Page 18 - Summer2020GTP

TEE TIMES PAST

THE ODDS WERE ALWAYS IN HIS FAVOR

continued from page 14

hickory club. Eager gamblers were ready to take you understand the man and why the odds were
him up on it, but he declared only when he was always in his favor. Over the course of his golf
ready, “I have to feel it,” he said. So, one day life, he teamed with some of the most famous
in the middle of winter he announced that this professional golfers of the era in big-money
was the day. Off they went to the local club and matches including Ben Hogan, Sam Snead and
Titanic teed up the ball. There was as much as Byron Nelson. It was Thompson who arranged a
$50,000 on the line. Thompson addressed the famous match involving Ray Floyd and Lee Trevino
ball and then turned around and launched the with $100,000 on the line.
ball down the frozen lake behind the tee. The Wherever big money and gambling were,
hoodwinked mobsters could only pay up as their Titanic Thompson was around. When mobster
convoluted code required them to honor the bet Arnold Rothstein was murdered after a poker
even if snookered. game where he refused to pay up, thinking the
Another story involves a time when Thompson game was fixed, Thompson was one of the players
said he could mark a ball with an X and hit it into at the table. Whether you approve or not, his
a nearby pond and dive in and come up with life story is fascinating and worth the read. He’ll
the same ball. Little did the poor marks know that be forever known as the man who would bet on
on the previous day, he hit several balls marked everything.
with an X into the pond. It was easy money. Now

NEVER TOO EARLY…
NEVER TOO EARLY…
NEVER TOO LATE
NEVER TOO LATE

By Bob Wyatt, USGTF National Coordinator
Fort Pierce, Florida
olf is a game that gives us all unique and
Gunlimited opportunities to embrace and enjoy
competing with yourself as well as with others. With
that said, I am proud to share with you my personal
experience with growing up with the great game
of golf!
The picture in this heartfelt message shows me as a
baby in diapers watching my dad practicing his first
love, second only to his family. As the saying goes,
“A picture is worth a thousand words.”

15
Golf Teaching Pro SUMMER 2020