Robert Thompson, a well-known Toronto-based journalist and golf writer has recently completed a hard-cover golf book called Going For The Green in which he chronicles a round of golf with some of Canada’s top
businesspeople, writing about their stray tee shots, their missed putts and of course their thoughts on business in Canada as well as throughout the world. Each chapter is a mini-story from the first tee to the eighteenth green with lots of inside information about such people as Stephen Bebis of Golf Town, Jim Balsillie of Blackberry fame (and various hockey ventures), ClubLink mastermind Bruce Simmonds, the man behind Timbits Ron Joyce, Alberta’s famous former Premier Ralph Klein among others.
Thompson creates an interesting read with his uncanny ability to mix golf, business and personal anecdotes about his playing partner of the day.
In a match played with Rai Sahi at Oakville’s well-known Glen Abbey (now owned by ClubLink, of which Sahi is a majority stakeholder), Thompson relates a story about playing golf with Sahi a couple of years earlier when he was in the development business.
When we first teed it up a couple of years previous, Sahi had the touch of a man who builds massive office buildings. His swing, with its outside-in, throw the club from the top motion, rivaled that of former NBA star Charles Barkley. How bad is Barkley’s swing? The basketball player was once paired with Tiger Woods, who told Sir Charles that a new Kmart was being built nearby. “Where?” Barkley asked. “Between my ball and yours,” came Woods’ reply.
On another outing over at the ultra private St. George’s Golf and Country Club in west end Toronto, Thompson tees it up with prominent Canadian golf course designer Tom McBroom. (McBroom is a member there but not the designer). As the two tee off, Thompson describes McBroom aptly.
Walking down the opening hole (“I prefer to walk – I hate carts,” McBroom says), bag slung over his shoulder (crested with the logo for Oviinbyrd, another of his designs), McBroom appears to have it all. Articulate. Smart. Wealthy. And with a good swing and a sharp short game to boot. Hell, I’d hire him to run my company if I didn’t know he’s too busy marking off a bunker somewhere with a can of spray paint…
Thompson was also able to catch up with the elusive and wealthy Waterloo-based Jim Balsillie who has been able to put a Blackberry in the hands of most Canadians and many more throughout the world. At a Pro-Am event at the Angus Glen Golf Course, northeast of Toronto and the host of the 2007 Canadian Open, Thompson found himself alongside a group with Balsillie and also Jim Furyk.
Balsillie, even in his mid-forties, has more in common with pro athletes than most executives. He’s a fitness freak who regularly trains for triathalons. He also has a majority interest in a business that owns several golf courses near Waterloo, where RIM is based. His golf game is based largely around his physical prowess. That is to say he’s not a great golfer. But what he lacks in ability he more than makes up for through strength and strong co-ordination. His isn’t a pretty game, but it is effective.
The author’s round (or part of a round) with Tim Horton’s Ron Joyce was a short one. Joyce only finished three holes leaving Thompson to finish nine holes with the local Club Professional at the exclusive Fox Harb’r Resort. Thompson did manage to spend time talking business and golf with Joyce on the course and later in the club house. The conversation was mostly about Joyce’s feelings on the direction that the famous Tim’s is taking.
Animosity has grown between Joyce and his hand-picked successor Paul House, especially after the company’s public offering in 2006. The problems stem from their philosophical differences. House wants to put his stamp on the business and faces pressures of growing Tims as a public company. Joyce, on
the other hand, sees House destroying the “system” he created, Joyce’s often-used term for the interactive way in which Tim Hortons’ head office worked with its franchises.
“I don’t even exist to Tim Horton’s now,” he says on the par 5 second hole. “But I’m the company’s co-founder, and there’s nothing they can do or say to take that away from me.”
Other notables from Canada’s political arenas and wealthy businesspeople that most of us will only read about in the Globe and Mail’s Business Section include Eugene Melnyk of Biovail and Ottawa Senators fame, Brad Pelletier, the super IMG player agent, media mogul Peter Viner, Dee Parkinson-Marcoux, an engineer by education and a force in the oil business world-wide.
Twenty rounds of golf, twenty chapters, twenty interesting individuals, some well-known and some not so well-known. Each individual is unique in his or her golf prowess and Thompson is able to aptly bring out the business, political and personal sides to each.
He proves that you can learn more about an individual in four hours of golf than in any other social or business setting. Thompson is also able to provide some insight into the variety and make-up of golf courses that he manages to play across Canada while researching content for this fascinating book.
If you are a golfer (and even if you are not) or have an interest in Canadian business and politics you will undoubtedly enjoy this book. It is an interesting and provocative look into the lives, minds, and golf swings of some of this countries most compelling business personalities.
story by Norm Woods
