Another way to keep score.

• Position: Leisure-time activity of chief executive officers of North Carolina's 100 largest private companies

Any other result might have been sacrilegious in the home state of Pinehurst, but golf is by far the most popular leisure-time activity of CEOs on the North Carolina 100. Forty-six listed it as a favorite pastime, well ahead of fishing (18), boating (16), hunting (14), tennis (13) and reading (12). Among other activities listed: travel, skiing, running, flying, hiking, gardening and rooting for favorite teams, particularly N.C. State.

For two of them, sports is a way of mixing business with pleasure. Donald Beaver of The Brian Center Corp. in Hickory is lead owner of the new Hickory Crawdads, a single-A minor-league baseball team. Thanks to its catchy nickname, Crawdads' merchandise has already attracted national interest while creating excitement in baseball-starved Hickory.

And Neil Macpherson of Macpherson/Meistergram owns the Greensboro Dynamo, a new member of the 64-team United States Interregional Soccer League. British-born Macpherson has been a soccer enthusiast all his life. He...