Playing golf with your boss is fraught with difficulties. If you are much better than your boss, you stand to make him look bad, pissing him off and risking your performance rating at the next salary review. If you are much worse than your boss, you can slow him down, pissing him off (or even worse, losing him money) and you risk your performance rating at the next salary review. You see my point. Luckily, my own boss at my day job is a good player but patient enough to stick around while I try do dig my way out of the latest bunker while he reached the green in one (and if he's reading this, hopefully he won't think too badly of me at the next salary review, hint hint)

A few tips though if you are planning to play with your boss:

- Make it fun for him. If you can’t play on his level, at least make it entertaining. If you can't be entertaining, be pathetically comical. If he can drive the ball 250m and you can barely reach 150 on a good day with your hot new driver with a force 10 typhoon behind your back, make sure to boink a couple off the red tees just to break up the monotony. Misjudging a putt's distance so badly that it rolled off the green and into a greenside pond is also good for a laugh or two. If you can beat him handily, just stay cool and be quietly supportive, Do NOT deconstruct his swing after every stroke, even though if his swing does look like Charles Barkley's (see the video, have to be seen to be believed). You know that the last thing YOU want to hear is some superior smart ass telling you to tuck your elbows in and start your downswing with your left knee or whatever, especially when you are already having a crap day at the course, so hard to see how your boss will appreciate it coming from a subordinate.

- Forgo the usual cursin’ and spittin’ and yellin’ about. When I play with my buddies, the compliments for a good shot usually range from the unprintable to the positively blasphemous. Keep the audience in mind and keep it in check, at least until you are absolutely certain that he is not a hardcore religious zealot that will dock 10% of your next salary increment for every F-bomb you throw after you skull your wedge into the pond yet again.

-Try to keep the party small. When I first played with my boss, it was at an unfamiliar course with two other bigwigs  that I haven’t met before. To say that I had the butterflies was putting it mildly. That I managed to scrape together a decent round was more a testament of muscle memory than my mental state that day. The next time we played, we played at a familiar course with another colleague that I know quite well. Just try to keep the freakout potential to a minimum, we all remember what a lousy day of the golf does to your soul, unless you are ready to bare your true self to the world and for your boss to see, play it safe.

-Go safe on the apparel front. This might sound crazy, but the first time I played with my boss I was even worrying if wearing shorts are OK. I decided to go with long pants and ended up paying for it as it was a swelteringly hot day, but I noticed my colleague was also wearing long pants on his first day out with the boss, so might not be a bad idea just to be safe on this front. Leave out the bright neon pink golf shirt for now, no matter how much it cost you at Ashworth. You got enough other things to worry about other than being mistaken for a peacock (a bright neon pink one).

-Know your boss. If your boss is a hard-driving, micromanaging nut (we all have experience working for one), prepare your expectations accordingly and get ready to have your every shot dissected and criticized. Just take regular deep breaths, smile and nod. If your boss plays politics, this might be a great chance to go into his good books, so brown-nose accordingly if you're into that sort of thing. If your boss, like mine, is an easy going chap, just relax and enjoy the day, the last thing he might want is for somebody to remind him of what’s going on in the office.

At the end of the day, just go out there and have fun and be cool. Still the best formula. If you had an 80, your boss will be impressed with your poise and composure. If you scored 130, your boss will still be impressed by how you can remain smiling in the middle of a meltdown. Save the head banging and whimpering for later out of earshot, and try to enjoy yourself.

- Himawan Prajogo