FORE Magazine

Top Menu

  • About Me
  • Contact Us
  • Home

Main Menu

  • Current Issue
  • Profiles
  • Sustainability
  • Travel
  • 19th Hole
  • Classic Course
  • FORE Her
  • More
    • Know the Rules
    • Handicap Hints
    • SCGA Junior
    • Where Are They Now?
    • News
    • Public Affairs
  • scga.org
Sign in / Join

Login

Welcome! Login in to your account
Lost your password?

Lost Password

Back to login

logo

FORE Magazine

  • Current Issue
  • Profiles
  • Sustainability
  • Travel
  • 19th Hole
  • Classic Course
  • FORE Her
  • More
    • Know the Rules
    • Handicap Hints
    • SCGA Junior
    • Where Are They Now?
    • News
    • Public Affairs
  • scga.org
Fall 2016
Home›Issues›Fall 2016›Playing For Pinks: Writer vs. Stick Ends Well For Stick

Playing For Pinks: Writer vs. Stick Ends Well For Stick

By Judd Spicer
October 24, 2016
4267
0
Share:

Somewhere between adrenaline, fear, hopeful-riches and self-imposed pressure, playing golf with cash on the line changes how we play. The more at stake, the greater the motivation to not change for the worse.

To exercise this theory, I recently entered a game against an accomplished player with a known penchant for the relationship between golf and gamble.

The Stakes: My paycheck for writing this story.

The Site: Bel-Air Country Club

My Opponent: Jack Wagner.

spicer-2Best known for his roles on “General Hospital,” “Melrose Place,” and “The Bold and The Beautiful,” there’s nothing soapy about Wagner’s golf game. The guy is a stick. Currently in production for the fourth season of The Hallmark Channel’s “When Calls the Heart,” Wagner isn’t simply a celebrity golfer. He’s the celebrity golfer, and the actor/singer/producer has been reputed as Hollywood’s top player for more than a decade. The only non-jock champion across 27 years of Lake Tahoe’s American Century Championship (having won in 2006 and 2011), Wagner’s golf résumé further includes a Missouri Junior College championship back in 1980, along with being the six-time club champion at Bel-Air CC. Oh, he also boasts a +0.4 handicap with the SCGA.

I’d been to Bel-Air but once before, not to play, but rather to interview SCGA Hall of Famer Eddie Merrins for these very pages. Driving into the club on a sticky August morn, this time with clubs in tow, my hands perspired on the wheel and I could almost feel the cash voluntarily ascending from my wallet into the humid, gambling ether.

CASH GAMES at L.A.’s private clubs are as prevalent as dimples on a ball. Now in his 30th year as a member at Bel-Air, Wagner didn’t arrive at the club as a money game player. Today? Count him among the myriad that needs something on the line.

“I am one of those golfers that has to play for something to have any type of interest,” Wagner says. “I can do social golfer if it’s for charity, or if I have relatives in town. But I find that to have pressure on me, feeling nerves, tests me as an individual.”

From the outset, my own pressure-gauge reads something like a ferret in a sauna. I’m nervous, hot, jumpy. I play a lot of golf, sometimes for petty cash. But this is different; these are dollars I basically need. Like most writers, I’m inherently destitute, and I don’t want to lose my money to this guy. Wagner, meanwhile, is totally in his element; he talks fast, plays fast and doesn’t provide me a sense of feeling settled.

“Everybody has a window that they’re comfortable with,” Wagner will say post-match. “For some, it’ $25, other’s its $100. And will I go out and play for 50 bucks? Absolutely. But if I’m going to step up and gamble, then you have to get your mind right for it. There’s a mind for a $10 game, and then there’s a mind for a $2,000 game. The difference? It’s where are you going to really focus and push yourself, and where are you going to choke?”

Somehow, I work past the jitters to par the opening hole, an accomplishment which feels short-lived after my opponent makes a 25-foot, downhill slider for a sand save birdie.

Despite getting 13 shots, seeing that Titleist roll home is dispiriting. Though it’s not yet spoken, it’s fairly obvious that I possess neither the innards, nor the mindset, for a paycheck game against a player of this caliber.

WAGNER’S gambling yarns spin with all the fluidity of his languid swing. Echoing his omnipresence at the American Century Championship and three decades at star-studded Bel-Air, the guy has played games with basically every golfing jock. Over the years, bread has exchanged hands with Michael Jordan, John Elway, Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux, Charles Barkley, Brett Hull, Mardy Fish and countless others.

“We’ve all won. We’ve all beaten each other’s brains in. And by the way: It’s not friendly,” Wagner says. “They want to step on my neck and kill this limpy little actor. And they know I want to do the same. But at the end, the money’s not going to affect anybody and we slap each other’s backs.”

A few other money players of note have also crossed Wagner’s path, including a $500 Bel-Air putting game versus Phil Mickelson and another money match of note that took more than a few rolls to flesh out.

spicer-3“John Daly and I met back in the mid-90s. I think he’d just won the Open Championship,” Wagner remembers. “John came out to Bel-Air and it was immediately, ‘What are we playing for?’ He gave me 3 a side the first day, and I think I beat him good. The next day he gave me 2 a side; we ended up playing an emergency nine and I beat him again. John got pissed at himself and he had these Spalding, graphite-shafted clubs. He ended up taking them all and breaking them over his knee except his driver and putter. And he was totally fine afterwards, very gracious. He said, ‘Well, I got that out of the way.’ It was hilarious!”

After the laughed quelled, Wagner took his chips back to the table.

“I won a ton of money; very high stakes and very fun. It really tested my ‘choke value’ big time,” Wagner adds. “About a month later, we played again (at Mission Hills CC in Rancho Mirage), and I started out getting 1 a side. At 4 a side, I quit. We were at about 108 holes, he was around 17-under and destroyed me. Whatever I won at Bel-Air, he won it all back in Palm Springs. And we’ve been great friends ever since.”

BY MY COUNT, we turned to the back side with all but three of my 13 strokes already cashed in. I still had something of a faint heartbeat in the match, yet the beastly greenside bunkering of the George C. Thomas design highlighted but one of my game’s flaws.

Stepping on the 10th tee, Bel-Air’s iconic Swinging Bridge in the periphery and the lengthy par-3’s intimidating crevasse in the foreground, I took a brief, silent moment to examine my inner-fortitude.

“You’ve written about this hole, you’ve watched how guys play this hole and you’re still in this match,” I told myself. And then promptly topped a 5-wood into the abyss.

Four holes later, the mood having lightened due to the inevitable outcome, Wagner and I strolled in unison off the 14th green. Breaking from the polite, gamesman demeanor he’d offered since the first tee, Wagner paused, put his arm on my shoulder and smiled the perfect smile that’s kept him before a camera for a generation.

“You know you’re cooked right?”

“I knew that about two holes ago.”

“So here’s what we’re gonna’ do, OK? We’re each gonna’ give $100 to the caddie, you’re my guest at the club and I’ve got your lunch. And we’re gonna’ take this money we played for today and give it to charity together.”

And it was as if a veil had lifted. All the tension in my shoulders suddenly evaporated.

At lunch after the match, Wagner, talkative and gracious, specified that our dollars would go to aid the flood-ravaged Ms. B’s The Journey Home, a Louisiana-based bastion for women suffering from addiction.

Between the lunch, the goodwill and some great Bel-Air stories, I took a moment to excuse myself. Strolling through the harrowed halls, I stopped for a moment and looked through the clubhouse window at the 10th tee adjacent. I thought about choking like a dog on that tee shot, then further considered how I felt 45 minutes later on the 15th tee.

Our match conceded, I’d felt like myself again, which only illustrated the colossal contrast between playing for something and playing for kicks.

Jack Wagner was right. The extent of the bounty will test the extent of one’s choke value. And you best have your mind right for the pressures of a game sporting a Pinnacle in one hand and your paycheck in the other.

Previous Article

Tri-Tip Terrific: Grab a Meal at the ...

Next Article

You Bet-Cha: A Little Something To Make ...

0
Shares
  • 0
  • +
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

Judd Spicer

Judd Spicer is an award-winning writer, radio host, columnist for The Desert Sun newspaper and an Associate Member of the Golf Writers Association of America.  A Minnesota native, he relocated to the Palm Springs region in 2011 to pursue his Champions Tour dream.  Sporting wayward accuracy off the tee, Judd refers to his 56-degree as his magic wand.  Visit www.juddspicer.com and @JuddSpicer for more.

Related articles More from author

  • Fall 2016Handicap Hints

    Golf’s Great Equalizer: It’s a Safe Bet that the Handicap System Makes Your Games More Enjoyable

    October 24, 2016
    By Kevin O'Connor
  • Fall 2016Public Affairs

    Lessons from the Drought “Emergency”: A funny thing happened on the way to the apocalypse.

    October 24, 2016
    By Craig Kessler
  • Fall 2016

    Not Just a Man’s Game: Girls Just Want To Have Fun

    October 24, 2016
    By Jill Painter Lopez
  • Fall 2016Travel

    Big Dreams At Big Cedar Lodge

    October 24, 2016
    By admin
  • Fall 2016The Podium

    View From The Other Side: Matt Dye’s Special Hole

    October 24, 2016
    By Bill Dwyre
  • Fall 2016News

    Summer of ’17: Amateur Hour Takes On A Whole New Meaning

    October 24, 2016
    By admin

Leave a reply Cancel reply

Recent Posts

  • At The TurnFeaturedWinter 2023

    Pins & Needles: An Ancient Remedy for an Age-Old Problem

  • FeaturedHandicap HintsWinter 2023

    New Year’s Daze: Looking Forward and Looking Back at your Handicap

  • FeaturedProfilesWinter 2023

    A Steady Hand at the Helm: A Fond Farewell to SCGA Stalwart Kevin Heaney

  • FeaturedSCGA JuniorWinter 2023

    Making a Future in Golf a Reality: Skylar Graham and the Pathways Internship

  • FeaturedProfilesWinter 2023

    A Modern Throwback: Cole Young Calls his Own Shots

FOLLOW US

Facebook 0Fans
Twitter 0Followers
Instagram 0Followers
Youtube 0Subscriber
  • Recent

  • Popular

  • Comments

  • Changing of the Guard: New Galleri Classic Set to Debut in the Desert

    By Judd Spicer
    February 7, 2023
  • New Year’s Daze: Looking Forward and Looking Back at your Handicap

    By Kevin O'Connor
    February 7, 2023
  • Grass by Design: Pure Research Yields New Strains of Drought-Tolerant Grass

    By Craig Kessler
    February 7, 2023
  • Best Ball Bar & Grill: Woodley Lakes GC Gets a Big Culinary Upgrade

    By David Weiss
    February 7, 2023
  • Making a Future in Golf a Reality: Skylar Graham and the Pathways Internship

    By Ken Van Vechten
    February 7, 2023
  • The Diva Golfer

    By Azucena Maldonado
    January 31, 2017
  • The USGA’s Major Proposed Changes to the Rules of Golf

    By admin
    December 14, 2017
  • Stand By Me: Temecula Native Joe Skovron On Life As Rickie Fowler’s Caddie

    By Jonathan Coe
    October 26, 2016
  • Watching the Tiger Watchers

    By Andy Brumer
    February 20, 2018
  • Remembering Jim Murray: Best of the Best

    By Bill Dwyre
    February 14, 2017
  • Julie
    on
    November 13, 2022

    The Single Life: The Simple Pleasures of Being “That Guy”

    Thanks for this. I ...
  • free proxy list
    on
    December 5, 2018

    Top 4 College Golf Names You Need To Know

    Hello,I log on to ...
  • Adela C. Garcia
    on
    November 17, 2018

    Revolutionizing the “Ladies Club”

    Azucena Maldonado is a ...
  • Rose Sauceda
    on
    November 15, 2018

    Revolutionizing the “Ladies Club”

    Congratulations my lovely Amiga ...
  • Judy Carls
    on
    November 15, 2018

    The Gilded One: Eldorado CC

    Excellent magazine..thank you Judy Carls LPGA ...

RECENT COMMENTS

  • Julie on The Single Life: The Simple Pleasures of Being “That Guy”
  • free proxy list on Top 4 College Golf Names You Need To Know
  • Adela C. Garcia on Revolutionizing the “Ladies Club”
  • Rose Sauceda on Revolutionizing the “Ladies Club”
  • Judy Carls on The Gilded One: Eldorado CC
© 2016 FORE Magazine About Us | Contact Us | Advertise