I learned from one of my other clients on Tuesday that Julian Robertson had passed away that morning, at the age of 90. The client had seen him just a few days before and he was doing quite well; he went into the hospital for a small procedure and things spiraled downward very quickly. But it sounds as though he was still living a good life right up until his last days.
The range of eulogies in print to Mr. Robertson are impressive to read. He was a legend in the financial industry and a mentor to many young bright people in that field, including two of my current clients. His enormous success funded two of his other passions -- bringing great golf to New Zealand, which you all know about, and funding the Robertson Scholarships at Duke and UNC, which you probably didn't know about. Let's just say that golfers and Kiwis are not the only ones to benefit from his generosity over the years.
Julian had a reputation as being demanding to work for, but we got along very well, because there was never any b.s. going on -- if you'd done your homework he valued what you had to say. I also learned a lot from him about how to conduct business. At one point I had mentioned maybe putting in another tee for the third hole, across a little gully that would have required a small bridge to get over there, and when he came back and there was no tee, he asked why. I said I hadn't thought it was worth the money to build the little bridge to get to it, and Mr. Robertson stopped me right there, and said it was the client's job to worry about whether he wanted to spend the money, it was only my job to tell him whether the tee was better or not. He said that I might think of the golf course as a $5 million construction project, but for him it was a $50 million project that revolved around that golf course being as great as it could possibly be, and if it cost $50,000 more to put in a little bridge that was nothing in the big scheme of things. [And then I told him the tee over there wasn't as good, and he responded, "Well why didn't you just say so?"
] In the end, that discussion helped me realize the true value to clients in what we do, and my whole family should thank him for that.
Cape Kidnappers was the kind of canvas you're lucky to get once in a lifetime, but I am sorry that Julian never found the right property in Queenstown to build another project there, as we had discussed. I'm also sorry we never got around to building the "farm" course at Cape Kidnappers, but maybe his sons will be more interested in pursuing it now as a tribute to their mom and dad.