Matt Kuchar’s Favorite Golf Gambling Story: A Costly First Albatross
Kyle Terada, USA TODAY Sports
The Action Network spoke with several of today’s top professional golfers to find out their favorite personal golf betting stories.
Matt Kuchar
When: Late-1990s
Where: Hawks Ridge GC in Ball Ground, Ga.
To say Kuchar was a successful amateur golfer is an understatement. He won the 1997 U.S. Amateur and the next year earned low-am honors with a T-21 finish at the Masters and a T-14 at the U.S. Open. But he didn’t win everything during those years. In fact, it was a lost bet with a Georgia Tech teammate that still resonates to this day.
“I distinctly remember losing to my best buddy Carlton Forrester in college. I didn’t have much money to my name, but we were playing for some decent money.
“I was playing great golf, but I was down to Carlton. I doubled the bet on 17, but he birdied to beat me.
“Then I doubled the bet on 18 and he made an albatross.
“That really hurt. That was my first time ever witnessing an albatross and not the one I wanted to see.
“It took me a couple of installments to pay him back. It might have only been 100 bucks total, but that was a couple of installments for me at that time.
Other Golf Gambling Stories from the Game's Biggest Stars
- Corey Conners' Favorite Golf Gambling Story: Pressing at Pebble Beach
- Bryson DeChambeau's Favorite Golf Gambling Story: A Very Important Reese's
- Adam Scott's Favorite Golf Gambling Story: Fred Couples, Phil Ivey and $10K
- Tony Finau's Favorite Golf Gambling Story: A $500 Hole-In-One
- Justin Thomas' Favorite Golf Gambling Story: 36 Holes With Michael Jordan
- Paul Casey's Favorite Golf Gambling Story: A Winning Pitch vs. Lefty
- Marc Leishman's Favorite Golf Gambling Story: The International Hustle
- Rickie Fowler's Favorite Golf Gambling Story: 1-on-1 with Michael Jordan
- Zach Johnson's Favorite Golf Gambling Story: When Doubling Down Goes All Wrong
- Brendan Steele's Favorite Golf Gambling Story: Ratted Out for Winning Too Much
Golf Gambling Stories from Legends of the Game
- Mark O’Meara’s Favorite Golf Gambling Story: Tiger Takes Him for a Ride
- Nick Price's Favorite Golf Gambling Story: A Longshot to Remember
- Gary Player's Favorite Golf Gambling Story: Arnold Palmer and a South African Goldmine
- Davis Love III's Favorite Golf Gambling Story: No-Bogey Betting at the Open Championship
- Nick Faldo's Favorite Golf Gambling Story: Getting into Jack Nicklaus' Pockets
- Bernhard Langer's Favorite Golf Gambling Story: Shaking Down Seve Ballasteros
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