July 3, 2025 • 26 mins
Golf betting isn't about the money—it's about winning, pride, and having someone else open their wallet at the clubhouse after your round. Rich Easton shares hilarious and memorable stories from his experiences with various betting games on the golf course.
• The Nassau bet provides multiple ways to "get off the schneid" with bets for front nine, back nine, and total match
• A group of skilled super seniors battle weekly, with one team finally breaking their losing streak
• A $2 Nassau bet nearly escalates to physical violence when a disputed ball leads to repeated profanities
• A skins game where 17 holes are pushed before one lucky player hits a career shot on 18 to win $180
• An outrageous skins game in Arizona featuring Las Vegas strippers on every tee box and green
• The challenges of tracking player order and dots in the Wolf game
• How Animal Golf creates financial penalties for mistakes like hitting into hazards or three-putting
• A strategic player who deliberately played conservative golf on the final hole to win $350 from his opponents
If you have crazy golf betting stories, email me at rbeaston21@gmail.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
You're listening to Tales from the First Tee.
I'm your host, rich Easton,recording from beautiful
Charleston, south Carolina.
If this is the first timeyou're listening, well welcome.
And if you're returning, thanksfor coming back.
I recently did an episode ongolf betting and if you're
(00:29):
returning, thanks for comingback.
I recently did an episode ongolf betting and basically I
just shared my thoughts on whypeople do it and some of the
games that we play.
But I've gotten some reallygood feedback that suggests, hey
, if you have these experiences,why don't you just share some
of the experiences and some ofthe bets?
And I'm like, yeah, okay, Ilike that idea.
So here you go.
Oh yeah, and this episode'sexplicit In the Nassau bet.
(00:56):
There are a lot of ways to getoff the schneid.
I mean you got three bets forthe match front back and overall
you got presses.
And then, if you're playingjunk, you get paid on eagles,
birdies, sandies, froggies andchippies.
There are a lot of ways to getoff the schneid and either win
it all or just minimize yourlosses.
We have some really talentedsuper seniors that tend to
(01:19):
compete with each other at leastonce a week, and I like when
they come to the first tee boxand at least three of the four
usually get there once a weekand I like when they come to the
first tee box and at leastthree of the four usually get
there 10 minutes before and wekind of chat it up.
They kind of tell me abouttheir games every week.
We talk about some other things, but mostly they're talking
about the matches that they'vehad the last few times with each
(01:40):
other.
And so the four guys are Coe,willie, billy and Marvin.
Coe and Willie are alwayspartners and they're always
getting beaten by Billy andMarvin.
I think Marvin played in highschool, played in college and
maybe even did a regional tourafter school.
I mean, this guy's got a reallynice swing.
But Coe and Willie are alsopretty good golfers.
(02:04):
I think each one of them are afive or lower handicap and most
at least three of them have shottheir age several times and
under par recently.
These guys are pretty good.
I love when they come to thefirst tee box and I tend to
always hear from Coe that Billyand Marvin just somehow figure
(02:26):
out how to beat him every week.
I mean, marvin is just soconsistent and Billy pulls shit
out of his ass all the time, butthey're beating him all the
time.
This past weekend they playthis game, they play a Nassau, I
think they play 5-5-5 withdollar junk and I think auto
presses you know there could be30 or $40 on the line any given
(02:48):
weekend.
Coe's always telling me he'sgetting beat.
And this one day recently, asthey come and make the turn from
nine to 10, and I'm kind ofstationed between nine and 10,
coe purposely slows down andtells me we got these guys today
, which I thought you know.
It's like a kid telling his momthe ice cream truck is in town.
(03:09):
I mean Coe was excited.
These guys take off, they playthe back and I'm starting other
folks and all of a sudden, whenthey come from 18, they also
pass by where I'm stationed andCoe just comes up, gives me the
thumbs up and he goes hey, wegot him, buddy, like 28 or 30
bucks Now for these guys.
It's not a lot of money, but thepride of saying you beat these
(03:33):
other guys that are beating youevery week, I mean that was just
awesome.
I mean, is it really the sizeof the bet?
Other than guys like DJ who wonover $18 million so far this
year, I don't know that manypeople could remember what they
(03:54):
did with their golf winnings andif you do, it must have been a
pretty good day for you.
To me, playing for $2 or $5 or$1, it's basically the same
thing.
It's about winning.
It's about coming to 18 orgoing to the clubhouse after and
somebody else has to open theirwallet this week and pay you.
(04:16):
The payment is just basically astatement that says you won
today, so it feels awesome, nomatter what it is.
We were playing a Nassau a fewmonths ago and we're playing
2-2-2.
We're not even playing junk andpresses were debatable
(04:38):
depending on how many holes theother guys were down if we'd
accept their press.
But anyway, I digress, we'replaying this game, it's a Nassau
game and it's again, it's for$2.
So we get to this one hole.
My partner and Clyde one of theguys that we're playing against
hit their balls way left tothis out-of-bounds area.
(05:02):
We go up and we're looking fortheir balls.
And you know, I think there's arule this year where the amount
of time you're allowed to lookfor a ball was cut from five to
three minutes.
But you know, when you'replaying with your buddies, it's
like whatever rules you want tobreak you kind of agree to it
and hopefully everybody'splaying from the same book.
We're looking for their balls.
(05:23):
I think five minutes goes by itcould have been more.
It was a long time and mypartner picked up a Titleist one
and said, hey, clyde, isn'tthis your ball?
And Clyde's like, no, no, I'mplaying the Titleist, but that's
not my ball.
My partner knows this guypretty well and is like, yeah,
this is his ball, so he pocketsit.
(05:46):
My partner also hit it out ofbounds, so he decided, instead
of going back to the tee box,he'll take a two stroke penalty
and hit from there.
We go up to the green and beforewe go to the green we look at
Clyde and say, hey, man, thehunt's off.
All right, this expedition hasgot to stop.
There are people on the tee boxbehind us.
We've waited a long time.
He's like, yeah, okay, okay.
My partner and I ride up.
(06:07):
We get up to the green and allof a sudden Clyde yells found it
and he hits this career shot.
This is a par five Second shotup on the green, misses the
eagle putt, makes the birdieputt and seemingly wins the hole
.
Makes the birdie putt andseemingly wins the hole.
(06:29):
But we're like wait a minute.
We have waited a long time andwe looked for your ball as long
as we could.
Man, we all agreed that doesn'tcount.
Yeah, we won the hole.
So now Clyde, who is just soupset he lost his ball, just so
upset he lost his ball juststarts coming at us and yells
fuck you, fuck you.
And he's yelling it louder andlouder, walking one, two, three
(06:52):
steps at a time towards us.
He's like fuck you.
And I'm like dude, it's likethis is kind of a ridiculous
argument, right, so let's justmove on.
We won the hole're down threeholes, but this guy's so
competitive, he wanted to winhis two dollars because my
partner was his brother andthese guys are always going at
(07:16):
it.
He calms down, we play the nexttwo holes and my partner, his
brother, hits incredible shotson both holes and we win two
holes in a row.
Now we're down one hole.
Clyde gets pissed off again thatwe're even inching up and
(07:37):
starts trying to explain himselffrom three holes ago.
And we're like man, clyde, it'sover, man, it's done, let's,
let's just move on, let's play.
And then he starts his beret tofuck you's again.
It was like figaro, figaro.
I mean the guy just keepscoming at us and he's like fuck
you.
And I'm like I'm thinking likea few things could happen here.
Somebody could have a four ironwrapped around their neck and
(08:00):
if it's me that's a bad day, andif it's him, that's a bad day
for me as well.
Nobody wins in this.
I got in my cart, my partnerand I got in and we just drove
away and you know Clyde'syelling you owe us money and I
was like he had just goneapeshit.
$2 bets we're playing a Nassaufor $2, and it's about to come
(08:27):
to a fight.
It's like MMA hits the 15th teebox.
It was ridiculous, but we'reall kind of crazy.
We're nuts, we're golfers.
Skins are also another greatbetting game that we see a lot
on the first tee box.
(08:47):
We got this group that comesout every weekend.
I mean these guys are fun.
I mean their coolers are loadedand these guys can play golf.
Chip, will, jake and my man,casey, are all good golfers and
man do.
They know how to make it fun.
So they play a Sk skins gameevery week and I think they
played $10 skins with dollarjunk and what I heard was for 17
(09:15):
straight holes there was a push.
At least two guys were matchingthe low every hole.
Guys were matching the lowevery hole.
I mean that is rare to havethat happen.
So during the match also,there's one guy in the foursome
I won't mention his name who wasjust playing like shit.
This guy never matched a lowfor 17 holes and now we get to
(09:40):
18.
The match is going up to 180bucks plus whatever junk they
have.
All three of the other guys hitand they're all somewhere on
the green and this guy who Iwon't mention hits the career
shot like a foot or so from thehole.
He makes the birdie putt.
(10:01):
The other three guys miss theirbirdie putts and make pars.
This guy walks off the greenwith $180 for playing one good
hole.
I mean skin games, man, they'regreat for that.
So I see these same guysupstairs in the bar and they're
(10:23):
having a putting game and I justdecided these guys are so much
fun I want to play with them.
So I get out there and $30later I'm thinking these guys
just fleeced me.
My most memorable skins gametook place north of Tempe,
(10:44):
arizona, at a golf track locatedin the middle of this
undeveloped desert area no homes, no public roads, except one
road that led up to the course.
When we pull up to the courseafter driving, it seemed like
well over an hour.
I was just thinking to myselfwhat the fuck are we doing way
(11:04):
out here?
I mean, there's so many coursescloser to where we work, where
my hotel was, but apparentlythere was a big skins game here
and my partner asked me to anteup a hundred dollars for skins
and I thought you know why not.
So we walk in the clubhouse andthere is this photographer
(11:25):
taking a picture of 50 strippersthat apparently came in from
Las Vegas just for this event.
And I look at my buddy and hegoes hey, did I tell you they're
going to be strippers?
And I'm like no, but this isgoing to be some skins game.
After we gawked for a while,there was an announcement that
(11:46):
came on one of the loudspeakersthat basically told all
foursomes to get to their cartsand head out to their designated
holes.
I guess it was like a shotgunstart where you start at
whatever hole they have you on.
There were 18 foursomes, 72people that were playing in this
were 18 foursomes, 72 peoplethat were playing in this, and
(12:09):
there had to be at least another25 guys just sitting in the bar
just waiting for this event tohappen.
We get in our carts, we rideout to the holes and within a
few minutes there are dancers onevery tee box and every green.
I shit you not Okay.
So now I'm a little conflicted.
I mean, who doesn't like thatkind of entertainment?
But I also thought I was thereto try and win a lot of money
(12:32):
playing golf.
So I talked to my buddy and Isaid hey, man, I want to take
this seriously.
And he goes what you think youra hundred dollars went to kind
of kiddie that we're all goingto win.
He's like man.
We just paid the dancers toshow up.
Now you got to tip them Withina very short time.
(12:54):
All these American presidentsare being stuffed, tossed and
gifted on the golf course.
I mean, it gave the course awhole new look.
There were demonstrations onhow to do things on the green
that I didn't expect to see on agreen.
And I get to one tee box and oneof my buddies paid one of these
(13:17):
strippers to try and distractme when I was trying to hit this
par three.
It was like a hundred yards.
Who remembers right?
I was thinking about somethingelse at the time.
So the stripper gets up behindme and I'm getting up and I'm
kind of starting to get it.
You know, do my pre-shotroutine.
I'm waggling the club, I'm notthinking about the hole.
This girl comes up behind me,bends down and does a reach
(13:40):
around and I'm thinking I'mgoing to try and hit this ball
while she's holding my balls.
So I take my club back, I hitthe ball I can't remember where
it went, it certainly didn't goin the hole and that follow
through was so goosed that thehead of my club almost came
around and hit her right on topof the head.
My buddy told me that like afew minutes later.
(14:01):
I'm like oh fuck, this is, I'mgoing to kill somebody.
We summoned down the courtgirls.
We get as much libation aspossible and we saw things on a
golf course that I've never seenin a strip club.
I mean it was awesome.
What a skins game.
I know that one's a hard one tofollow.
(14:22):
When we're not playing skinsgames with strippers on the
course, we like to play a gamecalled Wolf.
It's another game of changingloyalties, because pretty much
every hole you really don't knowwho your partner is going to be
until each person tees off.
I think there are three thingsthat are the hardest of this
(14:43):
game and they're really simple.
Number one is you've got tofind a scorekeeper who's willing
to do it.
You got to establish the valueof the dots, because they add up
and someone's got to do math,and you got to establish an
order of the players in whichyou hit.
And the funny thing is, eventhough we have played this so
many times the funny thing is,even though we have played this
(15:07):
so many times, we establish anorder on the first tee box.
Let's say I go first and Billygoes second.
We get to the second tee boxand we actually have to think
okay, who's second?
Again, and Billy's like I amOkay, so Billy follows me.
Well, you get a few holes intoit and people are just so into
the game and so into theirpartners that the last thing
they're thinking about is whotees up on the next hole, and
(15:29):
that's playing in the moment.
So almost every time we get toa tee box, one of us has to go
to the scorecard and say, oh,okay, that's right, you know,
rich, you're next, you go afterBilly, and so it's just funny,
and maybe it's just seniorgolfers, I don't know, but we
kind of do it a lot.
And one of the other bigresponsibilities for the
(15:49):
scorekeeper is to keep track ofthe dots as we go, because when
we get to the 16th tee box, he'sgot to be able to tell us who
is the farthest behind, who'swon the least amount of dots,
because we want to give this guyan opportunity to be the wolf
and try and get some of hismoney back.
Now, when you're the wolf, youcould either pick a partner you
(16:12):
could wait to the end and decideto go yourself or you could
call double wolf up front, whichbasically means I don't care
what you guys do, I'm going towin this hole, so come after me.
I don't care what you guys do,I'm going to win this hole, so
come after me.
We're playing this one day andwe're playing with four of us.
We all work together in Chicagoand we're playing a course I
think it was Pine Meadow inMundelein, and so we're playing
(16:36):
and there's one guy, lesterthat's just having a shit day.
This guy is getting like nodots, zero Whatever hole he is
partnered with.
Somebody on the other team iswinning that hole, so Lester has
got zero and everybody else hassomething.
We get to 16 and ourscorekeeper is like yeah, I
(16:59):
think this is easy to figure out.
Lester has no dots.
And after we laugh and call hima bunch of shit, he's like okay
, guys, fuck you.
He gets up to the tee box.
Now he gets to be the wolf andhe's like double fucking wolf.
And we're like all right, herewe go.
So Lester gets up and he ducks,hooks his drive into the woods
(17:23):
at 16.
It's like oh, oh, no, lester,he pulls another one out, hits
it in the woods again.
We all hit our shots.
We obviously beat Lester on thathole and he had doubled the bet
.
So now he's even deeper.
He gets up to 17.
There's no secret.
He gets to be Wolf again and hegets up and he goes double
(17:44):
fucking Wolf.
Now we're on this par three.
It's like innocuous hole.
There's just a few woods on theleft, it's pretty
straightforward, and there'slanding areas all over the place
, not too many traps.
Lester gets up and he's pissedand he's yelling double Wolf,
like he said it a few times.
He gets up and he duck hookshis shot into woods that I
(18:06):
didn't think anybody could hitand he's like no, he could take
it out from the edge of thewoods and maybe he could chip up
, maybe chip it in.
Lester says fuck it.
He gets up, hits another one inthe woods.
He just lost his second bet.
Now he get to 18.
Obviously, lester gets to goagain.
(18:27):
Lester gets to go again.
Lester gets up and he's likefucking double wolf again and he
hits this incredible drive.
This hole's like 440 yards andit's protected by a pond in the
front, but Lester hit his ball.
It looked like it went almostall the way up, but we could see
it right.
It's like right before the pond.
What a shot.
So the three of us all get tohit and everybody said a pretty
(18:48):
good shot.
I hit mine directionally whereLester was, but certainly not as
far.
So now we're getting up to ourballs and one of the guys who
hit a good shot he's a littleoff the fairway, so we kind of
all knew where it went.
We're all looking for it andlooking for it.
Lester's getting anxious, andhe's an anxious guy anyway.
He's not having a good round.
He's losing all this money.
(19:10):
Now he's getting anxiousbecause he knows he hit a good
drive and he just says ready,golf, right.
Guys like go ahead, lester.
Lester goes up to what to to aball in the fairway.
He sees it's tight list and hehits a career shot, maybe five
feet from the pin and it juststicks like a dart and we're
looking and saying, okay,lester's trying to get all his
(19:32):
money back here.
Two of the other guys hit it upand now it's up to me and I go
up to my ball and I look at itand it's a Titleist 1.
It's got a dot and it's got acompany logo, exactly like the
ball Lester was playing, becauseI was playing a Titleist 5.
(19:53):
So I look at my buddies and I'mlike what do we do?
And this guy hit out of turn,he hit the wrong ball.
Do we penalize him?
And the guys just looked at meand said fuck him.
And Lester lost a shitload ofmoney that day.
Now I haven't played this gamein a while, but this was one of
(20:13):
my favorite games when we usedto go out with workmates and
play this game called animalgolf.
In an animal golf, all you'redoing is adding focus to the
shitty things that you don'twant to do.
The way we played it, we hadthese four hard plastic cards,
each with a different animal agorilla, a frog, a camel and a
(20:36):
snake.
Each one represents somethingyou just don't want to do on a
golf course.
So a gorilla's out of bounds, afrog is hitting it in the water
, a camel is hitting it in abunker and a snake is the last
person on the hole to make athree putt.
I'll share how we play the gameand I'll tell you a little story
about somebody who really knewthe rules.
(20:58):
So what we do is we establishat first a scorekeeper and we
call him the zookeeper.
Then we establish the value ofeach card and what we ask the
zookeeper to do is just keeptrack of the value and keep
track of who has what card, andkeep track of who has what card.
And here's how it works thefirst time somebody hits a ball
(21:27):
out of bounds, the zookeeperthrows him the card with the
gorilla on it.
And if you established $1 asthe value of the cards to start
off with, then if nobody elsehit it out of bounds the rest of
the day, when you put it out on18, you basically owed every
(21:47):
other player $1.
But here's the rub when you'replaying some tight courses, like
some of the ones we played inLas Vegas.
It's common that at least fiveguys, over the course of 18
holes, hits it out of bounds atleast.
So again, if you're that guyholding the gorilla card on 18,
(22:07):
you're the last guy to hit itout of bounds and you're the
fifth person that hit it out ofbounds, you owe each of the
other players five dollars.
That's just one card.
Now imagine you're playingcourses that have a lot of
bunkers, that have a lot ofwater and the greens are fast.
You're going to have a lot ofbunker play.
(22:30):
You're going to be throwing alot of camels, you're going to
be throwing a lot of frogs andthere's always a three pot on
these greens, so that snake isgoing as many as could be 18
times.
So imagine you get to 18 andyou don't have any cards.
That's the objective of thegame Putt out two putt or, if
(22:53):
you're going to three putt,don't be the last to do it and
collect the value of all thecards.
I mean, we've been into thehundreds some days.
We were all playing prettyshitty and it got expensive.
So here's my story.
We're playing in Las Vegas andI think it was one of the Paiute
courses.
We're probably hungover orwe're still drunk, and we decide
(23:16):
, hey, let's make the value ofeach card, let's start it at $10
.
I mean, what the hell?
We're in Vegas, we're in abetting mindset 21, winner.
I mean, by the end of the matcheach card was worth over $50,
some were over $100.
I mean, guys were hitting itout of bounds like every other
(23:36):
hole and there was so much wateron the course and it's so
intimidating that it's like onein every four or five holes
somebody's dunking it.
So we get to 18.
And the total amount of thecards was well over $300,
somewhere between three and 400bucks.
And when we get to 18, three ofthe four players have at least
(24:00):
one card.
I might've had two, I don'tremember, but one of our players
, stan, had no cards.
I mean, this guy had hit threepots.
He had hit it in the bunker.
He might've, he probably hit itout of bounds, but he wasn't
the last guy to do it in any ofthose hazard cards.
So he gets up to 18 tee bucks,450 yards, dogleg water, traps
(24:27):
everywhere, and this guy pullsout a 7-iron and he hits a
7-iron right down the fairwayand then he uses his wedge and
uses his wedge and I think hegets on in four, maybe five.
But his shot was so close hislast shot to get on the green
(24:49):
that he's just feet from thehole and I think he two putts.
I think he got like an eight onthe hole.
Eight on the hole and this guyhad no cards in his hands, so
everybody owed him over ahundred dollars.
This guy made 350 bucks in oneday and he made it because his
(25:11):
timing was right and he didn'tlet his ego get in the way on 18
.
And I thought it would.
I mean, stan is an awesomeplayer.
This guy's good.
I've seen him shoot 73, 74.
I've seen him blast his drives.
I've just seen him be on his Agame and when he got to 18, I
think he was having a reallygood round.
He could have taken a driver,which I thought he was going to
(25:33):
do.
He could have hit a three woodjust to get it in and try and
par the hole because it was alow round.
But Stan's smart enough to knowhey, try and do that or walk
off the green with over 350bucks.
And, quite frankly, I think wegot back to the casinos and that
money was gone at the crapstable within 10 minutes, but I
(25:55):
think he did the right thing onthe 18th hole.
Unless you have another cardthat says you're a pussy, that's
how to play the game.
So that's just a few of ourbetting games and some of the
stories that I can recall, atleast offhand.
I mean, there's so many moreand I'd like to hear yours.
If you have any crazy storiesand you want to write me, my
(26:17):
email is rbeaston21 at gmailcom.
You've been listening to Talesfrom the First Tee.
I'm your host, rich Easton,from beautiful Charleston, south
Carolina.
You're listening to Tales from the First Tee.
I'm your host, rich Easton,recording from beautiful
Charleston, south Carolina.
If this is the first timeyou're listening, well welcome.
And if you're returning, thanksfor coming back.
I recently did an episode ongolf betting and if you're
(00:29):
returning, thanks for comingback.
I recently did an episode ongolf betting and basically I
just shared my thoughts on whypeople do it and some of the
games that we play.
But I've gotten some reallygood feedback that suggests, hey
, if you have these experiences,why don't you just share some
of the experiences and some ofthe bets?
And I'm like, yeah, okay, Ilike that idea.
So here you go.
Oh yeah, and this episode'sexplicit In the Nassau bet.
(00:56):
There are a lot of ways to getoff the schneid.
I mean you got three bets forthe match front back and overall
you got presses.
And then, if you're playingjunk, you get paid on eagles,
birdies, sandies, froggies andchippies.
There are a lot of ways to getoff the schneid and either win
it all or just minimize yourlosses.
We have some really talentedsuper seniors that tend to
(01:19):
compete with each other at leastonce a week, and I like when
they come to the first tee boxand at least three of the four
usually get there once a weekand I like when they come to the
first tee box and at leastthree of the four usually get
there 10 minutes before and wekind of chat it up.
They kind of tell me abouttheir games every week.
We talk about some other things, but mostly they're talking
about the matches that they'vehad the last few times with each
(01:40):
other.
And so the four guys are Coe,willie, billy and Marvin.
Coe and Willie are alwayspartners and they're always
getting beaten by Billy andMarvin.
I think Marvin played in highschool, played in college and
maybe even did a regional tourafter school.
I mean, this guy's got a reallynice swing.
But Coe and Willie are alsopretty good golfers.
(02:04):
I think each one of them are afive or lower handicap and most
at least three of them have shottheir age several times and
under par recently.
These guys are pretty good.
I love when they come to thefirst tee box and I tend to
always hear from Coe that Billyand Marvin just somehow figure
(02:26):
out how to beat him every week.
I mean, marvin is just soconsistent and Billy pulls shit
out of his ass all the time, butthey're beating him all the
time.
This past weekend they playthis game, they play a Nassau, I
think they play 5-5-5 withdollar junk and I think auto
presses you know there could be30 or $40 on the line any given
(02:48):
weekend.
Coe's always telling me he'sgetting beat.
And this one day recently, asthey come and make the turn from
nine to 10, and I'm kind ofstationed between nine and 10,
coe purposely slows down andtells me we got these guys today
, which I thought you know.
It's like a kid telling his momthe ice cream truck is in town.
(03:09):
I mean Coe was excited.
These guys take off, they playthe back and I'm starting other
folks and all of a sudden, whenthey come from 18, they also
pass by where I'm stationed andCoe just comes up, gives me the
thumbs up and he goes hey, wegot him, buddy, like 28 or 30
bucks Now for these guys.
It's not a lot of money, but thepride of saying you beat these
(03:33):
other guys that are beating youevery week, I mean that was just
awesome.
I mean, is it really the sizeof the bet?
Other than guys like DJ who wonover $18 million so far this
year, I don't know that manypeople could remember what they
(03:54):
did with their golf winnings andif you do, it must have been a
pretty good day for you.
To me, playing for $2 or $5 or$1, it's basically the same
thing.
It's about winning.
It's about coming to 18 orgoing to the clubhouse after and
somebody else has to open theirwallet this week and pay you.
(04:16):
The payment is just basically astatement that says you won
today, so it feels awesome, nomatter what it is.
We were playing a Nassau a fewmonths ago and we're playing
2-2-2.
We're not even playing junk andpresses were debatable
(04:38):
depending on how many holes theother guys were down if we'd
accept their press.
But anyway, I digress, we'replaying this game, it's a Nassau
game and it's again, it's for$2.
So we get to this one hole.
My partner and Clyde one of theguys that we're playing against
hit their balls way left tothis out-of-bounds area.
(05:02):
We go up and we're looking fortheir balls.
And you know, I think there's arule this year where the amount
of time you're allowed to lookfor a ball was cut from five to
three minutes.
But you know, when you'replaying with your buddies, it's
like whatever rules you want tobreak you kind of agree to it
and hopefully everybody'splaying from the same book.
We're looking for their balls.
(05:23):
I think five minutes goes by itcould have been more.
It was a long time and mypartner picked up a Titleist one
and said, hey, clyde, isn'tthis your ball?
And Clyde's like, no, no, I'mplaying the Titleist, but that's
not my ball.
My partner knows this guypretty well and is like, yeah,
this is his ball, so he pocketsit.
(05:46):
My partner also hit it out ofbounds, so he decided, instead
of going back to the tee box,he'll take a two stroke penalty
and hit from there.
We go up to the green and beforewe go to the green we look at
Clyde and say, hey, man, thehunt's off.
All right, this expedition hasgot to stop.
There are people on the tee boxbehind us.
We've waited a long time.
He's like, yeah, okay, okay.
My partner and I ride up.
(06:07):
We get up to the green and allof a sudden Clyde yells found it
and he hits this career shot.
This is a par five Second shotup on the green, misses the
eagle putt, makes the birdieputt and seemingly wins the hole
.
Makes the birdie putt andseemingly wins the hole.
(06:29):
But we're like wait a minute.
We have waited a long time andwe looked for your ball as long
as we could.
Man, we all agreed that doesn'tcount.
Yeah, we won the hole.
So now Clyde, who is just soupset he lost his ball, just so
upset he lost his ball juststarts coming at us and yells
fuck you, fuck you.
And he's yelling it louder andlouder, walking one, two, three
(06:52):
steps at a time towards us.
He's like fuck you.
And I'm like dude, it's likethis is kind of a ridiculous
argument, right, so let's justmove on.
We won the hole're down threeholes, but this guy's so
competitive, he wanted to winhis two dollars because my
partner was his brother andthese guys are always going at
(07:16):
it.
He calms down, we play the nexttwo holes and my partner, his
brother, hits incredible shotson both holes and we win two
holes in a row.
Now we're down one hole.
Clyde gets pissed off again thatwe're even inching up and
(07:37):
starts trying to explain himselffrom three holes ago.
And we're like man, clyde, it'sover, man, it's done, let's,
let's just move on, let's play.
And then he starts his beret tofuck you's again.
It was like figaro, figaro.
I mean the guy just keepscoming at us and he's like fuck
you.
And I'm like I'm thinking likea few things could happen here.
Somebody could have a four ironwrapped around their neck and
(08:00):
if it's me that's a bad day, andif it's him, that's a bad day
for me as well.
Nobody wins in this.
I got in my cart, my partnerand I got in and we just drove
away and you know Clyde'syelling you owe us money and I
was like he had just goneapeshit.
$2 bets we're playing a Nassaufor $2, and it's about to come
(08:27):
to a fight.
It's like MMA hits the 15th teebox.
It was ridiculous, but we'reall kind of crazy.
We're nuts, we're golfers.
Skins are also another greatbetting game that we see a lot
on the first tee box.
(08:47):
We got this group that comesout every weekend.
I mean these guys are fun.
I mean their coolers are loadedand these guys can play golf.
Chip, will, jake and my man,casey, are all good golfers and
man do.
They know how to make it fun.
So they play a Sk skins gameevery week and I think they
played $10 skins with dollarjunk and what I heard was for 17
(09:15):
straight holes there was a push.
At least two guys were matchingthe low every hole.
Guys were matching the lowevery hole.
I mean that is rare to havethat happen.
So during the match also,there's one guy in the foursome
I won't mention his name who wasjust playing like shit.
This guy never matched a lowfor 17 holes and now we get to
(09:40):
18.
The match is going up to 180bucks plus whatever junk they
have.
All three of the other guys hitand they're all somewhere on
the green and this guy who Iwon't mention hits the career
shot like a foot or so from thehole.
He makes the birdie putt.
(10:01):
The other three guys miss theirbirdie putts and make pars.
This guy walks off the greenwith $180 for playing one good
hole.
I mean skin games, man, they'regreat for that.
So I see these same guysupstairs in the bar and they're
(10:23):
having a putting game and I justdecided these guys are so much
fun I want to play with them.
So I get out there and $30later I'm thinking these guys
just fleeced me.
My most memorable skins gametook place north of Tempe,
(10:44):
arizona, at a golf track locatedin the middle of this
undeveloped desert area no homes, no public roads, except one
road that led up to the course.
When we pull up to the courseafter driving, it seemed like
well over an hour.
I was just thinking to myselfwhat the fuck are we doing way
(11:04):
out here?
I mean, there's so many coursescloser to where we work, where
my hotel was, but apparentlythere was a big skins game here
and my partner asked me to anteup a hundred dollars for skins
and I thought you know why not.
So we walk in the clubhouse andthere is this photographer
(11:25):
taking a picture of 50 strippersthat apparently came in from
Las Vegas just for this event.
And I look at my buddy and hegoes hey, did I tell you they're
going to be strippers?
And I'm like no, but this isgoing to be some skins game.
After we gawked for a while,there was an announcement that
(11:46):
came on one of the loudspeakersthat basically told all
foursomes to get to their cartsand head out to their designated
holes.
I guess it was like a shotgunstart where you start at
whatever hole they have you on.
There were 18 foursomes, 72people that were playing in this
were 18 foursomes, 72 peoplethat were playing in this, and
(12:09):
there had to be at least another25 guys just sitting in the bar
just waiting for this event tohappen.
We get in our carts, we rideout to the holes and within a
few minutes there are dancers onevery tee box and every green.
I shit you not Okay.
So now I'm a little conflicted.
I mean, who doesn't like thatkind of entertainment?
But I also thought I was thereto try and win a lot of money
(12:32):
playing golf.
So I talked to my buddy and Isaid hey, man, I want to take
this seriously.
And he goes what you think youra hundred dollars went to kind
of kiddie that we're all goingto win.
He's like man.
We just paid the dancers toshow up.
Now you got to tip them Withina very short time.
(12:54):
All these American presidentsare being stuffed, tossed and
gifted on the golf course.
I mean, it gave the course awhole new look.
There were demonstrations onhow to do things on the green
that I didn't expect to see on agreen.
And I get to one tee box and oneof my buddies paid one of these
(13:17):
strippers to try and distractme when I was trying to hit this
par three.
It was like a hundred yards.
Who remembers right?
I was thinking about somethingelse at the time.
So the stripper gets up behindme and I'm getting up and I'm
kind of starting to get it.
You know, do my pre-shotroutine.
I'm waggling the club, I'm notthinking about the hole.
This girl comes up behind me,bends down and does a reach
(13:40):
around and I'm thinking I'mgoing to try and hit this ball
while she's holding my balls.
So I take my club back, I hitthe ball I can't remember where
it went, it certainly didn't goin the hole and that follow
through was so goosed that thehead of my club almost came
around and hit her right on topof the head.
My buddy told me that like afew minutes later.
(14:01):
I'm like oh fuck, this is, I'mgoing to kill somebody.
We summoned down the courtgirls.
We get as much libation aspossible and we saw things on a
golf course that I've never seenin a strip club.
I mean it was awesome.
What a skins game.
I know that one's a hard one tofollow.
(14:22):
When we're not playing skinsgames with strippers on the
course, we like to play a gamecalled Wolf.
It's another game of changingloyalties, because pretty much
every hole you really don't knowwho your partner is going to be
until each person tees off.
I think there are three thingsthat are the hardest of this
(14:43):
game and they're really simple.
Number one is you've got tofind a scorekeeper who's willing
to do it.
You got to establish the valueof the dots, because they add up
and someone's got to do math,and you got to establish an
order of the players in whichyou hit.
And the funny thing is, eventhough we have played this so
many times the funny thing is,even though we have played this
(15:07):
so many times, we establish anorder on the first tee box.
Let's say I go first and Billygoes second.
We get to the second tee boxand we actually have to think
okay, who's second?
Again, and Billy's like I amOkay, so Billy follows me.
Well, you get a few holes intoit and people are just so into
the game and so into theirpartners that the last thing
they're thinking about is whotees up on the next hole, and
(15:29):
that's playing in the moment.
So almost every time we get toa tee box, one of us has to go
to the scorecard and say, oh,okay, that's right, you know,
rich, you're next, you go afterBilly, and so it's just funny,
and maybe it's just seniorgolfers, I don't know, but we
kind of do it a lot.
And one of the other bigresponsibilities for the
(15:49):
scorekeeper is to keep track ofthe dots as we go, because when
we get to the 16th tee box, he'sgot to be able to tell us who
is the farthest behind, who'swon the least amount of dots,
because we want to give this guyan opportunity to be the wolf
and try and get some of hismoney back.
Now, when you're the wolf, youcould either pick a partner you
(16:12):
could wait to the end and decideto go yourself or you could
call double wolf up front, whichbasically means I don't care
what you guys do, I'm going towin this hole, so come after me.
I don't care what you guys do,I'm going to win this hole, so
come after me.
We're playing this one day andwe're playing with four of us.
We all work together in Chicagoand we're playing a course I
think it was Pine Meadow inMundelein, and so we're playing
(16:36):
and there's one guy, lesterthat's just having a shit day.
This guy is getting like nodots, zero Whatever hole he is
partnered with.
Somebody on the other team iswinning that hole, so Lester has
got zero and everybody else hassomething.
We get to 16 and ourscorekeeper is like yeah, I
(16:59):
think this is easy to figure out.
Lester has no dots.
And after we laugh and call hima bunch of shit, he's like okay
, guys, fuck you.
He gets up to the tee box.
Now he gets to be the wolf andhe's like double fucking wolf.
And we're like all right, herewe go.
So Lester gets up and he ducks,hooks his drive into the woods
(17:23):
at 16.
It's like oh, oh, no, lester,he pulls another one out, hits
it in the woods again.
We all hit our shots.
We obviously beat Lester on thathole and he had doubled the bet
.
So now he's even deeper.
He gets up to 17.
There's no secret.
He gets to be Wolf again and hegets up and he goes double
(17:44):
fucking Wolf.
Now we're on this par three.
It's like innocuous hole.
There's just a few woods on theleft, it's pretty
straightforward, and there'slanding areas all over the place
, not too many traps.
Lester gets up and he's pissedand he's yelling double Wolf,
like he said it a few times.
He gets up and he duck hookshis shot into woods that I
(18:06):
didn't think anybody could hitand he's like no, he could take
it out from the edge of thewoods and maybe he could chip up
, maybe chip it in.
Lester says fuck it.
He gets up, hits another one inthe woods.
He just lost his second bet.
Now he get to 18.
Obviously, lester gets to goagain.
(18:27):
Lester gets to go again.
Lester gets up and he's likefucking double wolf again and he
hits this incredible drive.
This hole's like 440 yards andit's protected by a pond in the
front, but Lester hit his ball.
It looked like it went almostall the way up, but we could see
it right.
It's like right before the pond.
What a shot.
So the three of us all get tohit and everybody said a pretty
(18:48):
good shot.
I hit mine directionally whereLester was, but certainly not as
far.
So now we're getting up to ourballs and one of the guys who
hit a good shot he's a littleoff the fairway, so we kind of
all knew where it went.
We're all looking for it andlooking for it.
Lester's getting anxious, andhe's an anxious guy anyway.
He's not having a good round.
He's losing all this money.
(19:10):
Now he's getting anxiousbecause he knows he hit a good
drive and he just says ready,golf, right.
Guys like go ahead, lester.
Lester goes up to what to to aball in the fairway.
He sees it's tight list and hehits a career shot, maybe five
feet from the pin and it juststicks like a dart and we're
looking and saying, okay,lester's trying to get all his
(19:32):
money back here.
Two of the other guys hit it upand now it's up to me and I go
up to my ball and I look at itand it's a Titleist 1.
It's got a dot and it's got acompany logo, exactly like the
ball Lester was playing, becauseI was playing a Titleist 5.
(19:53):
So I look at my buddies and I'mlike what do we do?
And this guy hit out of turn,he hit the wrong ball.
Do we penalize him?
And the guys just looked at meand said fuck him.
And Lester lost a shitload ofmoney that day.
Now I haven't played this gamein a while, but this was one of
(20:13):
my favorite games when we usedto go out with workmates and
play this game called animalgolf.
In an animal golf, all you'redoing is adding focus to the
shitty things that you don'twant to do.
The way we played it, we hadthese four hard plastic cards,
each with a different animal agorilla, a frog, a camel and a
(20:36):
snake.
Each one represents somethingyou just don't want to do on a
golf course.
So a gorilla's out of bounds, afrog is hitting it in the water
, a camel is hitting it in abunker and a snake is the last
person on the hole to make athree putt.
I'll share how we play the gameand I'll tell you a little story
about somebody who really knewthe rules.
(20:58):
So what we do is we establishat first a scorekeeper and we
call him the zookeeper.
Then we establish the value ofeach card and what we ask the
zookeeper to do is just keeptrack of the value and keep
track of who has what card, andkeep track of who has what card.
And here's how it works thefirst time somebody hits a ball
(21:27):
out of bounds, the zookeeperthrows him the card with the
gorilla on it.
And if you established $1 asthe value of the cards to start
off with, then if nobody elsehit it out of bounds the rest of
the day, when you put it out on18, you basically owed every
(21:47):
other player $1.
But here's the rub when you'replaying some tight courses, like
some of the ones we played inLas Vegas.
It's common that at least fiveguys, over the course of 18
holes, hits it out of bounds atleast.
So again, if you're that guyholding the gorilla card on 18,
(22:07):
you're the last guy to hit itout of bounds and you're the
fifth person that hit it out ofbounds, you owe each of the
other players five dollars.
That's just one card.
Now imagine you're playingcourses that have a lot of
bunkers, that have a lot ofwater and the greens are fast.
You're going to have a lot ofbunker play.
(22:30):
You're going to be throwing alot of camels, you're going to
be throwing a lot of frogs andthere's always a three pot on
these greens, so that snake isgoing as many as could be 18
times.
So imagine you get to 18 andyou don't have any cards.
That's the objective of thegame Putt out two putt or, if
(22:53):
you're going to three putt,don't be the last to do it and
collect the value of all thecards.
I mean, we've been into thehundreds some days.
We were all playing prettyshitty and it got expensive.
So here's my story.
We're playing in Las Vegas andI think it was one of the Paiute
courses.
We're probably hungover orwe're still drunk, and we decide
(23:16):
, hey, let's make the value ofeach card, let's start it at $10
.
I mean, what the hell?
We're in Vegas, we're in abetting mindset 21, winner.
I mean, by the end of the matcheach card was worth over $50,
some were over $100.
I mean, guys were hitting itout of bounds like every other
(23:36):
hole and there was so much wateron the course and it's so
intimidating that it's like onein every four or five holes
somebody's dunking it.
So we get to 18.
And the total amount of thecards was well over $300,
somewhere between three and 400bucks.
And when we get to 18, three ofthe four players have at least
(24:00):
one card.
I might've had two, I don'tremember, but one of our players
, stan, had no cards.
I mean, this guy had hit threepots.
He had hit it in the bunker.
He might've, he probably hit itout of bounds, but he wasn't
the last guy to do it in any ofthose hazard cards.
So he gets up to 18 tee bucks,450 yards, dogleg water, traps
(24:27):
everywhere, and this guy pullsout a 7-iron and he hits a
7-iron right down the fairwayand then he uses his wedge and
uses his wedge and I think hegets on in four, maybe five.
But his shot was so close hislast shot to get on the green
(24:49):
that he's just feet from thehole and I think he two putts.
I think he got like an eight onthe hole.
Eight on the hole and this guyhad no cards in his hands, so
everybody owed him over ahundred dollars.
This guy made 350 bucks in oneday and he made it because his
(25:11):
timing was right and he didn'tlet his ego get in the way on 18
.
And I thought it would.
I mean, stan is an awesomeplayer.
This guy's good.
I've seen him shoot 73, 74.
I've seen him blast his drives.
I've just seen him be on his Agame and when he got to 18, I
think he was having a reallygood round.
He could have taken a driver,which I thought he was going to
(25:33):
do.
He could have hit a three woodjust to get it in and try and
par the hole because it was alow round.
But Stan's smart enough to knowhey, try and do that or walk
off the green with over 350bucks.
And, quite frankly, I think wegot back to the casinos and that
money was gone at the crapstable within 10 minutes, but I
(25:55):
think he did the right thing onthe 18th hole.
Unless you have another cardthat says you're a pussy, that's
how to play the game.
So that's just a few of ourbetting games and some of the
stories that I can recall, atleast offhand.
I mean, there's so many moreand I'd like to hear yours.
If you have any crazy storiesand you want to write me, my
(26:17):
email is rbeaston21 at gmailcom.
You've been listening to Talesfrom the First Tee.
I'm your host, rich Easton,from beautiful Charleston, south
Carolina.
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