A bet is a bet is a bet

It's all relative, depending on your income. A Michael Jordan or a John Daly can afford to plop down a large bet without feeling a lot of financial pain. Well, at least Jordan, anyway. How good can Daly's finances be if he writes a song titled "All My Exes Wear Rolexes"? For us average muni players, that would be "All My Exes Wear Timexes."

It's still the same pressure, though. You had better know what you're doing when you gamble. Let's face it, you're a bad golfer or you wouldn't be on this Web site. You'd be on GoodGolfer.com or something, and bad golfers rarely win bets from good golfers, even with handicaps. Ninety percent of bad golfers think Nassau is an island. (Yes, I made that statistic up.)

My uncle invited a visiting single to play on his private golf course. The stranger was one of those good golfers and suggested a dollar a hole to my uncle, who accepted. When the round ended, my uncle was up four holes, and his gracious opponent handed him $400.

Had my uncle known a dollar meant $100 in the gambler world, he would have lost every hole. Pressure.

(Thus the subtitle, why a dime isn't 10 cents. A dime's a thousand dollars. A dollar is a hundred, and a nickel is 500 in betting circles. Now you know.)

Golf gambling: The terms

Let's keep this simple and explain just a few bets:

$2 Nassau: The front nine is worth $2, the back nine is worth $2 and the 18th hole total is worth $2. When your opponent "presses" during the round, a new bet runs concurrently. If they keep pressing, the money can build up quickly, and the bad golfer usually folds from the pressure. A good golfer will usually wait for a long dogleg par 4 with water down the right side before pressing. Don't fall for it. Just say, "No."

Bingo Bango Bongo: No it's not an Elvis movie; it's a points bet. A player wins points for first on the green, a point for closest to the pin when all balls are on the green and a point for being the first to hole out. Most points win. The convoluted bet is best known for turning a four-hour round into six hours.

Sandies: My favorite. You get up and down for par from a green-side bunker, and you win $1 or $5 from your partners. This bet entices greedy players to purposely hit into the bunker for the chance at a sandie, though I rarely have to try to land in a bunker.

There are many more types of golf wagering games, but most are as confusing as Tiger's tax return, so I won't list them.

No one really knows for sure if gambling on golf is illegal, but I assume it's not when you see all that money exchange hands at the Police Benevolent Association scrambles. But illegal or not, I'll risk making a bet now.

I bet a dime (10 cents, not $1,000) that despite their age difference, Charles Axel Woods and Sophia Mickelson will someday marry and create offspring of phenomenal golf ability. I'll bet another dime the two continue the Woods-Mickelson tradition of not speaking to each other.

Recommended Golf Clubs:

Taylormade Golf Clubs
Mizuno Golf Clubs
Titleist Golf Clubs