Scott Hampton has seen UF students panic before job interviews because they don't know how to play golf.
Hampton, a professional from the Professional Golfers' Association of America - known as PGA - teaches a course to remedy such fear.
It's called "Golf: For Business and Life."The two-credit course, offered through the department of applied physiology and kinesiology, is part of a PGA initiative to teach golf to college students around the United States.
The class has no prerequisites and is open for beginning and advanced golfers.
Over the next couple years, Hampton plans to invite speakers to his class to discuss the relationship between golf and business.
"A lot of business deals start and are made on the golf course," Hampton said. "It's been like that forever."
Hampton said many of the students enrolled in his class are studying law, business or medicine.
However, the golf and business relationship extends beyond Hampton's course.
Chappell Brown, a UF finance sophomore, has been playing golf since he was in the eighth grade.
Brown has been a member of the UF men's golf team since his freshman year.
"I think it's just a huge advantage to me in the business world to be able to play golf," Brown said.
"The golf course is a relaxed atmosphere, and a lot of big business deals have been done on the golf course," he added.
Brown's friends working at investment firms often brought their clients to join them on the golf course in West Palm Beach.
"With guys back at my home course, we made so many great connections and met so many great people through tournaments and golf," Brown said.
"And you know, the more connections you have in business, the better," he said.
Brown, who has exchanged numbers or business cards with people he's met playing golf, said he thinks his connections made on the golf course will lead to an internship or a job.
Playing golf has already helped Alex Friedberg, a finance sophomore, with job recommendations.
Last summer, Friedberg played golf with his branch manager while interning at a brokerage firm who brought friends of the "same high business positions," he said.
"After playing golf with him, the relationship was better," Friedberg said.
"He said if I ever needed a recommendation letter I could write whatever I wanted, and he would sign it," he added.
Friedberg has at least five business cards from people he met playing golf.
Friedberg said people who manage golf courses pair up single players with a random partner.
"I've been paired up with some guys that are entrepreneurs or pretty big financial advisers in South Florida," Friedberg said.
"You kind of bond on the golf course. I mean, it's three hours of bonding."
