Why Golf is Bad for the Boardroom

Frank Deford's most recent column for Sports Illustrated, which was also his commentary last week on NPR, was a rant on why golf represented all that was wrong with America's corporate boardrooms. I have to admit that it got me thinking as I heard him on my way to the office the morning he was on NPR. His basic thesis is that golf, with its handicaps and the idea that you're competing against the course rather than against the other guy (most tournaments are not match play) is not the proper ethos for the cut throat competition needed to survive in the business world.

In fact, it could be argued that it is exactly this sense of shared experience and unwillingness to go "mano a mano" that will hinder American innovation in the coming years as we battle the coming juggernauts from China and India. Now, I don't want to pretend that sports as metaphor is the answer to trade competitiveness - it is not going to replace the necessary billions of dollars that need to be spent in science education in this country - but it is an interesting analysis nonetheless. Golf is popular in western countries and Japan but not yet in China or India. We'll see if that changes as prosperity comes and the middle class grows.