Five Minutes with Shay Smart

For golfers and investors out there, you might find golf and investing share a lot of similar attributes. In this, the seventh in a series of interviews presented by Charles Schwab, Hong Kong, Ltd., Shay Smart - one of Hong Kong’s leading PGA-qualified instructors - talks about his favourite course, the investment lessons he’s learned over time and his respect for his mentor, Davis Love III

Shay Smart - one of Hong Kong’s leading PGA-qualified instructors

What connections do you see between golf and investing?

Time and trust. Taking the time to plan how you want to invest - preferably in harness with a professional - also applies to golf: you need to spend time working on your game plan if you want to see good results. I place trust in the people who manage my investments; likewise, people put their trust in me and other qualified PGA professionals when they want to improve their golf.

When did you start playing?

I started playing at 13 in my hometown of Houston, Texas. My father was a caddie growing up and my great-grandfather was from St Andrews, Scotland and made golf clubs, so golf has certainly been in my family for a long time.

How often do you play?

That’s the thing with being in the golf industry - you don’t actually get to play that often! If I get two rounds a month I’m doing pretty well.

What's been your best ever round?

Under tournament conditions it would be the 70 I had when taking my playing ability test for my PGA certificate. This was back at Mississippi State University and the funny thing about the round was that I played the first seven holes with only one eye - one of my contact lenses had fallen out! Bizarrely, not being able to see that wel l- and not thinking about golf - seemed to help.

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