Smashing the Grass Ceiling: A Women's Guide to Mastering Golf for Business Success

By Fareen Samji

We have all heard it – Golf is a great tool for business. Then why aren’t you on the course? Whether you don’t play golf because of lack of time, performance anxiety, or you don’t know the rules, it’s time to realize the stakes are too high to be left out any longer. Spending time on the golf course is a smart way to invest focused, uninterrupted time with the people who can make a difference in your career—and regardless of your athletic ability—you can learn how to use golf to develop meaningful relationships. Fareen Samji provides a blueprint for success in this golfing guide for women in the workplace. You will learn how to: • navigate golf courses with confidence • fully leverage golf as a social and business networking tool • manage your emotions while playing • become the person people want in their golf foursome Master the art of business golf and enhance professional success with the lessons in Smashing the Grass Ceiling.

• Language: English
• Publisher: 2468111 Ontario Inc
• Release date: Jun 12, 2017
• ISBN: 9780995931817

Book preview

SMASHING

THE GRASS CEILING

A Women’s Guide to

Mastering Golf for

Business Success

Copyright © 2017 Fareen Samji.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted by any means—whether auditory, graphic, mechanical, or electronic—without written permission of the author, except in the case of brief excerpts used in critical articles and reviews. Unauthorized reproduction of any part of this work is illegal and is punishable by law.

ISBN: 978-0-9959318-0-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-0-9959318-1-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017906579

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Cover Photo Credit: Robyn S Russell Photography

Photography on location at Dundas Valley Golf & Curling Club

Lulu Publishing Services rev. date: 4/25/2017

CONTENTS

The grass ceiling

Chapter 1: Why golf is a great business tool

Chapter 2: Golf equipment

Chapter 3: Golf lessons

Chapter 4: Knowing your way around the golf course

Chapter 5: Golf etiquette

General etiquette

Greens etiquette

Chapter 6: Knowing the rules

Tee Shot Rules

Rules when your ball is in a Hazard (water or sand)

Lost Ball & Out of Bounds Rules

Chapter 7: Your golf personality

Chapter 8: Playing by ‘far’s rules’

Chapter 9: Keeping up

Chapter 10: Mastering charity tournaments

Chapter 11: How to do business on the golf course

Be a Smashing Golfer!

Appendix 1—Equipment summary

Appendix 2—Common Golf Terms

Want more far?

Writing this book was one of the hardest things I have done. It would not have been possible to do without the help of a team of amazing, efficient and strong women. From the women who lent me their ear to the women who took the time to provide their feedback - thank you. To Ann and the kids, thank you for bearing with me through the evenings and the weekends.

A special thank you to:

Michele Bailey

Thie Convery

Melanie Cunnigham

Lowie Crisp

Jasmina Garbus

Leila Hurley

Helen Knowles (aka the interpreter)

Rosanne Longo

Dr. Pamela Ritchie

Mercer Smith

Jennifer Walker

To the women who allowed me share their stories - thank you:

Marlane Robertson

Caroline Johnson

Michelle Cederberg

Emily Phillips Teh

Mary Dilly

Joan Davis

Shannon Bowen-Smed

Amy Kasianiuk

Michelle Harris

Maggie Loefler

The amazing women at 127 Strategies: for pushing me to be better

Ann Loree: For supporting me so that I could play professional golf. For enabling me to do everything I want to do

Michelle Harris: My partner in words. Thank you for sharing your big beautiful brain with me. It has only just begun

FOREWORD

I am absolutely honoured to write the foreword for Fareen’s new Book Smashing The Grass Ceiling. Fareen has been smashing that ceiling her whole life! She never sees limits, only possibilities and goals. She is inspiring, motivational and passionate about everything she sets out to do. Fareen’s message is one that needs to be shared and heard. I have the good fortune of working with women in golf around North America both in a corporate and recreational capacity. I participate in over 25 events each year and 75-80% of the participants are men. The women are back in the office doing the work while the guys are doing the networking. Smashing The Grass Ceiling gives women the tools they need to understand this great game of golf, to get the courage to pick up the sticks for the first time or even if it has been a long time, and to reap the rewards of playing golf both for personal, wellness and corporate gains. Fareen will help you feel comfortable and confident to smash your own grass ceiling!

Lisa Longball Vlooswyk

7-Time Canadian Long Drive Champion

Keynote Speaker

Golf/Travel Journalist

Golf Entertainer

THE GRASS CEILING

Steph, a good friend of mine, asked me to be the fourth golfer in a charity golf tournament. She had invited two of her male clients and wanted to balance out the foursome with two ladies. I was excited for the opportunity to get out of the office and spend some time outside. When we got to the event I looked around and noticed that over 90% of golfers there were men. This is typical of most golf events I go to. It has always bothered me that more women don’t use golf as a business building tool because men have been using it to advance their career interests for years.

Something interesting happens when people are on the golf course, outside, surrounded by other people who are happy to be out of the office as well, they relax! It’s a casual non-threatening networking atmosphere. Sure you can bring a client to a restaurant but it’s not all that different from an office or board room environment. Take that same person to a beautiful park like setting with the shared goal of playing a game and you quickly find common ground, laugh and make memories together.

The term relationship building is thrown around all the time, but what it means to me is turning strangers into friends. Playing golf with someone allows you the opportunity to take a business connection and deepen that relationship. You get the chance to spend a few hours of uninterrupted time with someone, without their electronic devices or yours. It allows you to become emotionally invested in each other’s lives by sharing stories and experiences, unlike the types of interactions you would typically have standing around at a networking event. Imagine playing with a potential client and having two hours of uninterrupted time to show them that you are respectful, generous, empathetic, trustworthy, confident and humble. To actually have them get to know the real you a little better. When you can create that kind of intimate relationship with someone, you care about their goals and they care about yours. You will stand out in their mind. They will want to buy from you, fundraise for your cause or put your name forward for a promotion because you are now more than just business associates. You can show off your leadership skills, your ability to deal with frustration and your character. A business lunch or networking event can’t give you that incredible opportunity.

I asked Steph how long she had been using golf as a business tool, and she told me that she hadn’t always used golf for business, in fact, she never even thought about it till her last job in a big bank. When she got hired, she was told she needed to learn the game and was even given a set of golf clubs by her boss, but after trying it a couple of times, she put it off. What she did notice was that during the week several of her colleagues, including her boss would go out golfing with clients or get invited to golf in community events, and she was left behind in the office. She was worried that her game was not good enough to join them and that she didn’t have the time to get better with her work and family commitments. Many of the women that I have coached over the years are not willing to be vulnerable in front of clients or coworkers, so they hold off using golf until they can improve their game. I find this curious because most men I know are fearless about playing bad golf! Watch them golfing out there, they are not that good! They understand that it’s the setting that is important, not their skill level.

Once Steph left the bank and started her own company, she began to focus on golfing as a key customer retention and acquisition strategy. She is an absolute rock star in her world, mom of three kids, climbed through the ranks in her previous job and is now doing her own thing and killing it. Even though she is still a beginner golfer, the event she invited me to was for a youth charity she believed in and it was an excellent opportunity to spend some time with her clients. Steph had finally figured it out. You don’t need to be a good golfer to be able to use golf to build relationships, entertain clients, spend time with friends and family, or raise money for charity. What you do need to know is golf etiquette, how to keep up, how to manage your emotions and how to have fun on the golf course. You can be a pro golfer out there, but it doesn’t mean that you will be a person that others want to be around on the golf course. People remember people they like. People do business with people they like.

I wrote this book because there are thousands of books and videos that can teach you how to swing a club or make a putt, but what most coaches miss are the social and emotional interactions around the game. Steph confided that before she made golf a priority, she had taken a few lessons and played a round or two with her husband but found it too difficult and lost interest. I have heard variations of this story so many times from many different women: the game is hard, there are all these rules, no one will want to play with us anyway, it’s too stressful when there is a group behind pushing us. I get it. There are barriers that keep professional women from taking advantage of what the game has to offer.

I cannot tell you the number of times I have shown up to the first tee paired with men and they roll their eyes at their misfortune of being paired with a woman. Their automatic assumption is that we will ruin their day out on the course. Golf can be perceived as having complicated rules and etiquette which can be intimidating for some -