Book Review, by Jeffrey Reed, Editor, LondonOntarioGolf.com
Going For The Green: On The Links with Canada’s Business and Political Elite
Author: Robert Thompson

One of the things I admire about colleague Robert Thompson is his ability to ask the tough question. True, he sometimes pushes the wrong button, but it’s refreshing to see another golf writer not follow the herd like a lost sheep wandering the fairways of the Old Course.

Thompson’s latest book offering, Going For The Green: On The Links with Canada’s Business and Political Elite, reflects his honesty and gusto. There’s an old adage, ‘Play a round of golf with someone and their true personality emerges.’ I only have to think back to my last round for proof of that theory, but that’s a story for another day.

In, Going For The Green, Thompson proves that you can, indeed, learn more about someone from spending four hours together on the golf course than a week in the boardroom. Thompson is golf columnist for the National Post and a prolific freelancer, and was previously a staff reporter with the Post business and sports departments. He knows his wheeling and dealing, on and off the golf course, so the subject of this book is right up his alley.

Going For The Green sees Thompson, a former Londoner now living in Toronto, tee it up with Canada’s top business and political leaders, playing a casual round of golf with each personality, and penning his thoughts. Pengrowth CEO Jim Kinnear and Research In Motion co-CEO Jim Balsillie discuss life on the oil patch, and how to best autograph a BlackBerry. A round with Indian real estate mogul Rai Sahi takes us into the old boys’ country club scene. And time spent with Tim Hortons’ founder Ron Joyce, and former Alberta premier Ralph Klein allows us to listen in on their thoughts on retirement.

I particularly liked the chapter with golf course architect Thomas McBroom. It’s one thing to hear McBroom brag about his wonderful golf courses, but it’s another to learn more about the man as he actually swings a club. In Chapter 17, Thompson enjoys a round with McBroom at St. George’s Golf and Country Club (a Stanley Thompson design). McBroom is candid in his bantering with Thompson, in particular when offering tips on golf course design.

Thompson quotes McBroom from a discussion about designing courses for the world’s elite: “It is a different world they live in,” (McBroom) says. “You will always be an outsider. You are a service person. They bring you into their world as a service provider. But are you ever one of them? No. I’m someone they brag about – ‘You know, our course is designed by Tom McBroom.’”

This type of candid conversation is prevalent throughout, Going For The Green. Whether it’s duty-bound liberal Toronto mayor David Miller on the journeyman’s municipal course, or Ontario Progressive Conservative leader John Tory exposing his personality at the exclusive blue-blood Rosedale, Thompson hits it right on the screws with this book. It’s a great read, and, like Thompson, pulls no punches.

I’ve golfed with Thompson only one time – at the ultra-exclusive Redtail Golf Course near Port Stanley. Like, Going For The Green, the truth rose to the surface during that round. It was my first round in two months after a bad back had placed me on the shelf, and my game was rusty at best. And Thompson – despite the fact it was a friendly match – played with the intensity of a Sunday afternoon leader.

I still have a bad back, but since then my handicap has dipped lower than Verne Troyer at a limbo beach bash. Thompson, as is evident in, Going For The Green, still has some fire in his belly. He’s a heck of a golfer, too. I recommend you tee up, Going For The Green. It’s entertaining, it’s informative, and it reveals for the first time, in many incidences, just what makes some of Canada’s business and political elite tick.

Going For The Green
by Robert Thompson
Key Porter Books
ISBN 13 978-1-55263-993-1
$29.95 hardcover