If you’ve been around Vegas for a while, you’ve likely met, or at least heard, Richie Sklar. He’s loud, and never afraid to speak on a variety of gambling subjects, the primary being golf gambling. Specifically, matches or gambits he’d like to play against PGA Tour golfers.
Richie has a beautiful, effortless golf swing, hits the ball as far as probably 40% of the top 100 pros, has an excellent wedge game, but is a horrid chipper and mediocre putter. Playing one ball he’s not that good. I’m ( a 5-handicap) a small favorite against him. But that’s not his thing. He’d rather scramble his ball. This is where he hits two shots off the tee, chooses the best one, plays two shots from there and so on until he holes out. After the tee shot, he gets to place both balls within one club-length of his lie, as long as he stays in the same cut of grass. He’s a great scrambler and I’m a pretty solid dog against him in a scramble match. He just has too much firepower.
Richie’s been going on about scrambling against tour players for so long that we all pretty much shine him on. Regardless of whether he could win any pro tournament if he was allowed to scramble his ball against the field’s one-ball, the argument has become trite because the chances of him ever getting the opportunity to try it seem very small.
However, from what I hear there’s been a million-dollar bet proposed and accepted for Richie to play the Olympic Club, the site of this year’s U.S. Open, the four days after the tournament. He scrambles his ball and must shoot better than the winning score of the Open..
There are certainly lots of hurdles to clear before this could ever come off, the first being the ability to gain access to the course for those days. The Olympic Club is the oldest athletic club in the U.S., dating to 1860. It’s certainly populated by lots of old-money people who would frown on the prospect of a bunch of gamblers descending on their private enclave right after one of the most important weeks in their history. And gamblers as a group are loud, argumentative and notoriously non-proponents of tradition golf etiquette. However, guys who can afford to make million-dollar bets are generally well connected, and I hear that they believe they have to connections to gain access. (If they did get on, whether they could last four days without getting booted would be another question.)
Assuming they could get use of the course for four days, there are other issues. Would Richie get to practice on the course, or would he be playing it for the first time? Could he use a caddy to help him with course knowledge and green reading? Would they maintain the rough as it was during the Open, or cut it back. Likewise, would the greens be as hard and fast, and where would the hole locations be?
Assuming all the logistics could be worked out, and the conditions would be similar to those during the tournament, what would Richie’s chances be?
The course plays to 7170 yards, so it’s not unreasonably long, and Richie could drive in it the area of most of the pros. If he got one of his balls in the fairway, he could probably hit the majority of greens in regulation. (He’s also proposed a bet of hitting over 48 of the 72 greens.) When he has to play from the rough, even though he gets to tee it up, it would be difficult to hold his ball on Open-style hard, fast greens. It’s when he misses greens that the problems could start. Richie’s pitching and chipping issues could cause big problems with the long rough (even though he can place the ball, he’s not going to have a perfect lie) and fast and tricky greens. And his putting won’t bail him out. He will definitely make some bogies. The question is whether he can make enough birdies, especially on the par-5’s, to shoot better than 5-under for the week, which I think will be the neighborhood of the winning score (unless the USGA decides to respond to the criticism of last year’s Open at Congressional being too easy by going to the other extreme at Olympic).
Another question is stamina. Even riding in a cart, playing four rounds in a row, and hitting two balls on a torturous Open layout can be exhausting, especially if the weather is wet and heavy, which is likely in San Francisco that time of year. And Richie’s in his late ‘50s and not in top shape.
I’m not really sure which way I would bet. I know how good a scrambler Richie is, but I also know he’s never played on anything like a U.S. Open course. Although the bet is a long shot to ever happen, it’s fun to debate and I really hope it does, if for no other reason than to shut Richie up!
Opinions, anyone?
