2018 EXECUTIVE GOLF GUIDE.

• Author: Fornoff, Susan

CORPORATE GOLF'S DAY OF RECKONING

THE GAME'S DECLINE TEAMED WITH THE TAX ACT PRESENT OBSTACLES FOR THE PLAYER WHO WANTS TO DO BUSINESS ON THE COURSE

BY SUSAN FORNOFF

The nation's last two presidents have been roundly booed for their passion (obsession) for golf, a game (elitist pursuit) that takes four hours (the better part of a day) to play and another one for post-round socializing (drinking). Is it any wonder that CEOs, meeting planners and the resort sales folks who bank on corporate outings could be feeling a little self-conscious about mixing golf and business?

"It's not the boondoggle it was back in the '80s, when you'd meet half the day, call it a retreat and write it off, then play golf and drink the rest of the day," says Jeff Howell, sales director at the luxurious Lodge at Flying Horse. "The groups I do now, a lot of new companies, very successful companies, they're really intense. As sales director with the Lodge, I don't think I'd have the pull with the high-end executive groups we target if we didn't have a golf course. But it's less than half the use I thought we were going to do."

There was a time when golf was thought to help, not hinder, business prospects. Says Larry Rinker, director of instruction at Red Sky Golf Club, "I think the golf course is still a viable place for business. It definitely helps team building. It also helps customer relationships. If you have a client that really likes to play golf and you can get him on Augusta National or Cypress Point or someplace hard to get on, he's going to make his best effort to meet you and play golf there. And now, instead of 15 to 30 minutes in his office, you're going to spend four or five hours with him. ... That's why a lot of deals have gone down on the golf course."

That was true enough to inspire women in business to take up the game and form networks such as the Executive Women's Golf Association (1992). But more recently, studies have conflicted on whether golfing CEOs hurt or help their companies. In 2014, Forbes looked at the handicaps of 10 of the nation's top executives and surmised that the better the golfer at the helm, the better the company's stocks performed. A broader 2016 study of more than 350 handicap-holding CEOs of S&P 1500 companies found the reverse: "CEOs that golf frequently are associated with firms that have lower operating performance and firm value," the researchers concluded.

How much golf is too much golf? President Obama was criticized for his 333 rounds over 8 years--about 42 rounds a year. President Trump is hearing boos for having played at least 44 rounds, perhaps more that went unpublicized, in his first year in office. So, what's optimal for a golfing executive?

"I don't think they can really do their job if they're playing (too) much golf," Rinker says. "If they're taking a Wednesday afternoon off to go play and then play on weekends, I don't think anybody's going to beat them up for that, if they're performing."

One might argue that executives today are always working. Yet, plenty of golf courses still prohibit cell phones. Rinker points out that more and more private golf clubs are offsetting that prohibition by creating spaces like old-fashioned telephone booths, where business can be done on phone or laptop. At Castle Pines, he said, there are at least two such small virtual meeting rooms in the men's locker room.

Rinker...