Many years ago, there was discussion of bankers hours which include not being in on Wednesday afternoon as it was to play golf. Times change but still people play golf, in the book, The Anatomy of a Golf Course – the Art of Golf Architecture by Tom Doak published by Frizhenry & Whiteside, Markham, Ontario 1992 there is a wonderful quote about golfers. Every golfer believes they can design a golf course similar to every moviegoer believes they could be a director. The fact that golfing is an interactive sport, gives people a license to criticize for they know what they like and do not like. Lucky for the golf architect, the really good golfer tends to remember his misfortunes while the average golfer remembers the positive of the course – why they could make a great drive or a special putt. This is the reason why every golfer loves their home course – they played it more often and had more memorable stokes.

It is impossible to quantify what makes a great golf course. It is easy enough to come up with a list of principles of sound design: the course should be playable to all levels of golfers; the course should work with the landscape which means the artificial aspects need to blend in; the holes should reward good play and the course should be easily maintainable.  The problem with most golf courses is paying attention to the false idols of good design such as length, difficulty, balance and setting. The golf course needs to have a great variety in its design.

Another factor to consider is fairness, the answer is in the eye of the beholder. When people golf they have different skills they bring to the game from beginner to competitive, the answer the question what should a golf course do? One of the first aspects to take into consideration is are they interesting to play from the tee to the green? For the majority of golfers, they expect the birdies and bogeys to balance out. They typically judge themselves not against par but against their own expectations or by the measure of fun derived from the game.  Golf should be no more fair than life itself. One of the qualities is that in golf you learn from the past and move onto to the next shot. This means some holes should be more difficult than others. Bobby Jones once said  each player must be given something to do and that something must be within the realm of reasonable accomplishments.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, Mr. Doak’s description of how to design golf courses has many other chapters in it, but for investors learning what a great investment is and the fairness in the system are two important lessons. In investing there are many aspects which can be focused on, but to you the biggest ones should be how do I not lose money and make money and this is where the dividend paying stocks can greatly assist you in your lessons. Profitable companies trade at highly multiples than non profitable (unless your are buying a growth stock which means prices go up and down more rapidly); profitable companies tend to have higher prices on the downside. If you receive a dividend along the way, you will have cash to do something with. Learning the basics can help you decide what is an ideal stock.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.