The old adage about business and golf goes, If you shoot over 100, you have no business being on a course, but if you shoot below 80, you’ll soon have no business.
Where do financiers figure into this ancient algorithm? The Golf Handicap & Information Network, a little-known Web site run by the United States Golf Association that tracks the handicaps of thousands of golfers nationwide, provides a rare look at Wall Street’s aces and duffers (www.ghin.com).
Atop the leaderboard is Teddy Forstmann, founder of private equity firm Forstmann Little, with an impressive 3.2 handicap. That means Forstmann regularly completes a round in about 75 strokes, just three over the standard par for 18 holes. The 65-year-old doubtless has picked up some valuable pointers from buddy Vijay Singh, the hardworking pro who’s currently ranked second in the world behind Tiger Woods and is sponsored by Forstmann’s firm. In September the leveraged buyout pioneer bought IMG, the elite sports management agency that represents Woods, Jack Nicklaus and Annika Sorenstam, the top pro in women’s golf.
Close behind Forstmann is Seth Waugh, CEO of Deutsche Bank’s American securities unit, who has a 3.7 handicap. The 47-year-old has played with top pros, including Woods, and is the driving force, as it were, behind the Deutsche Bank Championship, a PGA event held every August in Norton, Massachusetts.
The buyout business seems to produce good golfers -- perhaps it’s because it requires so much patience. George Roberts, the 61-year-old co-founder of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, boasts a 3.8 handicap, and J.P. Morgan Chase vice chairman Jimmy Lee, who helped create the syndicated loan market that fuels buyouts, is a 4.9 at age 52.
More apt to hit bogeys than birdies are Merrill Lynch CEO Stan O’Neal (handicap: 9.7) and Lehman Brothers CEO Dick Fuld (13.1). In a parallel to Merrill’s buoyant recovery, O’Neal has lowered his handicap in recent months, from 13.4.
Rather lower down the leaderboard is Lloyd Blankfein. Judging by his 32.8 handicap, the übertrader hasn’t been spending much time on the links since becoming president of Goldman, Sachs last year. His last recorded round was in July 2004, when he shot 114.
Goldman employees and shareholders, enjoying a record year, can only hope Blankfein’s handicap gets even worse in ’06. Still, finance may be the exception to the old saw that business success and golf scores vary in inverse proportion.
“A CEO in a banking job may be working very hard at marketing while on the golf course,” says David Yermack, a professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business who has studied the impact on shareholder value of CEOs’ corporate-jet travel for leisure activities, including golfing. “Banking depends on social connections.”
