Our patron went on to say that his afternoon playing partner was not on his Christmas list. $1.50 later, our patron left our Pro Shop with a die-cut ball marker. Seems like a small price to pay for some solitude for the next four plus hours.
Sale #2: Moments later, another gentleman, dressed in street clothes came through our front door and once again, headed straight for my counter station. He indicated that he was on a mission to find just the right ball marker for his wife. I directed our patron to our ball marker section, which consists of a small container of our $1.50 die-cut ball markers, sitting alongside a rack of our $3.00 poker chip ball markers. Our poker chip ball markers come in seven different colors (blue, orange, red, yellow, black, white and purple). After much deliberation, our patron filled his hand with seven poker chips (one of each color) mentioning that he has been down this road before, not wanting to be off the mark (or marker) with an incorrect color selection. Twenty-one dollars later, he was happily on his way. Clearly this gentleman is one of the original Three Wise Men!
Note: I had not sold one ball marker in the previous two months!
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The back nine can only get better!
I like when we sell these items and the customer pays with cash. Most customers are given “Government Issued Ball Markers” disguised as their change.
Jim enjoyed all the Behind the Counter stories. I especially like the phone calls from course residents asking about the weather.
Great story! You never know who or what will walk in the door next!