{"id":62,"date":"2008-11-10T17:53:00","date_gmt":"2008-11-10T22:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vanderbilt.edu\/magazines\/vanderbilt-business\/?p=62"},"modified":"2015-07-07T20:19:12","modified_gmt":"2015-07-07T20:19:12","slug":"honours-courses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/honours-courses\/","title":{"rendered":"Honours Courses"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Robert<\/a>
Robert Barrett, left, and Rob Shults founded Honours Golf in 1998.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When the Scottish first pioneered the game of golf all those centuries ago, it\u2019s safe to say that they had no idea what a worldwide phenomenon it would become. Of course the sport has changed considerably since then; some of the modern rules and conventions would be unrecognizable to those ancient Scots. Yet for all the changes, golf today remains rooted in sportsmanship and camaraderie, and it\u2019s these ideals that help to explain its enduring popularity.<\/p>\n

Certainly Rob Shults, MBA\u201996, can attest to this. As the President of Honours Golf, the leading golf course management company in the Southeastern United States, he\u2019s built a business around the idea that the game is as much about instilling core values and forging friendships as it is about competition. This is reflected not just in the company\u2019s name, which hearkens back to the origins of the sport with its British spelling. It\u2019s an inherent part of everything that Honours Golf does to create memorable experiences for its members and guests. From course conditioning to customer service, Shults and his team go the extra mile to uphold the long and noble tradition of the game.<\/p>\n

Practice Swings<\/h2>\n

Though Shults didn\u2019t realize it at the time, the philosophy behind Honours Golf took shape when he was just a school kid growing up in Little Rock, Ark. His father taught him how to play golf at an early age, but it wasn\u2019t only the rules that he learned. The game brought Shults happiness on so many different levels that he came to view it as a life pursuit rather than a simple diversion.<\/p>\n

\u201cGolf was a game that I had talent in, and I just fell in love with being outdoors, spending time with good friends and working on a skill over and over,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Shults\u2019 talent for golf led him to play competitively in high school and at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, where he earned a B.S. in Management and Systems Engineering. After serving as an Officer in the U.S. Army for four years, he began looking for a way to transition from the military to the business world. The Owen School offered him just such an opportunity. While earning his MBA, he picked up basic business tools that continue to serve him well to this day.<\/p>\n

\u201cOwen gets you ready to handle a lot of different tasks simultaneously. It\u2019s good preparation for getting out there in the real world and trying to figure out what direction you\u2019re headed in life and how successful you\u2019re going to be,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The Drive<\/h2>\n

Shults\u2019 direction in life didn\u2019t become entirely clear to him until a couple of years after Owen. While working for Wachovia Bank in Atlanta, he started to get the itch to do something that he\u2019d always wanted to do\u2014start his own company before he turned 30. The problem was, he didn\u2019t know what that company would be. At the time, golf wasn\u2019t on his radar screen, except as a hobby. \u201cFrankly, I had never thought about making money or going to work in the golf business,\u201d he admits. But a chance meeting with one of the sport\u2019s premier developers changed all that.<\/p>\n

That developer was Robert Barrett, a native of Augusta, Ga. who had been working in the golf industry since the \u201970s. Barrett had made a name for himself planning and managing golf operations for a number of well-regarded clubs across the country, including La Quinta Country Club in California, the site of several Skins games during the \u201990s.<\/p>\n

Despite their different backgrounds, Shults and Barrett hit it off immediately. They found they shared not only similar personalities but also a similar appreciation for the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a golf operations guy through and through, and I brought a financial perspective to the table. But we had the same vision for what we wanted to do,\u201d says Shults.<\/p>\n

That vision\u2014creating courses that provide something more than just an ordinary round of golf\u2014took root when they decided to form Honours Golf together in 1998. From the very beginning Shults and Barrett found that their partnership was all the more effective because of their different, yet complementary, skill sets. Their roles within the company point to this. As CEO, Barrett handles golf course development and operations out of the Birmingham, Ala. office. Shults, meanwhile, heads up strategic direction and business development in Atlanta.<\/p>\n

The Approach<\/h2>\n

Shults and Barrett\u2019s first business deal was with Highland Park Golf Course in Alabama\u2014the oldest course in that state. Since then, the two have steadily added to their portfolio, which now includes a total of 12 courses located throughout Alabama, Florida, Georgia and Mississippi. Some of these properties were signed through golf course management contracts, as in the case of Highland Park, while others came about through development deals, in which Honours Golf assisted with the design and construction. Shults and Barrett have purchased several golf courses as well.<\/p>\n

Whether through management, development or whole ownership, Honours Golf always takes the same disciplined approach. \u201cEvery one of our projects, by its nature, has its own unique brand,\u201d says Shults. \u201cThat takes a whole host of disciplines. It takes leadership, of course, and it takes putting a good team in place, whether it\u2019s the right team to build the golf course or the right team to run the golf course. And then it takes putting a culture of success in place with good systems and good training.\u201d<\/p>\n

Minding the Hazards<\/h2>\n

Good teams and good systems are especially needed in today\u2019s business climate. The recent downturn in the economy poses a challenge to golf course owners since the sport is a discretionary expense for consumers. There\u2019s also the added pressure of rising fuel costs, which affect everything from the transportation of fertilizer products to the price of food served in their clubs. And to make matters even worse, the industry is already dealing with growing pains brought about by overexpansion during the late \u201990s and early \u201900s. Today fewer golf courses are being built, and many are being closed.<\/p>\n

And yet Honours Golf has reason to be optimistic. As Shults points out, there are an estimated 25 million people in the United States who play the game. Of those, 8.5 million are considered to be core golfers. They spend about 80 percent of the money in the sport and are not likely to give it up, even during times of recession or inflation.<\/p>\n

Shults also sees an opportunity for his company in golf\u2019s consolidating market. \u201cOwners and financiers are realizing that golf course management companies are part of the necessary solution to get the golf industry back to health from a supply and demand standpoint, as well as from an operating standpoint. Existing golf courses that are undermanaged are our biggest opportunity,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n

The Bottom of the Cup<\/h2>\n

Perhaps most importantly, though, Shults knows that the golf industry as a whole is in good hands. There\u2019s a reason, he says, why you never hear of people being forced into his line of work by their fathers: It just doesn\u2019t happen. \u201cPeople are in the business because they want to be in it,\u201d he says. \u201cSo everybody is passionate. It\u2019s an industry that is competitive, but for the most part everyone takes the attitude of \u2018Let\u2019s grow this game together.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Serving as President of Honours Golf may be a job, but to hear Shults talk, you might just think otherwise. Every day at the office brings challenges, for sure, but there are plenty of rewards, too. Shults has found great satisfaction in sharing his goals and principles with like-minded people, such as Rob Barrett and others on his team, and in the process, he\u2019s made friendships and memories that will last a lifetime.<\/p>\n

As Shults puts it, \u201cAt the end of the day, pursue something you love. Because if you\u2019re doing something you love, you\u2019ll never feel like you had to work a day in your life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Honours Golf makes playing the links an experience to remember.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341,"featured_media":9064,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,66],"tags":[3],"class_list":["post-62","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-corporate-spotlight","category-departments","tag-fall2008"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9052,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62\/revisions\/9052"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.owen.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltbusiness\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}