Golf Can Serve Up Expensive Lessons!

For those that have played in a golf tournament of any kind, you are aware that there are typically opportunities to get involved in side bets. Be it your company tournament, a charity event, or any number of available events run by numerous courses around the state, the opportunity to win stuff presents itself in several ways. For example, your course may hold an annual two-man best ball, two or four-man scramble, or the precarious two-man chapman tournament. Your basic entry fee will give you the opportunity to win only the prizes associated with finishing well in the tournament itself. You are likely aware however, that these events almost always offer opportunities to bet on you or your team success in the form of side games. These include longest drive, deuce pot, closest to the pin and the occasional Calcutta. For those of you who have played in more than one or two of these types of events, you are likely aware, as I certainly am, that when any opportunity to bet on yourself or your team presents itself, don’t flinch! The first time I played in a tournament way back in the day, I opted out of spending $20 lousy bucks to get in the deuce pot for that day. My excuses were rational enough, neither me nor my partner were playing all that well, and the par 3’s weren’t easy, so the likelihood that we would make a 2 during the round was slim. But sure as the Golf Gods love to inflict pain, my partner and I made three 2’s on that day and my $20 savings cost me over $200 in lost winnings! Not since that day have I opted out of any chance to bet on me or my team. Until, of course, a big event I was playing in Yakima a couple of years back. It was a two-man best ball and outside of my partner and a couple of others, I didn’t know anyone else in the tournament. It was a two-day ordeal, and we bought into the available side games on day one. Although we didn’t play that great, we made a deuce on one of the par 3’s and pocketed a few bucks. That’s the beauty, by the way, of side bets. They allow you to play poorly overall but a couple of good shots on the right holes can still pay off your efforts.

Anyway, the side bet for day two was in the form of a Calcutta. Each two-man team was randomly paired with another to comprise a four-man squad with the low net score in each foursome counting toward the Calcutta. That evening there was an auction, and all participants had a chance to bid on, and ultimately “buy” the team or teams of their choice. Participation in Calcutta events can be a bit expensive (our team sold for $160) but the payouts are also lucrative if you own the winning squad. To make a long story short, I had no idea who our partners were (only that they played just ok on day 1) and when coupled with the fact that my partner and I had not played that well on the first day, we decided to save our money and didn’t buy into the Calcutta. As it turns out, the two guys we got paired with purchased our team and as we stood on the first tee on day-two, my partner asked them if we could buy in. They swiftly replied no! At that point I started to wonder if they knew something we didn’t. I was concerned, but still figured we had no chance of winning. Consequently, I didn’t feel too bad about opting out. As sure as ice melts in the Yakima summer heat, the Golf Gods struck again. Our team ultimately won the Calcutta and the payout to our playing partners was $1600! The thing that hacked me off most about the whole debacle is that I knew better than not to bet on our squad yet still didn’t do it. I’ll cut myself a sliver of slack as a bet on our team would have required me putting faith and money on the skills two other guys who I knew not at all. Yet in retrospect that plan was merely moronic. Expensive lesson learned indeed...

Feel free to share your stories of golf agony in the comments below