Golf for Success?

Golf for Success?

Some things strike home at unexpected moments. Visualise this: you are participating at a networking dinner. Around the table ten business owners, two women and eight men. One of the guys says he has reserved two ‘flights’ (walks) on the golf course for day so and so. Immediately all the guys take out their electronic diaries to look whether they are free or not. Some even make whispering short phone calls to postpone meetings if they aren’t free. Before the end of the dinner all eight men have scheduled their golf game. You and the other woman are left out because you don’t play golf. Does this scene sound familiar to you?

This happened recently to a young business woman in the Netherlands. She decided there and then to take golf lessons. Her motive: not to lose the opportunity to be in the right place with the right people at the right time. All over the world, most male top level executives, bankers and businessmen play golf. They see golf as a powerful business tool.

Women who do actually play the game don’t use golf as effectively. They are uncomfortable with the idea of leaving the office to ‘have fun’ with clients or colleagues. They feel too responsible to get away. Or are they just sort sighted?

Many golfers think so. Susan Reed of the American magazine Golf for Women sums it up as: ‘You get an X-ray into someone’s character in four hours.’ Is your golf mate honest with the scores? Considerate and alert while playing? Do you notice perseverance and concentration? And for networking golf is manna from heaven. You spend four hours bonding with a person walking and talking family, business and life in general with no interruptions from people, cell phones or e-mails. What an extraordinary luxury in our stressed world.

Does playing golf secure deals for you? Could it?