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Growing up I started gambling on golf almost as soon as I started playing. Some would say that would indicate I had a questionable upbringing. I would agree with the sentiment, but not because of that.

The best time of my life — before I got married and had kids to enjoy — were the years I spent in high school and college. Every Sunday morning for several years I would meet my dad, his younger brother Joe, and my grandpa Pete at Echo Valley Country Club on Des Moines’ south side and play 18 holes. The best thing about these gatherings was that no matter how bad you played, how many clubs you threw, or how bad you got beat, my grandmother would have a giant pasta dinner waiting on us after the round. Nothing salves wounds suffered on the links like homemade ravioli and meatballs.

We played the simplest and to this day my favorite golf gambling game, low ball-low total. Two points on every hole and we would make each point worth a quarter. Birdies (very rare) paid double and eagles (never, ever had one in our matches) paid triple. The eagle thing makes me laugh now considering we even had a caveat in there on the off chance someone had one. We might as well have thrown in “two holes-in-one in the round pays $10,000.”

We teamed up, usually the young guys against the old guys. The best score on each hole was a point and the lowest team total was a point. When I would make seven and Joe made four and the old guys kicked in a couple of sixes … we would win two points. That was a pretty typical result on each hole, which was good considering I made $4.25 an hour and was expected to pay if I lost.

If there is a lesson in this it is that no matter how young the player is, if he gambles he has to pay. You need to learn how to lose and feel the consequences. Another thing I like and continue to appreciate about this game is that you play your own ball all the way in.

A lot of guys I know who are marginal golfers don’t mind gambling, but want to play a scramble format. Forget that. This is a great game no matter how bad you are. I remember slapping at a putt for a nine that I missed and my uncle went off. “What are you doing? We needed that to win the team total.” That got my attention and I tried to make every putt after that. Another good thing about this format is that it is a match format, so if you card a 12 you have just as good a chance to come back and win the next hole. It also allows you to make a good match by putting the “A” player (in this case, clearly my uncle) with the “D” player (sadly, that was clearly me) against B and C (my dad and grandpa in no particular order). This is a game I still play the majority of the time with my friends when we have a foursome because of the simplicity of making a fair match.

I can’t remember which pro golfer I read a quote from talking about gambling in golf, but he actually encouraged playing for something every time you go out. That caught me by surprise, but it makes a lot of sense. Whether it is for a dollar or substantially more, it definitely makes you care a bit more about every shot.

I gave up golf after college and started my career (or whatever you call talking and occasionally writing for a paycheck). I eventually started playing again, but I just played for fun, never putting anything on the line. Then it occurred to me that something was missing. One day it finally hit me like an errant Tiger Woods tee shot: we weren’t gambling!

That was about the time I started hanging out more with former sportswriter and current lawyer Chris Givens. We would play for a buck a hole with birdies paying double. After many of the rounds, we would sit down and count up the scores and bets. Chris would shoot 85 and I would shoot 93 and I would end up winning six bucks. When 17 of your 93 strokes come in two holes, that has a tendency to happen. Chris got irritated after that happened a few times so we added in a $5 Nassau on top of the match-play bet. That evened things out for a few rounds until I got a little better and started winning the Nassau, too. We quit playing shortly after that when Chris said he was strapped for time finishing his last year of law school. I think he was just strapped for cash as he made a number of deposits into my kids’ college fund. I really cherish the time we had together.

Bigger Wallets, Bigger Games

In the pros, the games get more elaborate and, as you would imagine, the payouts are more substantial. A popular game played by the pros at the British Open involves a $1,000 payout per man to the player who goes 18 holes without a bogey. According to a 2000 report in Golf Digest, at Troon in 1997 the wind was blowing so hard that Davis Love III, Fred Couples, Justin Leonard and Tom Kite upped the stakes to $1 million a player. Couples was the last man alive when he tripled the seventh.

Ken Duke is an Arkansas product with a stellar reputation. Gambling for big money, despite his big winnings on the PGA and Nationwide Tours over the last few years, isn’t his bag. He grew up in a lot of putting contests playing for a buck, Coke or ice cream cone and those games grew as he did into the occasional $5 Nassau. He admits there are guys on Tour who play for a few bucks to a few hundred, including some players who make sure to lock horns every week in practice rounds, but “nothing out of hand.” Duke says he believes it’s just another approach to keeping a player’s focus, but doesn’t think it helps much once the tournament starts. “It’s just something to do instead of playing two or three balls a hole,” says Duke.

Former University of Central Arkansas football star Landon Trusty taught me a game over the summer during a round at Nutters Chapel Country Club in Conway called “Bingo, Bango, Bongo,” which I loved immediately in part because the first two words are a catch-phrase popularized by my radio co-host Pat Bradley. In “Bingo, Bango, Bongo,” players are rewarded for being the first to get their ball on the green, the player closest to the pin once all balls are on the green, and the first player to make a putt. If you have ever seen Landon play, you know that great athletes don’t always make great golfers. It is also abundantly clear that golf swings attached to a 6-foot-7-inch frame include a lot of things that can go wrong from takeaway to impact. Maybe I am just bitter because this game doesn’t always reward the player who is playing well or is the least terrible. Yes, I lost. At least I never bump my head getting in and out of cars or walking in doors. So there’s that.

You can always play for pride, but like the guy who can’t dance without a few drinks, I can’t really care a lot about golf unless there’s something on the line. It just adds a little something extra to the competition. I still carry a picture in my wallet from when I was 17 that was taken after one of my rounds with my uncle, dad and grandpa. I learned a lot from those rounds. My dad doesn’t play now, and my grandpa really isn’t able to play anymore. I would give anything for us to get out with them one more time with a few bucks on the line. Now, just like then, even if I lost, at least there would be pasta waiting.

Try These

There are a million ways to gamble on the course, and I believe there is a right and wrong game for each group or pair depending on blend of skill levels. The good news is, if you pick the right game you don’t have to worry about handicaps.

Here are some popular gambling games that golfers like to play (and my take on them):

Nassau. The basic staple of golf gambling. An amount set for winning the front nine, the back nine and the entire 18. (I like this OK, but again for players who have a tendency to blow up, one bad hole can spell d-o-o-m.)

Wolf. The lead “wolf” tees off first, and this position rotates. After the drive the player can go against the other three, which doubles the bet, or can claim any player as a partner immediately after watching their drive. You can also go “lone wolf” and go it alone before anyone tees off, which triples the bet. (I HATE this game as much as I detest 30 handicappers playing in groups of five. The bets get too difficult to track and you don’t form teams. I hate rooting for someone one minute and praying they hit in a lake the next. I am confused enough.)

Round Robin. In groups of four, teams rotate every six holes. (This is OK and evens teams out if there is a dominant player in the group.)

Aces and Deuces. Sometimes called “Acey Ducey.” After each hole, the low score (the “ace”) wins an agreed upon amount from the other three players and the high score (the “deuce”) loses an agreed upon amount to the other three players. The ace bet is usually worth twice the deuce bet, but groups can agree on any amount. (If everyone is pretty even from an ability level, this can be pretty lucrative for someone playing well.)

Besides being an avid golfer, Justin Acri is program director of KABZ-FM, 103.7 “The Buzz” and host of “The Zone,” heard weekdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.