Golf May Be Dying Game, But Not in Boomer Power Negotiations

 So, it's leaking out what might have gone out in that three-hour in-person meeting in the Oval Office, with remote connections looped in, to hammer out the deal between the Paul Weiss law firm chair Brad Karp and US President Donald Trump. Despite no official confirmations of much of that, we're all grabbing onto the alleged details and mulling them over. Power is such a titillating topic. 

One snippet is that time was invested in discussing golf games. Abovethelaw reports:

" ... Karp, Trump and [Bob] Giuffra [of Sullivan & Cromwell] proceeded to talk about golf for about 15 minutes, according to a source familiar with the events."

Very interesting. On the one hand, we know that in America (but not necessarily in the rest of the world) golf is declining in popularity. GolfGuy notes: 

"According to a FactSet report, between 2003 and 2018, golf saw a decline of over 6.8 million players and more than 1,200 course closures." 

Driving that are the difficulty of the sport, the time needed to complete the game as capitalism has gone raw, the expense, the fading presence of Tiger Woods who had accelerated interest in the sport and competition from other kinds of sports and games. 

On the other hand, the power of major institutions such as federal government, elite law firms, Wall Street and Ivy League universities primarily remains in the hands of white males, a large number of whom are aging. They were socialized to focus intensely on their golf game. Where golf was played wasn't only for networking but actual business development. 

Perhaps the grinders in startups don't feel it necessary to learn what is such a complex sport to master. Frequently they are involved in a whole different kind of power ethos. Power, as Hedrick Smith explained in detail in "The Power Game" has many versions. Incidentally, 57-year-old (that is, a non-boomer) CEO of Palantir Technologies Alex Karp said: "We don't play golf, we play software."

In my intuitive coaching/tarot-reading I make clients aware of their own sources of power. I give them a copy of Smith's presentation of the myriad templates.

Overwhelmed by the uncertainty? Special expertise with transitions, reskilling and startups. Complimentary consultation with Intuitive Coach Jane Genova (Text 203-468-8579, janegenova374@gmail.com).