I have told this story so many times to friends and family that I decided to document it and would like your input to see if you agree or disagree with me.
I personally believe that I can make hiring decisions by playing a couple of rounds of golf with someone since this is the only sport that simulates daily life situations. On numerous occasions, I have witnessed that people demonstrate the same attitude and behaviors at work as they demonstrate on the golf course, hence golfing can be a good training ground for people to become better at work ?
For non-golfers, a little background is that a golf round consist of 18 holes broken into 2 halves (front 9 and back 9) with a perfect round score of 72. The target score for each hole is called Par which could be 3, 4 or 5. One stroke under par is called birdie, while 1 over par is called bogie.
In my opinion, this is the only sport that simulates what happens at work for the following reasons:
The game of golf depends on you and your honesty. It is entirely up to you to play completely by the rules, or potentially move the ball a little bit, give yourself generous putts, forget to count (when no one is looking), take an extra shot, etc.
You have to strategize for each golf course and then each hole. Even if you play the same golf course every week, it is different. The weather, the wind factor, where your ball lands, approach to green, your golfing partner, etc. all vary every time, and you have to plan properly to execute.
Your (shot) execution is different on every shot, sometimes the shot goes exactly as planned and sometimes it is the complete opposite (which happens more often in my case), hence you have to constantly change your strategy to deal with the new unplanned situation based on your last shot.
I have had situations on numerous occasions where I have had a score of par, birdie on next hole, and then unacceptable score of 4 over par for the next one. When this happens, the only things that matter is your attitude, what lessons can you learn from the past and how quickly can you forget about it to get ready for the next hole.
There has been numerous occasions where I have scored 41 or 42 on the front 9, and ended up in late 90’s or over 100 (gasp). Similarly, on several occasions I was over 50 on the front 9 and brought it to a respectable score in the 90’s. My best games have been when I have mentally broken the 18 holes into 6 milestones and focused on 3 holes at a time to be in early 90’s (my personal best is 84).
In golf one can track their score in relation to the Par (72) known as the handicap, which can be further categorized into shots and putts such that one can focus on improvement opportunities
Even if you are a very good golfer, you can always be better continuous learning by watching videos, reading and practicing on the golf course.