By Nick Heidelberger
Soren Jacobsen is an IT Specialist at the office and a legendary hacker outside of it. No, he’s not penetrating cyber security and stealing valuable data, but Soren has cracked one of the toughest codes known to golfers: The work-family-golf balance.
While most weekend warriors spend the work week jockeying for position just to squeeze in a weekend tee time, the married father of two young adults holds down a sometimes 50-plus hour-a-week job, all while playing nearly 100 rounds a year. When it comes to finding time for golf, Soren does have some serious advantages on his side, but living in a year-round golf climate is not one of them. Just don’t tell him that.
“I love golfing in cold weather, so I play here all year round unless there’s snow on the ground,” the Boise, Idaho resident explained matter-of-factly. “I was playing in January last year. If they’ll have me and my ball is bouncing around, I’ll play.”
Weekend rounds in the winter are a small yet meaningful piece to Soren’s puzzle. However, it's what he does Monday through Friday during what you and I refer to as the “offseason” that really tips the scales. Soren works for the Idaho State Legislature as a Senior IT Specialist, and as he succinctly puts it , “If the legislators are here, we’re here.”
The legislative session runs the first three to four months of the calendar year, meaning Soren strings 10 and 11 hour days together from January through March or April. So how does this equate to more golf?
“We don’t get any overtime, but we do get comp hours. What that means is during the spring, summer and fall I have a lot of extra time off beyond just regular vacation that I have to take, that’s paid.”
Simply put, comp hours are paid time off earned for any overtime Soren works. If he works 50 hours in a week, he earns 10 comp hours. The amount of comp hours Soren accumulates during the year depends on how busy he is during the legislative session, but to give it a little context, it was enough to allow him to take a fully paid, two-month road trip in the summer of 2017, during which he played golf in all 50 states to celebrate his 50th birthday. In other words, it’s significant.
Speaking of significant, it’s time to introduce Melanie. Significant other, wife, even better half don’t do Melanie justice. Soren confirms “It’s more than fair to say that she’s the MVP of all of this.”
While the game of golf itself isn’t for Melanie, many of the fringe benefits are. The outdoors, the social interaction, the long walk and disconnect from the demands of adult life. So she accompanies Soren often, but rather than carrying clubs she brings her camera and racks up shots of a different variety.
“The biggest thing I can do is involve her whenever possible and have her come out with me. She really enjoys it and she’s part of what I’m doing. She’s managed to eliminate all the frustration of golf and still get to go,” Soren said.
In fact, Melanie was a driving force, literally, behind the 50-state road trip. She spent months leading up to the trip planning routes, accommodations and other logistics, and bore the brunt of the driving while Soren documented every detail for his future book “Fairways and Freeways.”
“One of the things she really enjoys doing with me is going out, she’s taking pictures, she’s interacting with me and my golf, so she really enjoys that. So she suggests these trips more. We went to Vegas earlier this year. We played at Wolf Creek and Sand Hollow, her idea entirely.”
Although Soren gets the green light to peg it up more than most married golfers, he still has to scrap and claw for his practice sessions, getting a taste of the tactics most weekend warriors employ routinely.
“Melanie loves going with me when I play golf, but she doesn’t necessarily love it when I go to practice or play by myself when she’s not with me,” he explained. “The golf course is on my way to work. So I’ll get up about an hour earlier than I need to and on my way to work I’ll hit the driving range and putting green and get some practice in, then I’ll get to work on time so I don’t affect my workday and I don’t affect my time with Melanie or the kids, if they’re around. I need to practice and work on my game but I’m not taking anyone else’s time. All I do is get up a little bit earlier which isn’t a big sacrifice to be able to do something you like to do.”
While many golfers tip-toe around an upcoming tee time, Soren has a different subject that he sometimes might prefer to avoid. That 50-day, 50-state road trip from 2017 was pitched as an opportunity to publish a book, but that process has incurred a couple slow play penalties over the years.
“Really, the closest thing to a friction point that we have is the book. We’d both like to see it done but she would really like to see it done,” Soren said. “There’s been times where I’ve said ‘I’m going to go play this course and write a review’ and she’s like ‘Well maybe you should focus on the book.’ We talked about it the whole time we were on the trip that this was something we were going to do, and now it’s three-and-a-half years later and I’m still struggling to get it done.”
It’s not for a complete lack of effort. Soren has written about two books worth of material over the years, but after edits, revisions and rewrites, has yet to complete the final product.
For his parting advice, Soren offers this:
“It’s just a matter of making sure that your habit doesn’t overshadow keeping some sort of parity at home.”
Words of wisdom from the man who’s cracked the code.
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