Tales from the first tee
Stories about my life experiences and others as I work at one of the premier golf clubs in Charleston, SC. Interviews with golfers around the world that have one thing in common...the pursuit of excellence on a golf course and everything else that happens along the way.
Tales from the first tee
Strippers, Skins, and Scorecards: The Wild Side of Golf Gambling
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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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 time you're listening, well welcome. And if you're returning, thanks for coming back. I recently did an episode on golf betting and if you're returning, thanks for coming back. I recently did an episode on golf betting and basically I just shared my thoughts on why people do it and some of the games that we play. But I've gotten some really good feedback that suggests, hey, if you have these experiences, why don't you just share some of the experiences and some of the bets? And I'm like, yeah, okay, I like that idea. So here you go. Oh yeah, and this episode's explicit In the Nassau bet.
Speaker 1:There are a lot of ways to get off the schneid. I mean you got three bets for the match front back and overall you got presses. And then, if you're playing junk, you get paid on eagles, birdies, sandies, froggies and chippies. There are a lot of ways to get off the schneid and either win it all or just minimize your losses. We have some really talented super seniors that tend to compete with each other at least once a week, and I like when they come to the first tee box and at least three of the four usually get there once a week and I like when they come to the first tee box and at least three of the four usually get there 10 minutes before and we kind of chat it up. They kind of tell me about their games every week. We talk about some other things, but mostly they're talking about the matches that they've had the last few times with each other.
Speaker 1:And so the four guys are Coe, willie, billy and Marvin. Coe and Willie are always partners and they're always getting beaten by Billy and Marvin. I think Marvin played in high school, played in college and maybe even did a regional tour after school. I mean, this guy's got a really nice swing. But Coe and Willie are also pretty good golfers. I think each one of them are a five or lower handicap and most at least three of them have shot their age several times and under par recently. These guys are pretty good. I love when they come to the first tee box and I tend to always hear from Coe that Billy and Marvin just somehow figure out how to beat him every week. I mean, marvin is just so consistent and Billy pulls shit out of his ass all the time, but they're beating him all the time. This past weekend they play this game, they play a Nassau, I think they play 5-5-5 with dollar junk and I think auto presses you know there could be 30 or $40 on the line any given weekend. Coe's always telling me he's getting beat. And this one day recently, as they come and make the turn from nine to 10, and I'm kind of stationed between nine and 10, coe purposely slows down and tells me we got these guys today, which I thought you know. It's like a kid telling his mom the ice cream truck is in town. I mean Coe was excited. These guys take off, they play the back and I'm starting other folks and all of a sudden, when they come from 18, they also pass by where I'm stationed and Coe just comes up, gives me the thumbs up and he goes hey, we got him, buddy, like 28 or 30 bucks Now for these guys.
Speaker 1:It's not a lot of money, but the pride of saying you beat these other guys that are beating you every week, I mean that was just awesome. I mean, is it really the size of the bet? Other than guys like DJ who won over $18 million so far this year, I don't know that many people could remember what they did with their golf winnings and if 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 or going to the clubhouse after and somebody else has to open their wallet this week and pay you. The payment is just basically a statement that says you won today, so it feels awesome, no matter what it is.
Speaker 1:We were playing a Nassau a few months ago and we're playing 2-2-2. We're not even playing junk and presses were debatable depending on how many holes the other guys were down if we'd accept their press. But anyway, I digress, we're playing 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 the guys that we're playing against hit their balls way left to this out-of-bounds area. We go up and we're looking for their balls. And you know, I think there's a rule this year where the amount of time you're allowed to look for a ball was cut from five to three minutes. But you know, when you're playing with your buddies, it's like whatever rules you want to break you kind of agree to it and hopefully everybody's playing from the same book. We're looking for their balls. I think five minutes goes by it could have been more. It was a long time and my partner picked up a Titleist one and said, hey, clyde, isn't this your ball? And Clyde's like, no, no, I'm playing the Titleist, but that's not my ball. My partner knows this guy pretty well and is like, yeah, this is his ball, so he pockets it. My partner also hit it out of bounds, so he decided, instead of going back to the tee box, he'll take a two stroke penalty and hit from there.
Speaker 1:We go up to the green and before we go to the green we look at Clyde and say, hey, man, the hunt's off. All right, this expedition has got to stop. There are people on the tee box behind us. We've waited a long time. He's like, yeah, okay, okay. My partner and I ride up. We get up to the green and all of a sudden Clyde yells found it and he hits this career shot. This is a par five Second shot up on the green, misses the eagle putt, makes the birdie putt and seemingly wins the hole. Makes the birdie putt and seemingly wins the hole. But we're like wait a minute. We have waited a long time and we looked for your ball as long as we could. Man, we all agreed that doesn't count. Yeah, we won the hole.
Speaker 1:So now Clyde, who is just so upset he lost his ball, just so upset he lost his ball just starts coming at us and yells fuck you, fuck you. And he's yelling it louder and louder, walking one, two, three steps at a time towards us. He's like fuck you. And I'm like dude, it's like this is kind of a ridiculous argument, right, so let's just move on. We won the hole're down three holes, but this guy's so competitive, he wanted to win his two dollars because my partner was his brother and these guys are always going at it. He calms down, we play the next two holes and my partner, his brother, hits incredible shots on both holes and we win two holes in a row. Now we're down one hole.
Speaker 1:Clyde gets pissed off again that we're even inching up and starts trying to explain himself from three holes ago. And we're like man, clyde, it's over, man, it's done, let's, let's just move on, let's play. And then he starts his beret to fuck you's again. It was like figaro, figaro. I mean the guy just keeps coming at us and he's like fuck you. And I'm like I'm thinking like a few things could happen here. Somebody could have a four iron wrapped around their neck and if it's me that's a bad day, and if it's him, that's a bad day for me as well.
Speaker 1:Nobody wins in this. I got in my cart, my partner and I got in and we just drove away and you know Clyde's yelling you owe us money and I was like he had just gone apeshit. $2 bets we're playing a Nassau for $2, and it's about to come to a fight. It's like MMA hits the 15th tee box. It was ridiculous, but we're all kind of crazy. We're nuts, we're golfers.
Speaker 1:Skins are also another great betting game that we see a lot on the first tee box. We got this group that comes out every weekend. I mean these guys are fun. I mean their coolers are loaded and 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 game every week and I think they played $10 skins with dollar junk and what I heard was for 17 straight holes there was a push. At least two guys were matching the low every hole. Guys were matching the low every hole. I mean that is rare to have that happen. So during the match also, there's one guy in the foursome I won't mention his name who was just playing like shit. This guy never matched a low for 17 holes and now we get to 18. The match is going up to 180 bucks plus whatever junk they have. All three of the other guys hit and they're all somewhere on the green and this guy who I won't mention hits the career shot like a foot or so from the hole. He makes the birdie putt. The other three guys miss their birdie putts and make pars. This guy walks off the green with $180 for playing one good hole. I mean skin games, man, they're great for that. So I see these same guys upstairs in the bar and they're having a putting game and I just decided these guys are so much fun I want to play with them. So I get out there and $30 later I'm thinking these guys just fleeced me.
Speaker 1:My most memorable skins game took place north of Tempe, arizona, at a golf track located in 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 course after driving, it seemed like well over an hour. I was just thinking to myself what the fuck are we doing way out here? I mean, there's so many courses closer to where we work, where my hotel was, but apparently there was a big skins game here and my partner asked me to ante up a hundred dollars for skins and I thought you know why not. So we walk in the clubhouse and there is this photographer taking a picture of 50 strippers that apparently came in from Las Vegas just for this event. And I look at my buddy and he goes hey, did I tell you they're going to be strippers? And I'm like no, but this is going to be some skins game.
Speaker 1:After we gawked for a while, there was an announcement that came on one of the loudspeakers that basically told all foursomes to get to their carts and head out to their designated holes. I guess it was like a shotgun start where you start at whatever hole they have you on. There were 18 foursomes, 72 people that were playing in this were 18 foursomes, 72 people that were playing in this, and there had to be at least another 25 guys just sitting in the bar just waiting for this event to happen. We get in our carts, we ride out to the holes and within a few minutes there are dancers on every tee box and every green. I shit you not Okay.
Speaker 1:So now I'm a little conflicted. I mean, who doesn't like that kind of entertainment? But I also thought I was there to try and win a lot of money playing golf. So I talked to my buddy and I said hey, man, I want to take this seriously. And he goes what you think your a hundred dollars went to kind of kiddie that we're all going to win. He's like man. We just paid the dancers to show up. Now you got to tip them Within a very short time. All these American presidents are being stuffed, tossed and gifted on the golf course. I mean, it gave the course a whole new look. There were demonstrations on how to do things on the green that I didn't expect to see on a green.
Speaker 1:And I get to one tee box and one of my buddies paid one of these strippers to try and distract me when I was trying to hit this par three. It was like a hundred yards. Who remembers right? I was thinking about something else at the time. So the stripper gets up behind me and I'm getting up and I'm kind of starting to get it. You know, do my pre-shot routine. I'm waggling the club, I'm not thinking about the hole. This girl comes up behind me, bends down and does a reach around and I'm thinking I'm going to try and hit this ball while she's holding my balls. So I take my club back, I hit the ball I can't remember where it went, it certainly didn't go in the hole and that follow through was so goosed that the head of my club almost came around and hit her right on top of the head. My buddy told me that like a few minutes later. I'm like oh fuck, this is, I'm going to kill somebody. We summoned down the court girls. We get as much libation as possible and we saw things on a golf course that I've never seen in a strip club. I mean it was awesome.
Speaker 1:What a skins game. I know that one's a hard one to follow. When we're not playing skins games with strippers on the course, we like to play a game called Wolf. It's another game of changing loyalties, because pretty much every hole you really don't know who your partner is going to be until each person tees off. I think there are three things that are the hardest of this game and they're really simple. Number one is you've got to find a scorekeeper who's willing to do it. You got to establish the value of the dots, because they add up and someone's got to do math, and you got to establish an order of the players in which you hit.
Speaker 1:And the funny thing is, even though we have played this so many times the funny thing is, even though we have played this so many times, we establish an order on the first tee box. Let's say I go first and Billy goes second. We get to the second tee box and we actually have to think okay, who's second? Again, and Billy's like I am Okay, so Billy follows me. Well, you get a few holes into it and people are just so into the game and so into their partners that the last thing they're thinking about is who tees up on the next hole, and that's playing in the moment. So almost every time we get to a 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 after Billy, and so it's just funny, and maybe it's just senior golfers, I don't know, but we kind of do it a lot. And one of the other big responsibilities for the scorekeeper is to keep track of the dots as we go, because when we get to the 16th tee box, he's got to be able to tell us who is the farthest behind, who's won the least amount of dots, because we want to give this guy an opportunity to be the wolf and try and get some of his money back. Now, when you're the wolf, you could either pick a partner you could wait to the end and decide to go yourself or you could call double wolf up front, which basically means I don't care what you guys do, I'm going to win 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.
Speaker 1:We're playing this one day and we're playing with four of us. We all work together in Chicago and we're playing a course I think it was Pine Meadow in Mundelein, and so we're playing and there's one guy, lester that's just having a shit day. This guy is getting like no dots, zero Whatever hole he is partnered with. Somebody on the other team is winning that hole, so Lester has got zero and everybody else has something. We get to 16 and our scorekeeper is like yeah, I think this is easy to figure out. Lester has no dots. And after we laugh and call him a bunch of shit, he's like okay, guys, fuck you.
Speaker 1:He gets up to the tee box. Now he gets to be the wolf and he's like double fucking wolf. And we're like all right, here we go. So Lester gets up and he ducks, hooks his drive into the woods 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.
Speaker 1:We obviously beat Lester on that hole 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 he gets up and he goes double fucking Wolf. Now we're on this par three. It's like innocuous hole. There's just a few woods on the left, it's pretty straightforward, and there's landing areas all over the place, not too many traps.
Speaker 1:Lester gets up and he's pissed and he's yelling double Wolf, like he said it a few times. He gets up and he duck hooks his shot into woods that I didn't think anybody could hit and he's like no, he could take it out from the edge of the woods and maybe he could chip up, maybe chip it in. Lester says fuck it. He gets up, hits another one in the woods. He just lost his second bet. Now he get to 18. Obviously, lester gets to go again.
Speaker 1:Lester gets to go again. Lester gets up and he's like fucking double wolf again and he hits this incredible drive. This hole's like 440 yards and it's protected by a pond in the front, but Lester hit his ball. It looked like it went almost all the way up, but we could see it right. It's like right before the pond. What a shot.
Speaker 1:So the three of us all get to hit and everybody said a pretty good shot. I hit mine directionally where Lester was, but certainly not as far. So now we're getting up to our balls and one of the guys who hit a good shot he's a little off the fairway, so we kind of all knew where it went. We're all looking for it and looking for it. Lester's getting anxious, and he's an anxious guy anyway. He's not having a good round. He's losing all this money. Now he's getting anxious because he knows he hit a good drive and he just says ready, golf, right. Guys like go ahead, lester.
Speaker 1:Lester goes up to what to to a ball in the fairway. He sees it's tight list and he hits a career shot, maybe five feet from the pin and it just sticks like a dart and we're looking and saying, okay, lester's trying to get all his money back here. Two of the other guys hit it up and now it's up to me and I go up to my ball and I look at it and it's a Titleist 1. It's got a dot and it's got a company logo, exactly like the ball Lester was playing, because I was playing a Titleist 5. So I look at my buddies and I'm like 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 me and said fuck him. And Lester lost a shitload of money that day.
Speaker 1:Now I haven't played this game in a while, but this was one of my favorite games when we used to go out with workmates and play this game called animal golf. In an animal golf, all you're doing is adding focus to the shitty things that you don't want to do. The way we played it, we had these four hard plastic cards, each with a different animal a gorilla, a frog, a camel and a snake. Each one represents something you just don't want to do on a golf course. So a gorilla's out of bounds, a frog is hitting it in the water, a camel is hitting it in a bunker and a snake is the last person on the hole to make a three putt.
Speaker 1:I'll share how we play the game and I'll tell you a little story about somebody who really knew the rules. So what we do is we establish at first a scorekeeper and we call him the zookeeper. Then we establish the value of each card and what we ask the zookeeper to do is just keep track of the value and keep track of who has what card, and keep track of who has what card. And here's how it works the first time somebody hits a ball out of bounds, the zookeeper throws him the card with the gorilla on it. And if you established $1 as the value of the cards to start off with, then if nobody else hit it out of bounds the rest of the day, when you put it out on 18, you basically owed every other player $1.
Speaker 1:But here's the rub when you're playing some tight courses, like some of the ones we played in Las Vegas. It's common that at least five guys, over the course of 18 holes, hits it out of bounds at least. So again, if you're that guy holding the gorilla card on 18, you're the last guy to hit it out of bounds and you're the fifth person that hit it out of bounds, you owe each of the other players five dollars. That's just one card. Now imagine you're playing courses that have a lot of bunkers, that have a lot of water and the greens are fast. You're going to have a lot of bunker play. You're going to be throwing a lot of camels, you're going to be throwing a lot of frogs and there's always a three pot on these greens, so that snake is going as many as could be 18 times. So imagine you get to 18 and you don't have any cards. That's the objective of the game Putt out two putt or, if you're going to three putt, don't be the last to do it and collect the value of all the cards.
Speaker 1:I mean, we've been into the hundreds some days. We were all playing pretty shitty and it got expensive. So here's my story. We're playing in Las Vegas and I think it was one of the Paiute courses. We're probably hungover or we're still drunk, and we decide, hey, let's make the value of each card, let's start it at $10. I mean, what the hell? We're in Vegas, we're in a betting mindset 21, winner. I mean, by the end of the match each card was worth over $50, some were over $100. I mean, guys were hitting it out of bounds like every other hole and there was so much water on the course and it's so intimidating that it's like one in every four or five holes somebody's dunking it. So we get to 18. And the total amount of the cards was well over $300, somewhere between three and 400 bucks. And when we get to 18, three of the four players have at least one card.
Speaker 1:I might've had two, I don't remember, but one of our players, stan, had no cards. I mean, this guy had hit three pots. He had hit it in the bunker. He might've, he probably hit it out of bounds, but he wasn't the last guy to do it in any of those hazard cards. So he gets up to 18 tee bucks, 450 yards, dogleg water, traps everywhere, and this guy pulls out a 7-iron and he hits a 7-iron right down the fairway and then he uses his wedge and uses his wedge and I think he gets on in four, maybe five. But his shot was so close his last shot to get on the green that he's just feet from the hole and I think he two putts. I think he got like an eight on the hole. Eight on the hole and this guy had no cards in his hands, so everybody owed him over a hundred dollars.
Speaker 1:This guy made 350 bucks in one day and he made it because his timing was right and he didn't let his ego get in the way on 18. And I thought it would. I mean, stan is an awesome player. 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 A game and when he got to 18, I think he was having a really good round.
Speaker 1:He could have taken a driver, which I thought he was going to do. He could have hit a three wood just to get it in and try and par the hole because it was a low round. But Stan's smart enough to know hey, try and do that or walk off the green with over 350 bucks. And, quite frankly, I think we got back to the casinos and that money was gone at the craps table within 10 minutes, but I think he did the right thing on the 18th hole. Unless you have another card that says you're a pussy, that's how to play the game. So that's just a few of our betting games and some of the stories that I can recall, at least offhand. I mean, there's so many more and I'd like to hear yours. If you have any crazy stories and you want to write me, my email is rbeaston21 at gmailcom. You've been listening to Tales from the First Tee. I'm your host, rich Easton, from beautiful Charleston, south Carolina.