I'm sorry.
Wait, is there somebody else making an apology today?
I'm sorry about the lack of posts to this blog over the past couple of months. You see, it's been a busy couple of months here at LINKS headquarters in Hilton Head, South Carolina. I know that the last thing you want to see is how the sausage is made, but we have been busy since the new year putting together our Winter Issue, which is out now, followed immediately by a special publication called LINKS Premier Clubs.
Premier Clubs is a collection of profiles of 17 high-end private clubs around the country. Since late last fall, our writers and editors have been putting together full-length profiles of these clubs, and that effort has taken up most of our waking hours.
During that time, a lot has happened in golf that I wanted to write posts about: the start of the season, our content-sharing deal with PGATour.com, the grooves imbroglio, the introduction of the iPad and its implications for the industry and for LINKS, the whole affaire d'Tiger and so on.
But every time I sat down to compose a post, the Premier Clubs project took precedence. You see, editing a magazine is the closest I'll ever come to being a despot. I get to decide which course to put on the cover, which articles to run, whether to use a comma or a semicolon. (Even kings have to make boring, everyday decrees.)
But with Premier Clubs, we were beholden to our clients, the clubs themselves. I no longer had the final say, and it was a bit of an adjustment. I had been aware of the phrase "The customer is always right," but I had no idea what that truly entailed until this project.
That's not to say that the clubs were difficult to deal with. Actually, far from it. One of the things that I like about being in the golf industry is the people. Golf is a great bond, and the people in the game are some of the friendliest, most genuine you could ever hope to meet. Nearly every client was great to deal with, and I got to know some terrific folks through this project, and I hope that we remain in touch in the years to come.
There was only one club that truly tested the boundaries of my patience and goodwill, making me wonder whether the adage about the customer was coined by an independently wealthy individual. Whereas every other club understood that they were relying on our expertise to tell their story, this particular club was demanding, obstinate and not particularly golf savvy. Instead of listening to our reasoned arguments that were intended to ultimately help them, they insisted on doing things their way, right or wrong.
I'm sure all of you can sniff out the overly promotional text of an advertising outlet when you see one, so I am sorry in advance (after all, it's THE day for apologies) for all the copy and phrasing replete with branding and marketing that will be crammed down your throat in this particular chapter of Premier Clubs.
I would also like to apologize to the English language and common sense. In the tradition of great storytelling like Breakfast at Tiffany's, in which Holly Golightly imaginatively called her cat "Cat," and The Princess Bride, in which the princess-to-be named her horse "Horse," we have taken the art of taking a generic thing and naming it as a proper noun to new levels in this article. (Think "Recreation Center" or "Swimming Pool.")
And I am sorry for dragging Truman Capote and William Goldman down into this conversation. (It is a day of apologies, after all.) They were ironic in their use of proper nouns; ours stinks of marketing pablum. This particular club is truly sincere in their use of capital letters, born out of their desire to overpromote themselves. And I am sad to say that we have been complicit in adding to the already dangerously levels of pomposity and hype that you must be bombarded with on a daily basis.
I would apologize again, but this day has seen enough sorries.
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