Every year, apparently, there's a new golf course.  I'm not talking about the actual golf course where people hit little white balls into small holes in the ground.  I'm talking about the so-called place where business deals are made.  Over the last few years I've heard that motorcycles, cigar bars, power breakfasts/lunches, World of Warcraft (the most outrageous of them all) and most recently, NASCAR are all new golf courses.

Maybe this is where my conservatism shines through, but I think board rooms and plain old offices are the original and current golf courses.  Sure, enjoy your day sweating your balls off at a NASCAR race, talk a little business and such, but on Monday, the phones, email and fax machines (people still use them) light up and the real deals are made using old-fashioned statistical and market analysis, risk assessment and management and financial forecasting.