Executive profiles in golf - four Black business people who enjoy the games of golf and tennis - Black Enterprise Golf and Tennis Challenge: 4th Annual Tournament Journal

Black Enterprise, Sept, 1997

Sy Green's youngest daughter has owned a putter since she was 18 months old. His first date with his wife was a golf date -- he handed her a 7-iron, a pitching wedge and a putter and said, "Let's go." If he comes back in another life, his wife is convinced it will be as a professional golfer, not as senior vice president and managing director for Chubb & Son Inc., one of the country's most successful property and casualty insurance companies. And that doesn't even begin to explain how much Sy Green loves golf.

Green, 55, carries an 11 handicap and plays at least twice a week. He is keenly competitive, although he won't admit it if you ask him. And like a growing number of other African Americans, he understands and appreciates that golf is a common denominator for many successful businessmen. "Golf makes for a way of warming up a situation where you have strangers involved," he says. "It creates a kind of comfort level. If you figure that in a round of golf, including lunch and a drink afterward, you're engaged with a person for a minimum of five to six hours. You can learn a lot about a person, their business and how they're going to react in a lot of different circumstances. I encourage my staff to learn golf, particularly the female employees. Golf is just a quicker, easier way to build relationships."

And not just business relationships. Green followed up his original golf date with Kim by marrying her six years later. She says the first gift he gave her was a set of clubs. And wouldn't you know it, the second gift he gave her was another set of clubs. He still golfs regularly with Kim and their four-year-old daughter, Jessica, who has become quite a Tiger Woods fan. And, albeit to a lesser degree, Green also tees it up with 30-year-old son Jason and 25-year-old daughter Jennifer.

When Green isn't golfing, he's putting in 12-hour days exploring opportunities in other markets for Chubb and Son, Inc. He has been with the company since graduating from Mount Union College in Ohio in 1964, advancing from management trainee to branch manager to eastern region manager to vice president and ultimately senior vice president. Throughout his climb to the top, golf has been a mainstay. "I try and play a good game but I don't necessarily go out to beat my customer," he says "You don't try to win at all costs. If you do that, you win the battle and lose the war. And that's not the intent."

Not every woman lives for the day when she can beat her husband in golf. Besides, most know that the male ego couldn't handle it. Kim Green could care less. She's determined to beat the pants off her husband, Sy, one of these days and she guarantees the whole world will know about it when she does.

The senior vice president of Manhattan-based Aon Risk Services figures she's at least two years away from "putting" her husband to shame. She has beaten him on individual holes before, but he's always come back to win the complete round. This year, though, she plans to work extensively on her game, including her fourth consecutive trip to the BE/Pepsi Golf & Tennis Challenge.

That's but one of the golf outings Kim makes each year. She goes south to golf school at least once each winter, then there's the annual family trek to Hilton Head in August. When she's not traveling or working, she makes every attempt to get out to her home course at the Westchester Country Club for either a round or lessons.

No less authorities than Lee Elder and Renee Powell have complimented Kim on her golf temperament because she rarely gets flustered, even when faced with some horrific lies. Most times after she hits what she considers a bad shot, she will abandon her cart and try to walk off the miscue. "I go through my drills mentally," she says. "I ask myself, 'How was the club hit? How was my alignment? Was my weight on my back foot or my inside back foot? How was my eye contact with the ball?' I just try to regroup. The key is that you can't let it rattle you. If you do, you can kiss your golf game goodbye."

Kim admits to having tried tennis before but says its very hard to try and do both well. "Tennis is a very good workout," she reasons, "but golf is a mental workout because you're constantly challenging yourself."

Sometimes in the quiet of the morning, before the phone calls and the endless appointments, Robert Johnson slips out the back door of his tk-square foot house in the Audubon Terrace section of Washington, D.C., and enjoys one of life's simple pleasures. With the flick of a wrist, the swing of a racquet, the 51-year-old founder, CEO and Chairman of Black Entertainment Television is in a world of his own. Such are the advantages of having a tennis court in your own backyard.

Johnson, an avid tennis player with a strong baseline game, has had a special affection for tennis since growing up in Freeport, Illinois. That affection has grown to the point whereby these days, he makes a point of mixing tennis with business and speaking freely on the state of the game.