Hacker News Reader

Comment by djloche | Hacker News Reader

The article doesn't cover it - but the reason why people are expected to buy everyone drinks is because if you're lucky and skilled enough to get a hole in one, you will likely win the round and all the money wagered. If it is a local club or casual tournament, this can be a few hundred or thousand dollars. Even if it is just four people playing, there will usually be money wagered between themselves.

If it's a larger event, the purse for winning easily covers the hole-in-one celebrations. On top of this, if you are a member of a local country club - you're already paying hundreds if not thousands a month on membership dues. You're expected to have such wealth that to cover drinks/food isn't a big deal. Some clubs are structured such that you aren't directly paying for the celebrations, but your membership dues are such that it includes the cost of any potential celebrations.

Golfing is a game for the wealthy, including the traditions surrounding it.

View on HN

I have golfed since I was a kid (grew up in the mid-Atlantic), and have been a serious golfer for the last 7 years or so - having lived both in Boston and the bay area during that time.

I very rarely bet any money on my round, nor do the people I play with. True, there are people betting on their rounds, but I'd estimate it's 1 out of every 10 groups that goes out for a round that does that.

The article blows it out of proportion a little bit, too. At the courses I play (in the bay area), there are usually maybe 20 people in the clubhouse, and a round of drinks would probably come to $100. The "insurance" crowd is a very small subset of the golfing population.

True - it is an expensive sport and maybe traditionally a game for the wealthy, but my weekly golf habit doesn't cost much more than a gym membership. People from all walks of life play and enjoy the game, and it definitely doesn't have to be expensive unless you want it to be.

"Golfing is a game for the wealthy"

Not all golfing takes place at country clubs. The District of Columbia has four public courses (three of them nine-hole). I golfed when I was a kid, and though we were comfortably off, it would be a stretch to say that we were wealthy. I've since known golfers who, again, were comfortably off and not much more.

Do those golfers put wagers on their rounds? I have no idea; we never did.

I don't know about this. I'm pretty sure wagering in golf is against club rules. :)

Source: Caddyshack

Is there a case in history where rules against gambling have worked?

Really? I wouldn't expect the likelihood of winning given getting a hole in one to be much.

A hole in one is only 2 (or extremely rarely 3) under par, the spread of scores in a game would usually be far greater than that.

I disagree -- I don't think that a hole-in-one correlates with winning the round (I'd be interested if someone can crunch the stats for the PGA), and I also don't think that goes any further to explaining the reasoning.

I think the article DOES hint at explaining it anthropologically -- there's a rich tradition of "potlatch" events in which community members demonstrate their power by how much they can give away. Ultimately, you've just experienced some incredible good luck, and that gets spread around by handing out free drinks. Also, if you hang out at the club long enough, you'll be the recipient of many hole-in-one free drinks, which will ultimately balance out the round you had to buy.

I am (was - haven't played in ages) a truly terrible golfer, and I've gotten a hole in one. I don't remember EVER winning a round.

Funny story - when I got the hole in one, my foursome spent 5 minutes or so looking behind the green for my ball before someone looked in the cup and asked, incredulously, if I was playing a Titleist.

Agree. A hole in one is usually achieved on a par three green which requires no real skill to hit (but plenty of skill to rarely miss) and subtracts no more than two from your overall round which is not a huge advantage in a tournament with players of mixed abilities. In a tournament the pin might well be placed in an awkward part of the green intended to deter golfers from intentionally aiming directly at it, leaving the more accurate and strategic golfers most likely to win the tournament actually less likely to score a hole in one. If anything, a hole-in-one represents the opportunity for people without any chance of ever achieving the consistency to win a golf tournament to earn bragging rights.

Anecdata: As one of the most erratic, temperamental and limited golfers ever in my teens, I once nailed an approach shot from 150 yards straight into the hole on the second hole (arguably, given that I was playing my second shot from heavy rough, a more difficult shot than a hole-in-one on a regular par three). In the same round I then managed to lose five balls in the process of scoring seventeen on the 17th during the same round. To be fair, it was quite a difficult 17th. Strangely, I haven't played much since.

This tradition also goes down to a round of golf with friends, where there's no money on the line at all. Also, while golf started out as a game for the wealthy, there are quite a few teachers, etc who golf now too. Finally, a membership to the local country club could be someone's big monthly splurge; instead of lots of cable channels, etc, they just have a golf membership so they can go do something they enjoy without worrying about it. Golfing simply isn't as hoity-toity as it used to be.

Golfing is a game for the wealthy

Tell that to my $20 set of clubs and $5 bucket of range balls.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com