Professionals Should Be Allowed to Make Small Bets on Golf

Golf gambling is almost as old as the game itself, and in this installment of Bad Takes Week, Alex Miceli says the pros shouldn't be shut out—within reason.

Welcome to SI Golf’s Inaugural Bad Takes Week, where our writers and editors have been asked to offer their worst ideas and defend them. These are columns on takes they believe in, even if they made the rest of the room groan during the pitch meetings. Keep an eye out for more bad takes throughout the week.

A "C-note," a "Benjamin" or a "yard" ... all slang for a $100 bill.

The value of the staple of American currency has changed over time, but it’s still an important dividing line.

A dinner slightly over $100 seems so much more expensive than one a hair under $100.

Similarly, if you bet less than $100, it’s a small, somewhat insignificant amount, more for fun. Over $100, it feels like a more substantial wager—and may become an issue.

Which is why I’m proposing the PGA Tour set a limit of $100 for all its players to be able to bet on any golf event.

Stephen Skalocky/Sports Illustrated

Gambling in golf has been part of the fabric of the game since it started in Holland or Scotland (right, Phil?), and since the Supreme Court in 2018 struck down the federal ban on betting, this country has devoured gambling like the Cookie Monster with a fresh package of Oreos.

Yet two Korn Ferry Tour players, Jake Staiano and Vince India, were recently suspended for violating the Tour’s Integrity Program by gambling.

It seems ironic that the Tour has an Integrity Program which bans gambling by its players, yet it has official relationships with six betting operators (bet365, BetMGM, betPARX, DraftKings, FanDuel, PointsBet) and recently opened a DraftKings-backed sportsbook at TPC Scottsdale.

Staiano and India bet small amounts on golf and not all of it was on PGA Tour golf.

Staiano bet a total of $116.20 across four bets: $25 on Bryson DeChambeau to make a birdie on a par-5 in a PGA Tour event in 2021 and three bets on The Match, the November 2021 exhibition between DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka.

Maybe "irony" is not harsh enough.

But let’s be serious, betting less than a C-note on golf is just plain fun and no one is trying to get rich, just entertained.

Research by Stanford University in 2009 and a story in the Springer’s Journal of Gambling Studies in 2014 concluded that gambling for the majority of people is fun.

And gambling on golf is fun.

Instead of acting like the fun police, the PGA Tour needs to lighten up and allow a fundamental tenet of the game to proceed for everyone—including its own players.

It’s possible that Old Tom Morris was turning in his grave when the three- and six-month suspensions were announced by the PGA Tour.

Even Old Tom gambled on golf, in challenge matches, so why not allow the current PGA Tour player?

The limit of $100 makes it a safe bet that the game and its integrity will not be blemished if, say, Rickie Fowler bets $100 on Brian Harman to win the the British Open.

The story behind that would be entertaining. Who in fact is getting hurt?

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