Why Euh takes yips in stride

By Oh Young-jin

Euh Yoon-dae, the 66-year-old chairman of KB Financial, likes sports in general and golf in particular.

As an avid sportsman, knowing the exact moment to strike a ball with force comes natural for Euh. His interest in golf began while studying for his Ph.D. in business management at the University of Michigan. He had “just enough time” to fall in love with the game of golf.

There are three reasons to say, “just enough time.”

First, Michigan is a “snow state” with a climate that allows less than a half year of playing golf.

Second, Euh’s leisure was compressed into a short period wedged in the middle of his thesis-writing. He took up golf to briefly get away from his studies and get a breath of fresh air.

Although an intense love of any kind often doesn’t last long, his love for golf has stuck with him. He appreciates the beauty of the game, which boils down to competition ― ultimately competition with yourself ― bringing the best and worst out of you for view in plain sight.

When Tiger Woods in his prime said, “No matter how good you are, you can still be better. That’s the exciting part of it.I Golfers would credit him for speaking for all of them.

Lucky for Euh, golf has been the source of more joy than heartbreak. That was before he became the leader of KB Financial, the largest financial services provider that includes Kookmin Bank among its affiliates.

In his golfing heyday, Euh’s best drive would travel over 300 yards, an enviable distance for any golfer. Euh fondly remembers a par-four hole on a golf course in Anyang, southwest of Seoul, where his drive cut across a hazard to land on the green. He holed out for an eagle.

Euh, by and large, has managed well to cope with the aging factor in his game. Age accompanies wisdom that youth defies at its own peril. In other words, experienced golfers would be less prone to making costly derring-dos. A big challenge off the fairway, however, affected him.

In July, when Euh took over KB it was in the worst shape in years, suffering from significant major erosion of its bottom line with its reputation tarnished by a string of unhappy incidents. He had to do what he had to in the manner he knew best ― giving it all, aggressively.

Euh is not the kind of golfer who easily falls into a mental trap and doesn’t have time to allow gremlins into his game. He is a speedy golfer, a habit from his Ann Arbor days when he was used to finishing 18 holes in under three hours.

So is Euh coming down with a case of the yips? The yips come with age, often striking players with 20 years or more experience. The cause is often said to be changes in chemical balances, according to experts, but we know that even greenhorn players often blame them for their bad days on the green.

Even if he has the yips, Euh appears to be taking them in his stride, when he admits that he is past his peak as a golfer but subscribes to the sport’s conventional wisdom that “some days are better than others.”

Once he was a golfer with a handicap in low single digits. Now, he may not get upset at playing one over par on any given hole.

Does he really keep his peace of mind over a score card that is pushing 18 over par for an 18-hole, round of golf? For a competitive mind like Euh’s, it would be a tall order.

Have we missed anything?

One factor that stands out in Euh’s case of the yips is that his game apparently deteriorated after he joined KB. After a year under Euh’s leadership, KB is in a better shape now, with its latest quarterly profit reaching over 750 billion won. Some speculate that KB’s profit will go up to 2.5 trillion won this year and is ready to gain traction for further expansion.

Little doubt, the Euh-led reform initiatives have played a big role starting with the rationalization of its bloated payrolls and shift in focus to efficient business-first policy, highlighted by his customer-oriented activities.

On his constant tours across the country, Euh pays five or six visits to sites where his customers are and has lunch with a dozen key clients, listening to them and addressing their grievances, a KB official said.

While in office, he has to cope with one meeting after another, constantly finding himself in the position of making important decisions. “It must be extremely tiring,” the official said.

During the weekend, he intermingles with important customers, sometimes entertaining them with a round of golf. Of course, he can’t play purely for the fun of the game. Besides some spillovers from his working hours that may get in the way, Euh has to play, obviously taking into consideration that his fellow players are also his customers.

That is a big departure for Euh from pre-KB days.

He had been greatly sought out for his expertise on a variety of issues from a number of government agencies, corporations and schools while serving as president of Korea University, one of the best private schools.

At the one-hour interview at his Yeouido office, Euh checked changes in KB’s share price four or five times on his mobile phone and asked his aide to explain why it was falling. He knew that it had been on a bullish run for days, the likelihood for the fall being that it was subject to a correction.

“Having a lot of thoughts often kills one’s game,” Euh said, while glancing at his mobile.

If a poor round of golf is the price for a better KB performance, it appears that Euh would be willing to pay.