Going For The Green: On the Links with Canada's Business and Political Elite

What links business, politics, and power? Money? Patronage? No. The answer is golf, and no one knows this more than award-winning National Post columnist and bestselling author Robert Thompson.

Going for the Green: On the Links with Canada?s Business and Political Elite chronicles the thoughts, successes, failures, and philosophies of Canada?s top business and political leaders as they play a casual round of golf with Robert Thompson, one of Canada?s best known business and sports writers. Removed from the confines of their plush offices and freed of their suits and ties, Canada?s top business and political minds relax and offer insights into their lives and their work, proving that you can learn more from spending four hours on the golf course than a week in the boardroom.

Excerpt from Going for the Green:

It turns out that even with drivers, personal assistants, and access to the greatest golf courses in the world, all the powerful really want is a reliable drive and the ability to get up and down from a bunker occasionally. They may have spent their days running some of the biggest companies in the country, but their ambitions on the course were usually not that grand. I found most Canadian powerbrokers were not unlike weekend hacks who take time out to play on a $25 municipal golf course.

Surprisingly few of them actually did business on the course. Issues relating to their companies would often come up, especially when golfing with other executives, but rarely would a deal arise on a golf course. Some actually became pissed off when business was brought up on the course. While it might come as a surprise to those who have never had the good fortune to set foot on a Toronto Golf Club or the impeccable fairways of Mount Bruno, some clubs actually would rather have business dealt with elsewhere. In their minds, a club is a club, not a boardroom.

What I found at most clubs was that golf among the country?s top leaders was more about developing relationships and learning about those with whom you worked and did business with

ROBERT THOMPSON writes a golf column for the National Post and was a staff reporter covering business and sports. He is also a columnist for Score Golf, a contributing editor for Travel and Leisure Golf, and has written for The Globe and Mail and Golf magazine. His books include Always Fresh: The Untold Story of Tim Hortons by the Man Who Created a Canadian Empire, and the Third Best Hull.