Why Golf is the Ultimate “Contact” Sport

Let’s suppose you have to meet some high-powered sports or movie stars, business leaders, or politicians in a relaxed and comfortable atmosphere. Where would you meet them? One good answer is on the golf course.

I happen to love golf. It is my main interest in life. I attended college on a golf scholarship, lived most of my life in a country club community, and plan my schedule around the tournaments in which I wish to participate or I want to watch. Almost every single person I have met who has helped me counseled me or generally influenced my life in any meaningful way I have met on the golf course.

Ten Reasons Golf Will Always Be the Ultimate Business Tool

Anyone reading the mainstream media and its constant efforts to trumpet the demise of golf over the last few years could be forgiven for thinking that golf as a business tool is a little passé. Sure, participation was down, pre-Covid but twenty-five million players in the United States alone is not exactly a small number. Then, when you look at the number of top CEOs, sports stars, movie stars, and entrepreneurs who are avid golfers, those numbers are actually pretty impressive. An estimated 90 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs play golf, as have almost all of the US presidents since Ike. Better still, executives who play golf make an average of 17 percent more than those who don’t.

Yes, business golf is not just surviving, it’s thriving, and for the sake of your business or career, here are ten reasons you’d better get in on the action.

1. Face Time:?Where else can you spend four quality hours with your company CEO or valued customers? With today’s busy schedules, most of us are lucky if we can get five minutes. There is simply no other sport with the amount of quiet time between shots that allow for wide-ranging conversations and mutual interests to be discovered.

2. Serene Surroundings:?You can plan a client meeting in an office surrounded by water, nature, and sand, instead of four white walls. This instantly creates a more relaxed and friendly environment in which to do business without the normal distractions.

3. Business Intelligence:?You can learn more about a person in four hours of golfing than in a lifetime of meetings. Not just by what they say but by how they handle themselves on the course. Do they play by the rules and control their emotions, or do they fudge and blow a fuse?

Mark McCormack, the founder of mega sports agency IMG, author of the book What They Don’t Teach You at the Harvard Business School, says, “You can learn more about a person in one round of golf than in a hundred business meetings.” I know from experience this is very true. People open up to you on a golf course. They tell you things about their wants, needs, desires, and problems. Armed with this type of information, you can help these people further their goals, while at the same time allowing them to help you reach yours.

4. Friendships Forged:?An interest in golf alone can be enough to move your friendships several notches up the corporate ladder. Best of all, the friendships built around golf tend to last a lifetime, so as people move around, new opportunities will open up for you.

5. Open Doors on the Road:?When you travel, golf is a great way to open doors by letting prospects know you are in the area and up for a game. I have had many amazing relationships around the world by looking on LinkedIn and suggesting a game to someone in the area I am planning to visit.

6. Perfect Gifting:?When someone is a golfer, it’s easy to give a small gift that makes an impact. A golf book, logoed hat, or towel from St Andrews can quickly and cheaply enhance a relationship.

7. Game for Life:?It’s a sport that suits all ages, backgrounds, and abilities. Thanks to the handicap system, people of widely different abilities can play together and still compete. So the sixty-something CEO can still beat his thirty-something prospect or employee, while the thirty-something executive can look forward to decades of on-course meetings and deals. Try doing that on the squash court!

8. Advantage, Women:?If you are a businesswoman, playing golf is an even greater advantage. Adrienne Wax, coauthor of?Even Par: How Golf Helps Women Gain the Upper Hand in Business, says, “Outside the office, you can communicate differently with your higher-level peers and get to know one another in a way that the office can’t provide. Being able to talk golf in the office gives you a chance to bond with the bigwigs. If you can talk about golf, suddenly you have reasons to talk with the CEO.”

9. Networking:?One of the great things about golf is that you can just show up at a club and get a game. Depending on your business, you could be looking at three prospects each and every time you tee it up! Either way, golf is the ultimate networking environment for all kinds of professionals and services.

40 years of friendship forged through golf

10. The Nineteenth Hole:?After your round, the nineteenth hole provides the perfect setting to take your newly enhanced relationship to the next level, or indeed go ahead and ask for the order!

If that’s not enough reasons, how about this one: executives who play golf make 17 percent more on average than their peers who do not!

Golfers Live Five Years Longer

There are other great benefits to playing golf unrelated to business, like the fact that golfers live five years longer than nongolfers. The study was undertaken by the Karolinska Institute and published in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, based on data from 300,000 golfers. It clearly demonstrates golf’s beneficial health effects. Golfers have a lower death rate regardless of sex or social group and on average live five years longer.

Not surprising, really, since golf keeps your weight down, with a round of golf walking burning 1,525 calories, while a round in a golf cart round burns 825. So no matter how badly you play, you win! Golf reduces stress (or so they say) and increases your mental capacity, creativity, and problem-solving ability, all of which help keep your brain active, one of the key ingredients in fighting off the aging process.

Alternate Route

If you are young or perhaps a senior, an alternate way to meet golfers is to work part-time at a golf club, in the bar, cart barn, or bag room. There are many ways you can get involved in meeting people around a golf course.

When I was just eighteen years old, I had made enough good friendships with members while working in the bag room at the Wellington Country Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, in just six months to be able to make a trip throughout the United States and part of Canada with my two best friends, whom I had invited over from England.

I was making just $3.50 an hour cleaning clubs and picking up range balls, so I didn’t have a lot of money saved. The three of us traveled from the south of Florida through North Carolina to Wintergreen, Virginia; Washington, DC; New York City; Ottawa, Canada; and Toronto, Canada. Because the friends I had made helped us out immensely, on our entire eight-week tour we played at the best country clubs, ate at the best restaurants, slept in the best parts of town, and saw all the sights this wonderful country has to offer. My friends from the club welcomed us into their homes, took us out to dinner, and made their clubs available to us. We had to spend only one night in a hotel, and that was as a courtesy to our host because we had driven into town late at night. The rest of the time, three eighteen-year-old kids with just a few dollars to their names stayed as the VIP guests of people I had helped as a bag boy at the country club.

On our return, my stay-at-home friends commented on how lucky we had been to enjoy such an adventure. They had low-paying jobs at hamburger joints and convenience stores. They didn’t understand that having the right kinds of friends opens doors. They could just have easily gotten jobs in a golf or tennis club or at a resort that would have brought them into contact with the right kinds of people. It never crossed their minds. To them, a job was $3.50 an hour, and it did not matter what kind of job it was.

Golf opens doors closed to others and is the ultimate way to network!