"The ability of a big hedge fund to get several hours alone with a corporate executive on a golf course reveals the great information disparity that exists between ordinary investors and the savviest of traders."

Matthew Goldstein gives people more reason to love golf, profiling golf-pro-to-the-hedge-fund-stars Sam Evans, who brokers rounds at elite courses for hedge funders and other corporate tycoons. Warning, this is mildly painful reading.

And Wall Street investment firms are famous for sponsoring charity golf outings that are widely attended by hedge fund traders, mutual fund managers and corporate executives. Investment firms and mutual funds often arrange similar "corporate access" events -- typically conferences and dinners -- where money managers and analysts are invited to meet and schmooze with business leaders.

Yet, the ability of a big hedge fund to get several hours alone with a corporate executive on a golf course reveals the great information disparity that exists between ordinary investors and the savviest of traders. "To some extent, the notion of a level playing field and a truly public market is a myth," said Donald Langevoort, a Georgetown University Law Center professor.

Evans did not want to talk to Goldstein for the story.

What's clear is that there aren't many on Wall Street, much less at a hedge fund, like Evans, who gets paid to play golf three or four times a week with corporate executives and other rich people at historic courses like Merion Golf Club in suburban Philadelphia or Shinnecock Hills Golf Club on Long Island.

In fact, one person who knows Evans and has golfed with him calls him something of a "pioneer" in the $1.7 trillion hedge fund industry. Others, upon learning of Evans and his unusual post, expressed a sentiment similar to the one stated by the manager of another hedge fund: "How do I get a job like that?"

Evans, a 1987 Harvard Business School graduate who was named one of Wall Street's top institutional equity salesmen in a Reuters survey in 2000, declined to comment through an SAC Capital spokesman. Like his boss, Cohen, he appears to guard his privacy vigorously -- a fairly intensive Internet search for a picture of him on the links came up empty. Jonathan Gasthalter, SAC's spokesman, also declined to discuss Cohen's decision to hire Evans and his unusual corporate role.