Golf Reminds Me of Some Websites

I play in a Tuesday night league at Stonebridge in Saline. This week I had one of the worst rounds of my life. Shanked shots, missed putts, the whole thing. It was rough. But somewhere around the hole 7, mid implosion, I started thinking about something else. Golf is a lot like a website.

Stick with me here.

When it's beautiful, people want to be part of it

Watch a good golfer. Smooth swing, clean contact, the ball doing exactly what they meant it to do. People stop and watch. They want to see the next shot. They lean in. There's something magnetic about watching someone do a thing well in a setting that's built to make it shine.

A beautiful website works the same way. When someone lands on a site that's well designed, intentional, and clearly cared for, they slow down. They click into another page. They scroll further than they meant to. They notice the photos. They read the words. Maybe they fill out the contact form. They want to see what happens next.

That's not an accident. That's design doing its job.

When it's ugly, people look away

Now picture me on hole seven this week. Shank into the trees. Find the ball. Chunk a wedge. Three putts. Walk to the next tee.

Nobody wants to watch that. I barely wanted to watch that. There's a kind of involuntary look-away that happens when something is going badly. You feel it on the course, and you feel it on the internet. A site that's dated, cluttered, slow, or just plain unloved sends the same signal. People bounce. They don't read the words you spent hours writing. They don't see the offer. They don't trust you enough to fill out the form. They're already gone.

It's a tough pill to swallow because most business owners I talk to genuinely care about their work. They're not shanking shots in their actual business. They're great at what they do. But their website is the only thing the first time visitor gets to see, and it's telling a different story than the one being lived in real life.

Beauty is functional

Beauty in a website isn't decoration. It isn't extra. It isn't a nice to have for businesses who have money to burn on aesthetics. Beauty is what gets someone to stay long enough to find out you're worth hiring.

Good design quietly does a job. It tells your visitor that you care about quality. That you take your craft seriously. That if you treated your own website with this much intention, you'll probably treat their project the same way. It earns the next click. It earns the next page. It earns the contact form submission.

A beautiful website isn't showing off. It's removing the friction between someone wondering if you're the right fit and someone deciding you are.

What this means for you

If your website is the equivalent of my Tuesday night round at Stonebridge, you don't need to panic. We all have ugly rounds. You just don't want your website to be one. Not the thing potential clients see every single day.

Ask yourself a few honest questions. When you pull up your own site, do you actually feel proud? Would you send the link to someone you respect without a little disclaimer first? Does it look like it belongs to a business doing the kind of work you're doing in 2026, or does it look like a snapshot of where you were five years ago?

If any of those answers landed funny, it might be time. Not because you need to keep up with trends. Because the people you're trying to reach are deciding whether to stay or click away, and beauty is one of the biggest reasons they choose to stay.

I'll be back at Stonebridge next Tuesday hoping for a better round. But most importantly, I'll also be at my desk if you need a pro to guide you through your website design. Give me call (734-301-9719) or text if you need a hand. 

Good luck out there! 

- Dave