For the Love of the Game

© 2012 The Texas Lawbook.

By Patricia Baldwin
Lifestyle Writer for The Texas Lawbook

Ask Michael Jordan about Houston attorney Nakia Davis, and the sports legend is likely to recall the time he beat her at golf. Ask Nakia Davis about Michael Jordan, and she can recount the 17 rounds she beat him at golf.

The 38-year-old lawyer’s most vivid memories, however, are about the passion “His Airness” showed for the game with the little white ball.

“He’s the most avid golfer I’ve ever met,” says the senior attorney at HCC Insurance Holdings Inc. in Houston.

Davis also discovered that Jordan doesn’t mind some on-course “trash talk.” One of the earliest rounds she played with the basketball superstar closely followed his short-lived foray into minor-league baseball.

“He hit a shot out of bounds,” Davis recalls. “I said, ‘Wow, that looked like one of your baseball swings.’” Jordan gave her “a look,” along with that famous smile. The banter continued.

As for the lopsided “W” column, Davis notes that, at the time, she was playing professional golf on the women’s Futures Tour (now the Symetra Tour) when a mutual friend introduced her to Jordan at a charity golf tournament. The friend hoped Jordan could guide Davis in signing additional sponsors – an ongoing challenge for members of the LPGA’s developmental tour. The introduction led to a sponsorship from Jordan so that Davis could participate in the LPGA’s Qualifying Tournament, and of course, stories that she has shared with many friends over the years.

And while Davis remembers college golf at Vanderbilt University and the 4-plus-year stint on the Tour as “rewarding and fun,” she ultimately had another game plan for life. “I signed with Vanderbilt to have a good education,” she says. So she wasn’t surprised, but bolstered, when a professor wrote on an undergraduate paper: “You’d make a great lawyer.”

Eventually, with the encouragement of a mentor, Davis continued her education in the MBA program at the University of New Orleans and subsequently Loyola University New Orleans School of Law. In 2006, she joined Beck, Redden & Secrest in Houston as an associate. Earlier this year, she moved in-house to HCC.

“I think that, as attorneys, we never stop learning,” Davis says. “In my position at HCC, I use the skills and experience I have developed over the years as a lawyer. I also have the opportunity to be involved in interesting new matters. It’s a great balance.”

Golf helps, too. “To be an avid golfer, or former professional golfer, comes with a certain amount of respect and certain assumptions,” she says. People like to “talk golf.” The sport once prompted a conversation during a law school interview and continues to provide life lessons. Davis quotes a truism her parents taught: “You get out of life what you put into it.” So goes golf.

Golf also has provided the opportunity for Davis to “give back.” Once the recipient of a 4-year scholarship from the Jackie Robinson Foundation and the Bill Dickey Scholarship Association (formerly the National Minority Junior Golf Scholarship Association), she now co-chairs the Southwestern Regional Selection committee for the Jackie Robinson Foundation.

These days, Davis mostly plays golf with her husband, Julio Ayuso, at Sterling Country Club or the adjacent Houston National Golf Club in northwest Houston. As the couple awaits the arrival of their first child in January, their time on the links is limited. Davis describes Ayuso as a “great athlete” (once drafted by the Minnesota Twins). Now busy obtaining his teaching certification, he hopes to leverage his athletic experience to teach baseball and softball at a local middle school or high school. Although he came to golf later in life, he now shares his wife’s passion for the game and often laments, “I wish I would have played sooner.”

WHAT’S IN HER BAG?
When Nakia Davis played professional golf, she was “on staff” with Titleist and TaylorMade, companies that provided her equipment. She still uses Titleist and FootJoy products as well as some TaylorMade clubs, albeit updated models. She left her golf bag at her New Orleans house when she evacuated for Hurricane Katrina and had to replace the set – except for a recovered and much-beloved Titleist Vokey 52-degree wedge. She also is especially fond of a Titleist Scotty Cameron putter she has used since replacing her set after the flooding.

FINAL QUESTION
Favorite golf courses? The answers come easily to Davis: Forest Creek Golf Club in Pinehurst, N.C., and Valderrama Golf Club in the Andalusia region of southern Spain.

What’s in your golf bag? What was your greatest moment on the golf course? What was your greatest game? What’s your favorite golf course – and why? Email your golf-talk to patricia.baldwin@texaslawbook.net.

© 2012 The Texas Lawbook. Content of The Texas Lawbook is controlled and protected by specific licensing agreements with our subscribers and under federal copyright laws. Any distribution of this content without the consent of The Texas Lawbook is prohibited.