Irish firm Arthur Cox has defended building a staff golf course in its Belfast office.

The firm has constructed six putting greens in an area normally reserved for seminars. An insider complained to RollOnFriday that it was an odd use of money when salary increases for the firm's Belfast lawyers have, they claimed, been frozen for the last fore! five years. But corporate and commercial partner Alan Bisset denied that a pay freeze was in operation, and told RollOnFriday that partners funded the cost of the putting greens themselves.

"I need a caddy"

 
And, although Belfast managing partner Alan Taylor cites golf as a hobby, the Arthur Cox Links is not a partner-only perk. Staff have spent lunch breaks thwacking golf balls at each other in a series of inter-departmental play-offs over the last year, with entrance fees being donated to Marie Curie Cancer Care. Which on balance is probably a better use of time than the traditional listless browsing of Amazon until 2pm.