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If you’ve ever held a golf club, you’ve watched the movie Caddyshack. More than once. In fact, if you play golf you probably have had something from the movie quoted to you at least once during every round. I know a lot of you who don’t play the game know the movie as well. Hopefully all of you were watching yesterday as Carl Spackler Bill Murray won the Pro-Am part of the PGA Tour event at Pebble Beach. This is not the typical one-day thing – it’s four rounds at three of the toughest (and most beautiful) golf courses in the country. Strangely, there was a business lesson involved. Did you catch it?
Bill Murray has become the unofficial host of what used to be the Bing Crosby Clambake. It raises millions for charity and is a terrific blend of light-hearted fun and deadly serious golf. Over the years, Murray has engaged in antics during play such as rolling with a woman in a sand trap, and this weekend was no exception as he wore an Elmer Fudd hat (they were in the hunt for the title) for his third round. He was paired with a relatively unknown pro named D.A. Points who had never won on tour. Everyone told Points that Murray would be a huge distraction. I’ll let the two of them explain why Points won the pro tournament and they both won the team event:
D.A. POINTS: I seem to generally play halfway decent in Pro-Ams because I get to spend time chatting with my (amateur) and trying to help him or her or whatever I’m playing with, with their game and that helps me take me out of my way for a little while…And I think that that’s something that I need to be better at instead of just boring walking down the fairway, minding my own business and not saying anything.
BILL MURRAY: My goal when I play is I like to have the most fun and win. And (D.A.) said, “Those two things usually go together.” And I thought, that’s about as solid an endorsement of where we are going this week as I could have gotten…Staying loose, I mean, the best people in any profession, the whole thing is about being as relaxed as you can. Michael Jordan is all about being relaxed. He’s the greatest there was and couldn’t be more relaxed and great actors are the same way. There’s almost no tension in them.
And to me that’s a great business point. It’s important to take what we do seriously but it’s also important to have fun and stay loose. I used to tell my crew that I wanted us to be better than anyone else and have more fun than anyone else while doing that. It’s possible to have way too much fun and to forget what it is we’re trying to accomplish beyond the fun but I think it’s impossible to be really great if you’re not enjoying yourself.
We make mistakes when we press. It’s hard to concentrate when your mind is preoccupied and stressed. Staying loose while staying focused works well in business or in golf if we’re going to write what Carl called “a Cinderella story.”
Your thoughts please?
Consult Keith 