Observer » golf

Meet SAC Capital’s Unofficial Golfer

Mike Taylor — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 17:18:45 -0400

There's a cliche, or a saying, or something, that says that a lot of major business deals happen on the golf course. Perhaps some readers have heard their mothers tell them this "fact" in an effort to sell them on the practicality of repeatedly swinging a club at a tiny ball while wearing khakis.

Well, in one case, this turns out to be true. Steve Cohen's giant hedge fund, SAC Capital Advisors, employs Sam Evans as a golfer who schedules outings with prospective investors in the fund and managers at companies the fund may invest in.

From Reuters' "special report" on the golfer:

An amateur golfer with a respectable 7-stroke handicap, Evans has found a unique way to marry his golf skills with the big rolodex of corporate executives he struck up friendships with during his time at Donaldson Lufkin Jenrette and more recently Deutsche Bank. A member of more than a half dozen prestigious East Coast golf clubs, Evans has played with an elite group over the years, including former President Bill Clinton.

Also from the report: "Like his boss, Cohen, he appears to guard his privacy vigorously -- a fairly intensive Internet search for a picture of him on the links came up empty."

This is so dumb.

mtaylor [at] observer.com | @mbrookstaylor

What Did I Do?! New York Post Columnist Ejected from Barclays Tournament

Zeke Turner — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 15:02:24 -0400

Andrea Peyser was embedded at The Barclays Tournament in Paramus, New Jersey last week, until she got kicked out. "I was booted from The Barclays tournament in Jersey like a used bimbo," she wrote in the Post this morning.

She explained that she was ejected after she kept asking Tiger Woods if he still loved his former wife at a press conference. Everybody else thought the golf was more important. "Tiger and his enablers don't like to admit he's a public figure and a role model who behaved like a slippery politician. So I treated him as such," she wrote.

Apparently she was causing a scene all over the place. The Associated Press reports that on Mr. Woods' first hole, Ms. Peyser walked onto the fairway with her notepad to ask him a question after his approach shot. "She had never been to a golf tournament and was not aware that reporters were to stay by the ropes," according to the AP.

Scots to Trump: It's Not Us, It's You

Tom Acitelli — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 20:54:08 -0400

It all started so promisingly for Donald Trump. He arrived in Scotland in 2006, trumpeting plans for the "world's greatest golf course" in the birthplace of golf--and the birthplace of his late mother, Mary MacLeod. He was feted for his efforts to pump over $2 billion into the local Aberdeen area economy and to create more than 6,000 jobs.

Now, the plans for the Trump International Golf Links (and assorted luxury housnig) seem in jeopardy. As the Wall Street Journal reports today, it's not just the farmer refusing to sell his land in what would be the middle of Mr. Trump's course or the government inquiry that's under way right now. No, it's Mr. Trump:

What's noticeable is that the many talents that have served Mr. Trump so well in America are nothing but a liability in Scotland. His skill for self-publicity as well as his irrepressible bullishness are perceived in Scotland as the most shameless posturing. As for his private jet, his limos and his mountain of personalized luggage, they are the complete antithesis of the sober Scottish way.