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I’m sure there are people out there who genuinely enjoy getting to play a quiet round of solo golf on a Saturday morning but in doing so they’re missing out on the two best aspects of the sport: drinking and gambling. Sure, there’s something to be said for walking (or, more realistically, carting) the links with your buddies on a nice day but there’s something even more to be said for downing a few beers and betting each other $10 a hole while doing so.
However, drinking at work isn’t normally recommended if you’re a professional golfer not named “Jon Daly” and there’s no real need to put any money on the line when you’re playing for a purse. However, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson recently decided to shake things up a bit when they announced they’d be going head-to-head in a $10 million winner-take-all match.
If you’re in a betting mood, there are plenty of ways for you to make some money by betting on the results of the round. However, while Tiger and Phil both have a chance to pad their bank account a bit, neither of them will risk losing anything by participating in the match because they’re not the ones ponying up the money.
Thankfully, Patrick Reed has figured out the perfect way to make things a lot more interesting was nice enough to share his idea with Golf Digest:
“I would pay a little bit more to watch it if it was for their own money, for sure. It’s going to be entertaining. I think it would be more entertaining if it was for their own money because I think the guys would grind even harder. I’ll be curious to see it because I feel like one match, 18 holes, not your own money, it’s just kind of an exhibition.”
Back when the general public suddenly cared about poker for a few years, there were plenty of times where I got sucked into watching Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu rolling up to the table with stacks of their own cash to play with. I’ll probably end up watching this either way but I hope someone takes Reed’s advice into consideration.