It is well-known that top poker players do not limit their bets to just the green felts. Many players like to step to the pits in a casino and hit the table games, like 2009 November Nine member Phil Ivey, whose craps exploits were featured in a recent issue of “ESPN: The Magazine.” Others like to make outlandish proposition bets to feed their adrenaline rush of high-stakes betting. A recent magazine article focused on one of the other betting outlets that poker players have flocked to.
In the November 2009 edition of “Golf Magazine,” an article entitled “The Golf Sharks” by Josh Sens documents a foursome that, if seen on the poker tables, would send most players heading for cover. Phil Hellmuth, Layne Flack, Erick Lindgren, and Gavin Smith are the featured players as they play at stakes of $10,000 per hole. The game is a two-man best ball event, with Hellmuth and Flack taking on Lindgren and Smith.
Because the focus of the article is on the quartet’s golfing abilities, Sens dissects each player’s style with an unwavering eye. For Hellmuth, Sens comments, “His stance is shut, his backswing is a spasm and he sways through impact.” Hellmuth is confident, though, that he and Flack can take the match, commenting, “(We’ll play) well enough to win.”
Flack was able to get the athletic Lindgren (who won almost $350,000 in a golf bet during the 2007 World Series of Poker) and the former hockey player Smith to give two shots a side. In addition, Hellmuth would hit off the white tees, which feature a shorter route to the green than the more difficult pro tees. Lindgren comments, “They (Hellmuth and Flack) have no shame.”
Sens then documents the historical connection between golf and poker (and its high-stakes wagering). He mentions the now-defunct Professional Gamblers Invitational, which was active in the 1970s, was run by Jack Binion and featured some of the top golfing gamblers from across the country. He also invokes the names of two of the legends of the game, Dewey Tomko and Doyle Brunson, as connections among golfing, gambling, and poker.
In the end, the match looks as if it is going to end “all square,” the golfing vernacular for tied, when Hellmuth pulls off an incredible shot into the wind and over water. Landing it ten feet from the pin, he guarantees that his team will hold onto its one-hole edge and take home the money. “How’s that for clutch,” Sens quotes Hellmuth as saying as the round ends with no money exchanged. “We’ll wait until the poker tables,” Smith says, “and pay them with chips.”
What was surprising about this outing is that one of the most golf-mad poker players around, Daniel Negreanu, wasn’t part of it. His attempts to perfect his game have led to a never-ending series of jokes from Brunson on his blog, such as the oldie but goodie, “Daniel: Do you think it’s a sin to play on Sunday? Caddie – The way you play, it’s a sin on any day.” Negreanu can often be found during poker tournaments pantomiming his swing, searching for tips in his approach.
With such events as the World Series of Golf and the continued escapades of foursomes like the ones Sens features in “Golf Magazine,” it is easy to see that the connection between golf and poker isn’t going away anytime soon.
