Golf often can be used as a parable for everyday life.MarkTwain, faced with the frustrations that all golfers feel, oncereferred to the game in his usual avuncular way as “a goodwalk spoiled.” John Feinstein used this quotation as the titleof a book about the often painful struggles that golf profes-sionals have as they try to get and then maintain their cardfor the Profession Golf Association (PGA) tour, the pinnacleof their profession.While all golfers can be frustrated withthe struggle, most are willing to persist at any level of playand to work hard to improve, risking primarily their pride.

Jack Nicklaus is often asked to name his favorite shot ingolf. He replies that it is the second shot on the 8th hole atPebble Beach. You have to hit your tee shot 220 yards uphillto a landing area that you can’t see from the tee. A perfectshot will leave you near a cliff with the need to hit a secondperfect shot over an ocean-filled chasm another 190 yards toa green that seems as small as your kitchen table.Playing thishole is a lesson in risk versus reward,as Tiger Woods showedus in his record-setting win of the US Open Tournament atPebble Beach this June. I have had the delight of playing thishole on 3 occasions. The first 2 times my ball slightlyincreased the level of the surrounding Pacific Ocean,and mypenalty was scoring a triple bogey 7. On one occasion, I hita perfect 5 wood that flew ever so magically to land and stayon the green below the hole. Two nervous putts later I wasable to mark a glorious par 4 on my score card, and for onebrief moment I felt like Tiger Woods. For me, the risk wasworth the reward because the reward was forever remem-bering that one great moment and being able to easily for-get all the unmemorable bad shots that I played.

Some rewards are never worth the risk, such as trying tohit a ball when you may hit a tree or a rock and injure your-self.Risk management is an increasingly popular calculationmade by businesses to maximize profit. Car manufacturersin the past have been accused of not spending a few dollarsper car on safety features in the hope that potential lawsuitswould cost much less than the aggregate cost of spendinga small amount on millions of cars. Society and the courtshave deemed such behavior as unacceptable, awardingvery large verdicts to seriously injured plaintiffs. Airlines, intheir desire to avoid empty seats and loss of revenue, arenotorious for overbooking flights in the expectation thatsome customers will be “no shows.” The risk of miscalcula-tion is associated with significant financial penalties.Whenthis behavior is excessive, it attracts the fury of customersand the attention of regulators, forcing changes in policy.

The ASE was recently exposed to a similar action that isapplied by hotels to guests who have guaranteed reserva-tions but are denied rooms because the hotel,using the air-

AMERICAN SOCIETY OF ECHOCARDIOGRAPHY NEWS

President’s MessageA GOOD WALK SPOILED

line strategy, has purposely overbooked. When this hap-pens on an airline you get “bumped,” and when it appliesto a hotel room you are “walked.”The hotel usually offersto put you up, that is “walk”you to another hotel—not nec-essarily of the same quality, often paying for 1 room/nightand guaranteeing that you will have a room at your pre-ferred hotel for any subsequent nights. Needless to say,those walked usually do not enjoy the experience.

The ASE recently held its 11th annual scientific sessionsin Chicago, and for most attendees, the meeting was a greatsuccess. However, the Sheraton Chicago, our headquartershotel, gambled with our members and we all lost.Apparently, hotels carefully estimate the number of antici-pated guest cancellations and plan accordingly.This June,Chicago hosted a large number of meetings, and pre-dictably, during our sessions there were very few vacanthotel rooms anywhere in the city.Remarkably, the SheratonChicago “walked”72 of our attendees, forcing them to seekaccommodations elsewhere, typically in far less satisfactorysurroundings and at a considerable distance from our meet-ing site.This either represented extremely poor planning orthe irresponsible willingness of the hotel to risk the com-fort and satisfaction of far too many of our members.

Most people are unaware of the magnitude of walkingthat happens to hotel guests with confirmed and guaran-teed reservations.They are deeply offended about such apractice and are very surprised that it often occurs.Theirreasonable assumption is that if they are responsible for

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Starwood in the past and hope to continue to do so in thefuture. I am pleased to report that the ASE and Starwoodhave reached a financial settlement and will do the fol-lowing for hotel guests who were walked to other hotels,causing some to abandon the meeting prematurely. Anyguest registered for the ASE meeting who was walked willbe offered free registration and 3 free hotel nights in aconvention hotel near the Seattle convention center forthe 12th annual scientific sessions in June 2001.While thismay not completely take away the anger at being walked,we hope that these attendees will return to the meetingand enjoy the very unique educational experience andcollegial environment that is provided.

The ASE hopes that hotels will learn a lesson from walk-ing our members and guests.We will take every action pos-sible to prevent such occurrences, and if they do happen,there will be a serious penalty to be paid for such behav-ior. We will ensure that the “walk” that is good for thehotel’s bottom line will be instead “a good walk spoiled.”

Harry Rakowski, MDPresident

American Society of Echocardiography

payment for a hotel room if they cancel too late, then thehotel is similarly responsible if it cannot live up to its con-tractual obligation to provide them with a hotel room.TheASE is contractually responsible for payment for unfilledrooms that form our guaranteed block of rooms for ourattendees. We therefore hold the hotel in breach of thiscontract when our members are walked.

While the ASE is not responsible for the actions of theSheraton Chicago, we share the obligation to make thingsright. A tremendous amount of hard work by many staffand society members goes into making a highly success-ful and productive meeting. An irresponsible action by ahotel can spoil much of our efforts.Most attendees expectthat the ASE will protect their interests at our annual sci-entific sessions, and on the basis of past experience, theyhave come to expect a high-quality, well-organized meet-ing.The reputation of the ASE suffers when such problemsoccur. We take the needs of our members very seriouslyand will do what it takes to right wrongs. The senior man-agement of Starwood, the corporation that manages theSheraton Chicago,has been very sincere in their apologiesto the ASE for inconveniencing our affected attendees.Wehave enjoyed a very good working relationship with

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