Houston has a rich tradition in both golf and business, so it’s no surprise that a Houston resident has been named the best CEO-golfer by Golf Digest magazine. In its October print edition (no web link available), Golf Digest rates the top 200 CEO-golfers of all the Fortune 1000 companies and Jim Crane, CEO of Houston-based air freight and logistics company, EGL (“Eagle Global Logistics”), comes away with the no. 1 rating. As the article notes:
Crane, who grew up caddieing at Norwood Hills Country Club in St. Louis, gratefully recalls getting to play for free on caddie day. Price isn’t an issue for him now. With homes in Houston, Nantucket and Pebble Beach, and with 400 offices in locations from Shanghai to Istanbul to Santiago, he admits to having two identical sets of clubs — one that he keeps in Houston, where he plays near his office at Lochinvar Golf Club, and the other — “Oh, this will sound bad,” he says, “but it’s a personal one, not the company’s” — on his plane. “It makes it easy to get from Point A to Point B,” he says.
When working at his London office, Crane stays at Queenswood . . . because it’s convenient, and he can sometimes hit balls after work. Even though Crane enjoys tournaments and plays in many fund-raisers, more of his golf is business than social. “If you can’t close in four hours, you can’t sell,” he says of opportunites offered by the game.
I think Ross Perot once said he’d never hire an exec with a camper on his truck or golf clubs in his trunk. And, given Crane’s rather spotty personal life (the Houston Press had an expose a few years ago on Crane, but their server seems to be down this morning), I guess it’s great to be king. Of course, this kind of thing is never brought up at shareholder meetings…is it? š