Every time you step onto the tee box, whether on the golf course or in the business world, you’re faced with one question: what’s the smartest way to reach your goal without getting into trouble?

For golfers, that means avoiding bunkers, water hazards, and double bogeys. For business owners, it’s about steering clear of lawsuits, operational disruptions, and compliance nightmares.

But what’s striking is just how much commercial risk management resembles the strategic thinking required in golf. Both require planning, patience, precision, and preparation. And both reward the disciplined and punish the reckless.

Let’s take a walk through 18 metaphorical holes and explore what the game of golf teaches us about managing risk in your business.

1. You Don’t Just Grab a Driver and Swing

In golf, smart players analyze the course layout before choosing a club. The same is true in business: before you charge ahead, you need to assess the landscape. That means understanding your exposures—legal, financial, operational, reputational—and mapping out where your biggest hazards lie.

Risk Tip: Conduct a formal risk assessment annually. What’s changed in your “course conditions?” Has weather, the landscape, or competition shifted your optimal route?

2. Every Course Is Different—Just Like Every Business

A good golfer knows that Augusta National and Pebble Beach require different strategies. Likewise, a construction firm in Arizona faces completely different risks than a tech startup in Boston. There’s no one-size-fits-all risk management plan.

Risk Tip: Customize your insurance program and internal controls to match your industry, location, and size. Copying a competitor’s plan may leave you in the rough.

3. You’re Not Alone—You Have a Caddie

In golf, caddies do more than carry your bag. They provide insight, strategy, and course intelligence. In business, your “caddie” is your insurance broker, attorney, accountant, and risk consultant. Don’t shoulder every decision alone.

Risk Tip: Choose partners who do more than sell—choose those who advise. A good benefits or risk advisor will help you read the wind and choose the right club.

4. Water Hazards Are a Lot Like Cyber Risk

They may seem avoidable… until you’re in them. Cyber threats are like that scenic lake on hole 11—you think you’re clear, then suddenly you’re penalized two strokes. Unlike a lost ball, a cyber breach could cost you millions.

Risk Tip: Invest in cyber liability insurance, endpoint protection, employee phishing training, and incident response planning.

5. The Rough Will Happen—It’s How You Get Out That Matters

Even PGA pros land in the rough. What separates them is how they recover. In business, something will eventually go wrong—whether it’s a product recall, a data loss, or a key employee departure. What matters is how quickly and confidently you respond.

Risk Tip: Build a business continuity plan. Know how you’ll “punch out of the rough” and get back on the fairway.

6. Par Is a Victory in Risk Management

In golf, par is good. It means you played smart and avoided unnecessary mistakes. The same applies to risk management. Your goal isn’t to eliminate all risk—that’s impossible—it’s to play the course steadily, avoiding disasters that derail your round.

Risk Tip: Don’t chase “perfect” safety or zero risk. Focus on achieving consistency and reducing volatility across operations and claims.

7. Wind and Weather Are Out of Your Control

Like sudden gusts on the back nine, macroeconomic shifts, regulations, and supply chain issues are external forces. You can’t control them, but you can prepare for them with flexibility and situational awareness.

Risk Tip: Stay close to market and regulatory changes. Review your coverage annually to ensure inflation and new liabilities don’t leave you underinsured.

8. The Right Club for the Right Shot

Every club in your bag serves a different purpose. A driver isn’t much help in the sand trap. The same goes for coverage types—property insurance, general liability, cyber, EPLI, D&O—each has its place. Know which tool solves which risk.

Risk Tip: Conduct a line-by-line policy review. Don’t assume your general liability coverage protects against every exposure.

9. Clubhouse Talk Doesn’t Win Trophies

Talking about risk management is easy. Implementing it consistently is hard. Like golf, where watching tutorials won’t lower your handicap unless you practice, real protection comes from action.

Risk Tip: Don’t let safety protocols live in a binder. Make them part of your company’s culture with training, incentives, and accountability.

10. Practice Doesn’t Make Perfect—It Makes Prepared

Even the best golfers spend hours on the range. The same applies to drills like tabletop exercises, emergency response simulations, and claims reviews. These “practice rounds” help you prepare for game day.

Risk Tip: Schedule mock incidents—cyber breach, workplace injury, fire loss—and review your response flow.

11. A Good Swing Isn’t Enough Without Course Management

Risk isn’t just about avoiding hazards, it’s about strategy. Just like knowing when to lay up or when to go for the green, you must decide when to self-insure, when to transfer risk, and when to retain exposure.

Risk Tip: Work with your CFO and broker to evaluate your total cost of risk—not just premium- but deductibles, loss ratios, and downtime.

12. The Scorecard Doesn’t Lie

You might feel like you played a great round, but the numbers will tell the real story. In business, incident data, claims frequency, OSHA violations, mod ratings, and loss ratios are your scorecard.

Risk Tip: Build dashboards that track claims trends and near-misses. Use data to drive decisions, not gut instinct.

13. Slow Play Hurts Everyone

In golf, slow play frustrates the group and ruins momentum. In risk management, delays in action—like dragging your feet on repairs, incident reporting, or compliance updates—can multiply losses and erode morale.

Risk Tip: Streamline your incident response and claim reporting processes. Minutes matter.

14. You Can’t Win Without a Strong Short Game

Driving the ball 300 yards is great, but it’s putting that wins championships. Similarly, fine-tuned processes like vendor vetting, contract review, and safety walk-throughs are where risk is truly reduced.

Risk Tip: Don’t focus only on “big” risks. Many losses stem from overlooked operational details.

15. Some Hazards Are Hidden Until It’s Too Late

That patch of tall grass behind the green? Didn’t see it coming. The same goes for unendorsed exclusions on your policy or neglected sublimits that cap recovery. What you don’t know can hurt you.

Risk Tip: Review your policies for exclusions, sublimits, and aggregate caps. Ask your broker to flag hidden gaps.

16. Every Round Teaches You Something

Smart golfers reflect on every hole. What worked? What didn’t? The best business owners do the same with every incident or claim.

Risk Tip: Conduct post-mortems on major losses and near misses. What should you change next time?

17. The Club Championship Isn’t Won in a Day

Reducing risk is a long game. It requires consistency, culture, and commitment—not just quick fixes.

Risk Tip: Embed risk awareness into hiring, onboarding, operations, and leadership KPIs. Treat it as a continuous process, not a one-time initiative.

18. Sometimes, You Just Have to Take the Drop

Even the best players find themselves in an unplayable lie. When something goes wrong in business—a lawsuit, fire, or PR crisis—sometimes the best move is to acknowledge the setback, take your penalty, and recover.

Risk Tip: Work with legal and communications partners in advance to prepare your crisis playbook. Accepting short-term pain often prevents long-term disaster.

Final Thoughts: Make Every Shot Count

The next time you step onto the tee box—or into your office—remember: the goal isn’t perfection. It’s playing smart. Reading the conditions. Using the right tools. Relying on expert guidance. And recovering well when things go sideways.

Golf teaches us that control is an illusion—but preparation is everything. So is discipline. And perspective.

Whether you’re protecting people, property, data, or reputation—approach commercial risk the same way you approach golf: with strategy, humility, and a willingness to learn from every round.

And remember, there’s no mulligan in business; play every shot like it counts.

Need help with your commercial risk game plan? Risk advisors like me are more than insurance brokers—we’re your caddie, ready to walk the course with you, one smart shot at a time.