Putting for Success, or: How to Land a Job or Make a Sale in 18 Holes

Go out to Torrey Pines Municipal Golf Course and you’ll hear them.

Guys who were strangers just a few holes ago.

“Say, you look like a pleasant fellow. Interested in a soft job, $95,000 per year, good perks, short hours and a company car?”

“I’d need every Wednesday off and six weeks in the summer.”

“No problem.”

“I guess I’ll take it. Unless I get a better offer by the end of the round.”

This, mind you, is at a public course, open to all.

At private courses, the inside tips and good deals being swapped are even sweeter. The Rancho Bernardo course specializes in real estate and hot stocks, Rancho Santa Fe in mergers and acquisitions.

You say you’ve never mastered the art of golf for fun and profit. Feeling left out, are we?

Help is on the way: “Powergolf: America’s Corporate Golf Seminar.” This Saturday and Sunday at the Del Mar Hilton.

It’s the brainchild of a Chicago firm that also exports golf equipment. Now it sends seminar leaders to teach upward-bound Americans the secret of turning golf into a business strategy.

How to sell yourself while strangling a 5-iron. How to sell your product without the aid of slides or samples (too bulky to carry).

How to act just aggressive enough but not like a knuckle-buster. How to figure out the psychological profile of your foursome.

How to use the first six holes to establish a relationship, the second six to build rapport and the final six to land that sale or job.

How to maintain proper etiquette: A guy who doesn’t replace a divot would probably pick his nose at board meetings.

The two days cost $399, including a room. As an educational expense, it’s tax-deductible.

As you know, only non-golfers pay taxes.

A Good Man Is Hard to Find

What looked like San Diego’s latest “Good Samaritan Becomes Victim” case is taking a U-turn.

It began when a man identifying himself as Antonio Sodia, 29, of Santa Ana said he had been shot in the face and arm while trying to rescue three guys in East San Diego who were being chased by two guys with guns.

He said he didn’t know what the argument was about. Everybody ran away after he got shot.

When Police Detective Norman Hardman went to the hospital for more questions, the Good Samaritan was gone.

Hardman ran the name through computers. Nothing. He had Santa Ana police go to the “home” address. A vacant lot.

Hardman went back to where the shooting occurred. Neighbors told him the shooting victim was a big-time alien smuggler, leading to speculation that the shooting may have been an illegal enterprise gone sour.

Hardman is philosophic. He says being lied to is an occupational hazard for cops:

“Sometimes the people with the biggest, most grandiose tears down their faces are lying the most.”

Tossing Them Back

It says here.

* San Diego Police Chief Bob Burgreen took a day off last week to go bass fishing.

At the tournament at San Vicente Lake, the fish were caught but immediately released, despite their size or how hard they fought to avoid capture.

Burgreen’s friends said he should be used to that system: It’s the same one used at the county’s overcrowded jails.

* Take the murder case in Vista against Mark (Gator) Rogowski, a.k.a. Mark Anthony.

Headline in the Los Angeles Times: “Skateboard Star Confesses to Rape, Torture.”

Headline in the Oceanside Blade Citizen: “Anthony Pleads Not Guilty in Killing.”

* Different cities, different tastes.

In New York, the Operation Desert Storm welcome-home parade is underwritten by Moet et Chandon champagne.

In San Diego, by Pepsi Cola.

* North County bumper sticker: “Privilege.”

* “Hard Copy,” the tabloid television show, is snooping into the suicide of Kirstie McDonald, the Rancho Santa Fe teen-ager who was heir to the Zenith fortune.