In good company: America's business leaders have their hands full these days. But, as our 2004 CEO Handicap Ranking reveals, they usually find time for golf.

WE COME NOT TO BURY THEM--AS SOME SEEM TO FEAR WHEN they learn it's time for Golf Digest's biennial CEO Handicap Ranking--but to praise them. The 201 men and one woman on the following pages are the best chief executives in the United States. The tops. The creme de la creme.

When it comes to golf, that is.

To make it onto our CEO Ranking, you've got to head a company in the Fortune 500 or the Standard & Poor's 500 and have a current U.S. Golf Association Index or supply an approximate handicap. To make it near the top of our list, you've got to be pretty good. No. 1 Curt Culver of mortgage insurance giant MGIC Investment carries a 2.4 Index, narrowly nudging out No. 2 Jerry Jurgensen of Nationwide, who is a 2.5.

Culver, who interviewed for his first job at MGIC in golf attire while in Milwaukee to compete in the Wisconsin State Open, has club memberships in Wisconsin, Nebraska and Florida. He plays much of his golf, however, at a favorite municipal track in Milwaukee with a group of longtime pals. Of improving from a 2.9 to a 2.4 and going from our No. 2-ranked CEO to No. 1, Culver says: "I'll still stick a tee in the ground and hit the ball. I'll just get even more grief from my friends."

Had we run the numbers last spring instead of the summer, Jurgensen would have been a decimal point ahead of Culver instead of the other way around. A 3.8 in 2002, Jurgensen has cut his handicap by a third. This is not because he gets to hang out with the up-and-coming pros on the Nationwide Tour, he says. Two years ago he was playing 100 rounds a year, but not anymore. "I've been playing less as the demands of my job have increased," Jurgensen says. "But I have improved to be more consistent when I do play." A competitive sort, Jurgensen has been fine-tuning his putting, he says. Don't be surprised to see him with an even lower Index in our 2006 ranking.

Like Jurgensen, many of the CEOs featured in this year's ranking say they concentrate on the short game--the percentage shots. (As Jurgensen points out, "There are more of us who are 55 than 35, and we can't count on hitting it as far as we used to.") Observers of CEOs' games, from teaching professionals to playing partners, substantiate these claims, frequently mentioning our ranked golfers' course-management skills and analytical approaches. No. 26 David Perdue Jr. of Dollar General, who earned an engineering degree from Georgia Tech, charts every round he plays.

In a challenging economy, facing more pressure from shareholders and regulators than ever before, many CEO golfers find their Indexes rising and their number of rounds dropping. Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems is but one example.

In late July a BusinessWeek cover story questioned whether he could turn around the company and hang onto his job. The answer, as it happens, may be rooted in golf. McNealy hasn't played a lot lately, but he did tee it up at Pebble Beach last year with Steve Ballmer of Microsoft (No. 146 on our list with a 15.3 Index). Long known for less-charitable remarks about Bill Gates et al, McNealy says he and Ballmer "had fun." More important, he says, the round "started the process that put together what may be one of the most important partnerships our industry has experienced." How that will play out remains to be seen, but McNealy has abdicated the No. 1 spot he held from our inaugural rankings in 1998 (when he was a 3.9) through 2002 (when he was a 0.3).

In this tough business climate, there has been much turnover among America's largest companies and their top execs. Five of the CEOs in our top 20 this year are first timers on our list: No. 6 John Lundgren of Stanley Works, No. 7 Scott Farmer of Cintas, No. 9 Ken Glass of First Horizon National, No. 12 David Simon of Simon Property Group and No. T-17 Mike Bums of Dana.

Although seeing new names on our list is a positive sign that business leaders still choose golf as a favored pastime, a lamentable change we've observed over the years is worth noting: The number of CEOs who got their start in golf as caddies has declined precipitously since our inaugural 1998 listing. No. 25 Joel Johnson of Hormel (who sends hams at Christmas to every caddie at Garden City Golf Club on Long Island, where he once worked) sees the downside of this trend in career terms: "Now kids don't have the chances we once did to meet and observe leaders in business and government up close. If you had the sense to keep your eyes open and your mouth shut, you could learn a lot."

One thing that hasn't changed: Patricia Russo of Lucent Technologies (T-105 with a 13.2 Index) remains the only woman on our list. We verified her handicap and all the others in this ranking as of July 16. When golfers had Indexes in multiple locations, we abided by the Rules of Golf and went with the lowest number.

The complete 2004 CEO Ranking, with more than 235 golfers, is available online at golfdigest.com/ceo.

HOW TO PLAY WITH THE BOSS

Teeing it up with the head honcho? Don't sweat it. Donald Trump has five tips to help you get through your round

With all the projects I have going on these days, from real-estate development to television shows to golf courses, I only have time to play golf with people from my compaW about once a month. But I enjoy it--and I hope they do, too. Here are a few things to remember when playing with the boss.

1 Just relax. This isn't a job interview, and nobody's going to fire you--that is, unless I catch you cheating.

2 Don't give me any four-foot putts with one-foot breaks. There's nothing more demeaning than that.

3 It's OK if you win, Just make sure you don't beat me too badly.

4 I'm busy

5 Always feel free to tell me how great my courses are. *

* Even if your boss doesn't own courses like I do, tell him how much you enjoy his club anyway.

Top 22 CEO facts & figures

Average Handicap Index: 12.7.

Average age: 55.

Average number of employees: 40,588.

Average 2003 pay: $2.65 million.

Best represented industries: Manufacturing, 25 percent; finance, 19 percent.

Best represented states: California, 30 CEOs, Ohio, 19; New York, 18.

CEOs new to ranking this year: More than 20 percent.

Most improved from 2002 ranking: Thomas Sutton, Pacific Life, 25.5 to 19.0; Patrick Moore, Smurfit-Stone Container, 19.O to 14.1; Bruce Karatz, KB Home, 14.2 to 9.6. In single-digit territory, Jerry Jurgensen Nationwide and William Foley of Fidelity National Financial have improved by 1.3 strokes (Jurgensen to 2.5 and Foley to 3.8).

Donald Trump, a 7-handicapper, owns golf clubs in Florida, New York, New Jersey and California. He is not on Golf Digest's CEO Ranking because his publicly traded company, Trump Hotels & Casino Resorts, is not a member of the S&P 500 or the Fortune 500.