Money Games!

I read an interesting piece about how most guys on tour all play for money on the Tuesdays before comps.. obviously winning or losing 500 to these guys is nothing but they said it was just the fact you may have to pay your buddy that made you focus more.

Had a similar conversation with a friend of mine recently, whilst I do play rounds without having a bet on, I always find I play better or at least concentrate more when there is a few £ on the line and totally agree, even if its £1 you lose or you are playing loser buys the drinks, I find that handing that over in the bar is painful because of the ribbing you receive!

Depending who Im with our usual games are stableford £10 & £2 (£10 on the match and £2 bits - birdies, eagles, sand saves, nearest pin on par 3s) or £5,£5,£5 with £1 bits (£5 front, back and match)
we are all a similar standard (between 3-12 handicappers) and play comps every week so know the handicaps are fair. If you have a total mare the most you really could lose is £20 and there is of course the rule that the winner buys the lunch.
Its an amount that (for us) is affordable meaning if we lose that on a game of golf we wont get unduly upset, but enough to keep It interesting as the banter in the club afterwards all revolves around who won each group etc and it is painful to give a smug friend a fiver!!

There are some at my club I know who play for much bigger stakes though, £20 a hole skins games, £50 & £10 match play with automatic presses when you lose a hole. Iv seen people really fall out with each other and don't know why you would want to turn a friendly round of golf (OUR HOBBY) into a potentially friendship ending 4 hours. As with all gambling, don't play for more than you can afford to lose!


What are your thoughts on money games? what is the "norm" at your clubs?

I used to play at a club (of Shotrock's experience) where guys would fight and eff and blind about their golfing bets (usually no more than a few $'s here or there). And then have a few beers/shots and play cards for $thousands, with scarcely a crossed word!

Don't like having a bet if it's just two of us, always like to have something small going when there are four, two teams. Nice to have a bit of needle, but not too much! Plus a regular skins game with however many sign up.

Almost always have some sort of "action" going ... and almost always a $2 or $5 Nassau. Never enough money to be anything more than bragging rights. (So no hard feelings.)

Some at my club play for lots more. I stay clear of those bets.

One guys tells the tale of a club he used to be at where lot of Korean golfers would settle each bet after each hole. He mockingly referred to the game as "whip out" ... and said it was often infuriating playing behind them!

I'm guessing the game was "Pitch" at Newport ... is that correct Kwin? Seems to be the CNY game of choice.

Sr,
No, Hidden Valley, poker mostly.

At least two friends were drummed out of Sken for not paying gambling debts!

We have a money game on Sundays and it tries to incorporate something for everyone. It's a $16 outlay and from that $2 goes to low net, $5 ($1 per par 3) goes to nearest the pins, $5 goes to blind draw of partners (paying first, second, maybe third depending on numbers), and $4 goes into a birdie pool where a solitary birdie on a hole will share in the pool but if someone else birdies that hole then they knock each other out.

We don't make change so if the birdie pool is $32 and there are three birdies that hold up the value is $10 and $2 goes into the pot. The same goes for if a par 3 is not hit then that hole goes into the pot too. We typically have enough in the pot to do a BBQ in the summer and something else at the end of the season.

Sometimes birdies are worth $5 and other times they can be worth a lot; this Sunday only one of five birdies held up so that person won $32.

A few years ago at a club local to me the wily old Pro was well known for liking a bet. In his pro shop one day was a non-member, a businessman in the area taking advantage of a quiet afternoon by looking for a new set of golf clubs. He was particularly taken by a top of the range set just on the market and therefore at a suitably expensive price.

Whilst he deliberated as to whether to make such a large investment the old Pro seized his chance. "What do you play off Sir?" he enquired. "My handicap is 12" came the reply. "Are you a betting man? continued the Pro. "Yes" said the guy "I like a gamble now and again"

"Tell you what", said the Pro "Lets have a game. I'll give you a shot a hole and if you win the clubs are yours. If I win you pay double, is that fair enough?"

A few hours later back in the pro shop the guy was handing over double the price for his new clubs!

This Pro represented us in the Ryder Cup. Here's a little quiz for you...who do you think he is? No doubt kwini will get the answer straight away! Oh and 1GG you are not eligible to enter!...

Poulter?

Hey, no fair! Would I be right in thinking he may have designed a course that has since switched the nines around?

We are generally a very simple £5 for the winner, but if there is a tie nobody gets anything, and it doesn't roll over.
Most complex I've seen was earlier this year in Australia. Played with a pal at his club, in roll up. There were 90 players, with a pot based on entry fee. Then a match in each group for a few dollars. Then it transpires that everyone has a side et with everyone else, so after play they are walking round with a bag of coins handing them over or collecting. With nothing written down it did get quite noisy!
Oh and the worst score has to buy a big bowl of chips and walk them walk them round the club, pro shop, greens staff, offices the lot, and offer everyone a chip. That was easily the most entertaining part of the whole day! Not something you want to get too often, and definitely not twice on the spin!

Earlier than Poulter inco

Nope not Neil Coles Grumps, he is far too much of a gentleman for such behaviour!

No idea Blue - perhaps guess Barry Lane?

Don't think it would be Barry - he's a Berkshire boy and BCM is the other side of the big smoke. Trying to think of an Essex pro who has played RC maybe just once

Well, I went through Graham Boroughs and Bill Longmuir but got to Lionel Platts eventually. Never really liked 3 Rivers but 6OD seems to have succeeded in deterring golfers from going there in favour of wedding parties.

Ten out of ten Smithers, Lionel Platts was indeed the old scoundrel concerned.

Good lord, completely forgotten about Lional Platts. Plus had thought he was a Yorkshireman, which appears to be wrong. Just looked at the wiki page for his Ryder Cup Team and it includes the Jimmys Hitchcock and Martin who I'd also forgotten about!

Anyway, Lionel, you're apparently still alive, hopefully kicking and checking in with 606v2: I like an "old scoundrel"!

Lionel was deadly; would often offer to play left handed and he was just as good playing the wrong way round. Used to see him out on the jubilee course belting three irons into a tight little group down the fairway.