Worcester Business Journal

14 Worcester Business Journal | March 16, 2020 | wbjournal.com F O C U S M E E T I N G S & G O L F G U I D E Hitting the links A number of Central Mass. executives still find golf to be the perfect combination of business development and leisure BY GRANT WELKER Worcester Business Journal News Editor J avier Cevallos, the president of Framingham State University since 2015, was not a golfer growing up. Cevallos, who was born in Ecuador and raised in Puerto Rico, took up the game only once he became a college administrator while in his 40s. He thought he needed to know the game in order to connect with donors and companies with which his college partnered. But golf grew on Cevallos, who was the president of Kutztown Uni- versity in Pennsylvania before joining Framingham State. "I love to play," he said. "I enjoy the game." Cevallos joined a sport long linked to the business world, a chance to get leisure exercise while talking shop or building relationships. "You're going to spend a few hours with each other on the golf course without distractions," said Troy Sprister, the general manager of the Worcester Country Club. at contrasts with maybe 45 minutes together at lunch, where distractions could be harder to fend off, Sprister said. Loving the game Cevallos isn't alone among Central Massachusetts executives who see golf as not only a way to make or keep con- nections in the business world, but also as a passion. Many even register with the United States Golf Association their handicap, a number indicating their average score over 18-holes. Mark O'Connell, the president and CEO of Avidia Bank in Hudson, has a 14.9 handicap — about average for committed golfers but far better than duffers who might rarely make it out on the course. For golfers who register their scores with USGA, more than half of men have a handicap of 14 or better, and for women it's 25. O'Connell started playing as a kid but hit the links more oen once he worked up the ranks in banking. Today he plays 70 to 75 rounds a year and is a member of the Charter Oak Country Club in Hudson. "From a business perspective, it's very useful," O'Connell said of playing partly as a way to get out with customers or po- tential ones. It's a more leisurely pursuit than, say, trying to bond over a game of pick-up basketball, he said. Another golfing executive, Webster Five Cents Savings Bank CEO Don Doyle, played par-3 courses – shorter courses easier for beginners – growing up, got away from it while having a young family and then jumped back into the game once he became a banking executive. "It's five or six hours that you're spending with two or three other people," Doyle said. "It's a great way to solidify or develop a relationship." In some cases, the love of the game turns into a bucket-list endeavor. O'Connell has played some of the country's most famous courses, includ- ing Pebble Beach and Torrey Pines in California, Pinehurst Resort in North Carolina, and Bandon Dunes in Oregon. O'Connell and friends take a golf trip each year in a quest to play each of the country's 10 highest-rated public courses. Cevallos, whose handicap is 24.7, has played one of the world's best-known courses, too: Augusta National Golf Club in Georgia, home of the annual Masters tournament. Golf's role in business A 2016 study in Harvard Business Review found an average S&P 1,500 CEO played 16 rounds a year, with some logging upwards of 100, almost once every three days. e article questioned a tangible con- nection between a leader's prolific golf habit and company performance. Some executives may golf with a valid business reason, the study's three authors, all business profesors, said. "But we figure that a CEO who plays a high number of rounds each year is probably doing so because they enjoy it." A Syracuse University study in 2016 reported 93% said playing golf with a business associate is a good way to estab- lish a closer relationship. But the same three professors in the Harvard Business Review report — Lee Biggerstaff, David Cicero, Andy Puckett — said in a study in the journal Manage- ment Science they found evidence some executives shirk their responsibilities by playing golf simply for leisure. Whether golf will continue to be a preferred way for business leaders to meet is uncertain. National Golf Foundation data shows more people taking up the sport for the Don Doyle, the CEO of Webster Five Cents Savings Bank, finds golfing as a great way to solidify or develop a relationship, with hours spent on the course without distraction. Framingham State University President Javier Cevallos (left) took up golf in his 40s when he became a college administrator, knowing he'd play for business. PHOTO/EDD COTE

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