Most sports with big money has a dark side attached to it. In golf, the ugly face of golf gambling was exposed to the world again when a few months ago, Phil Mickelson was accused by his prior gambling partner of gambling more than millions of dollars. While small bets of paltry sums are not a big deal and are quite prevalent in the industry, Mickelson’s intense gambling habits with such massive amounts were indeed a shocker.

However it is not a rare case of ill judgment, but rather an explosive incident of an existing culture. A guest star from the NBC hit show The Office tells the real truth of gambling in golf.

The Office star spills the beans on golf money games

NBC’s The Office is among the most successful sitcoms with a huge cult following. In the season 4 episode named “Job Fair”, the characters Andy, Kevin, and Jim lure a client, Phil Maguire into a game of golf to make him hand over his business to someone else. During the round when the client puts a bet of $10 per hole, Kevin quickly presents him with a bundle of gambling options. “What are we talkin’? Skins? Acey deucy? Bingo Bango Bongo? Sandies? Barkies? Arnies? Wolf? What?”

But what is surprising is the actor who played Kevin, Brian Baumgartner has the knowledge of these got bets in real life as he has placed them. Recently Baumgartner appeared on an episode of the GOLF’s Subpar podcast where he told the hosts that “Golf is not worth playing if you don’t have money on the line,” he said on the podcast. “If I’m playing there is a wager of some kind. And if for some reason there’s not, I’m not interested.”

Brian then explained that he always plays for money at stake which makes him enjoy the game. Money acts as a motivation for him to concentrate which he otherwise can’t do. “If there’s nothing on the line and I hit a shot, then it just becomes that mental. Like, well, I wasn’t really that— that doesn’t count. Like there’s no consequence to it. So you drop another ball and hit another one and you’re not really focused.” 

Baumgartner plays golf and enjoys it as well but not without a wager. Perhaps that’s why in the episode he ended up winning a bet of $350.

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The gambling allegations against Phil Mickelson

Phil Mickelson, who was already in a troubling situation in the last two years, was put in more of a fix after the new allegations of the gambling surfaced. He was even accused of placing bets on the Ryder Cup in 2012. It was after maintaining a long silence that Phil released a statement in which he denied that he ever placed a bet on the Ryder Cup.

Unfortunately, Mickelson has earned a notorious reputation for being a serial gambler which has damaged his reputation. What are your thoughts on this subject? Let us know in the comments.

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