And Then the Roof Caved In

Chapter 9

Mortgaging Merrill’s Future

 

 

 

And the man played golf. Alone. Stan O’Neal, chairman and CEO of Merrill Lynch, played at least 13 rounds of golf between August 12 and September 30, 2007. He played at clubs such as Shinnecock Hills in Southampton, New York; Vineyard Golf Club in Martha’s Vineyard; the Purchase Country Club in Purchase, New York; and Waccabuc Country Club in Upstate New York. And almost every time O’Neal played, he played alone.

I’m not telling you this to pick on Stan O’Neal. CEOs are allowed to golf, especially on weekends at the end of the summer. To judge from his USGA Handicap Index History, O’Neal is quite a proficient golfer, typically producing scores in the mid-to-low eighties. It’s nice to see evidence of someone who not only enjoys a sport, but plays it well.

What’s weird about it all is that while Stan O’Neal was playing golf, the company he had run with an iron fist for the last five years was about to implode. It’s hard to imagine what was going through O’Neal’s mind as he traversed the links in the late summer days of 2007. Was he clearing his thoughts to try to fashion a plan for Merrill’s resurgence? Was he focused on understanding the roots of the problems his storied 93-year-old firm was only beginning to acknowledge? Was he thinking about his next shot?

After speaking to colleagues of O’Neal’s who spent time with him during those August and September days, I think O’Neal already knew the end was near. He knew he might soon lose his ...