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Do you gamble on the course?

I know this won’t be a popular take, but I really don’t see the point in gambling more than five dollars on something that is handicapped. I like fun competition for a few bucks and would not hesitate to participate with heckling assumed between shots.
 
I used to but after losing about $40 in a 9 hole match early this year I got burnt out. It feels like I've been a human ATM too often so I'm not really in to it anymore.
 
I'm not a big gambler on the course, but I'll participate in some light stuff if everyone wants to. I have a buddy who's always trying to egg me on, but the personal competition is enough for me. But it's not really my thing.
 
Only when I drive a golf cart.
 
Usually just some small stakes games. We'll play 6-6-6 swapping teams as team match play. Or I have a standing $5 Nassau with a guy I play with a lot. The most you'll usually be up or down is $20 or so. We enjoy the trash talking more than the money changing hands.

I don't know if I'd enjoy it if we were playing for an amount of money that mattered.
 
I gamble every time I try to carry a 200+ shot over water on a par 5 :)

The foursome I play with on a regular basis usually plays Wolf with the loser buying lunch. We started out with money but found it was easier if the loser buys lunch or 19th hole beers
 
every time I step on the course it is a gamble. i could shatter a window or hit three fairways over or...


oh, that's not what you meant? okay never mind
 
djt311 said:
One exception is that I play with this group of guys where handicap is not included and there are what they call things, good, things and bad things. You get good things for things like hitting the fairway and 2nd fairway on a par 5, GIR, 1 putts, sandy saves, birdies, eagles etc. basically anything good in golf will get you a thing. Then there are wrong things like missing fairway, lost ball, 3 putts, anything over par etc. The things are basically a quarter and some other special things are worth more. There is also a $1 for the front nine, the back nine and the total match. At the end the difference between the good things and bad things are totaled up for each player the difference between them is calculated and each player pays based each other based on how many more good things they had over the others. I don't know how the old guy keeps track of it all but he does and I don't even know all the things that can or cannot be had but it is fun and unless you are playing really bad you don't owe or win much at the end unless you have a great abundance of good things.
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Check out the Vegas Golf Poker Chip Game (https://vegasgolfgame.com). It's exactly what you just described except each good or bad thing is a chip. I've had a set of those for a long time and we used to play it a lot but now only every once in awhile. The problem is, as you alluded, there's a lot of activity that has to take place at the end of each hole.

Funny story, we started playing this when I was much newer to the game. There is a chip called the Beer Chip. There are different ways to play, but we always played it using only the par 3s. Whoever is farthest from the hole on each par 3 gets the Beer Chip. And whoever is in possession of the Beer Chip when the cart girl comes around must buy a round of beer. We did that for awhile, and then my friends enacted the "Mark Amendment" (I'm Mark) whereby each person possessing the Beer Chip only has to buy beer once per round. I was going broke. lol
 
Having a little skin in the game adds a little something for me. It's not about the money, it's never a serious amount, just a little extra competitive pressure.
 
1 group I play with does a par 3 contest.
We all put up $1, you need to land on the green and be closest to the hole. Then par pays $1 from each, birdie pays $2 from each.
They carry over if no one lands on the green.

Big money game, but we have fun with it.
 
Yes, my group gambles pretty much always. And many times there are multiple bets going at once. Like we'll be playing Wolf or Left-Right, and then there are several "closest" type prop bets going as well. Never high stakes. Usually not more than $1/hole. So even on a bad day nobody (meaning me) ends up losing more than $9-10. We have one buddy who lives in another state and flies in to play with us whenever there's a guys' weekend or whatever. And this dude always brings new, and usually complicated, games for us to play. And he is also the master of layering games on top of each other and keeping track of it all.

Question: When speaking of gambling, where is the line between "compulsive" and "degenerate"?
 
We will play some wolf and nassau but nothing high money.
 
Never. As a general rule I don't gamble money off course either, which makes it interesting because the Minister hasn't met a slot machine she doesn't like.
 
With my friends, almost always. $5 KPs on every par 3, $20 net or match play. Used to do Snake with a $15 cap but $45 is too much for one person to pay in a group of 4 and has a guaranteed loser. Wolf is a fun one, too.

With people I don't know as well I'll never bring it up until they do, but I secretly hope they do ;)
 
always. we usually play losers have to wait on the winners at the next picnic. get them drinks burgers whatever.
 
We do $5 on closest to the pin on the par 3s but that's about it.
 
I cut my teeth playing with the hustlers on Detroit Munis. A couple of my groups we wager. On all kind of things. Enough to keep it interesting. For example last bet on 18 Saturday I was faced with around 220 to the middle, ball laying on bare dirt in the trees, and had to cut it 70 degrees to get to the green. Two guys bet me $50 ea at 2-1 odds I couldn't make the green. The third wouldn't take the bet, he knows I love clean lies with nothing but club and ball, no interference from grass in good contact. I made the $200.00 shot. Actually won $425 on the day with closest to's and other bets calculated in.
I am pretty sure another guy won more than I did, which means two guys didn't do so well.
Typical of my weekend rounds.
Winter Sim league the money really flies, with 16 guys in the same room
 
I do, typically $5 bets, nothing big. Its to the fun. Thankfully the usual suspects I play against are similar handicaps so no double pops or potentials for low net scores.
 
Occasionally but it is mainly for bragging rights. I did play with some other people a couple of weeks ago where it got wayyyy out of hand. The final hole was worth $300 and 1 guy lost close to a grand. That is where it can get ugly and sour relationships IMO.
 
lazychicken said:
Check out the Vegas Golf Poker Chip Game (https://vegasgolfgame.com). It's exactly what you just described except each good or bad thing is a chip. I've had a set of those for a long time and we used to play it a lot but now only every once in awhile. The problem is, as you alluded, there's a lot of activity that has to take place at the end of each hole.
Click to expand...
That sounds similar to the Animal Golf cards. You have different animals for different things (snake for a 3-putt, chicken for leaving a putt short, frog for going in the water, camel for hitting into a bunker, gorilla for OB, etc.) and they change hands throughout the round as somebody else "earns" them. The way we played it, if you got a birdie or better you got to give one of your cards away to the player of your choice, so it made for a lot of hilarity if one guy was "clean" of cards and you saddled him with the frog when there were no more water holes left on the course, or if somebody 3-putted the 18th green to earn the snake. We played very low stakes so there were no hard feelings, it was just to put a little edge on the game and have some laughs.
 
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