Article Great American Golf Hustlers
Type: Sports.
Summary: Some of golf’s greatest players never went pro because they could make more money hustling millionaire country club suckers.
Posted by: Elliot Feldman
Some of golf’s greatest players have never become professionals for the simple reason that they could make much more money hustling country club multi-millionaires. Most notable among the great golf hustlers were top poker champs “Titanic Thompson” and “Amarillo Slim” Preston; others included professional tennis champion Bobby Riggs and fifties B-movie blonde bombshell Jeanne Carmen.
“Titanic Thompson”
Born Alvin Clarence Thomas, “Titanic Thompson” was one of the all-time great golf and poker hustlers. In one of his most famous hustles, he bet that he could drive a ball 500 yards. After pulling in the country club sucker bets, he took them to a frozen lake and drove the ball more than 500 yards across the ice. He was also an ambidextrous player, beating millionaires first with his right hand and then making a second bet that he could whip them with the left. And he did.
“Amarillo Slim”
Amarillo SlimBoth “Amarillo Slim” and “Titanic Thompson” were originally from Arkansas, not Texas. Like Thompson, he’s best known as one of the all-time great poker hustlers. Born Thomas Austin Preston Jr, “Slim” once did a variation on Thompson’s golf hustle, betting millionaires that he could drive the ball a mile. Of course, he had found a bigger frozen lake than Titanic Thompson.
The golf hustles, however, that Preston originated were some of the classics. After teaching himself how to drive a golf ball with a carpenter’s hammer, he went to the golf courses and raked in the Las Vegas sucker bets. His victims, including daredevil Evel Knievel, couldn’t believe that they had lost to a man with a hammer.
A side note: Amarillo Slim was a natural athlete, pulling notable hustles in other sports. He once beat pool legend Minnesota Fats at pool, using a broomstick instead of a cue. He also beat tennis champ Bobby Riggs at Ping-Pong, using a frying pan instead of a paddle.
Bobby Riggs
While tennis champion Bobby Riggs was best known for his much-touted 1973 match against Billie Jean King, he was less well-known as one of golf’s great hustlers. His turf was Miami multi-millionaire country clubs. According to Riggs, in Miami, the stakes were often so big and the bets were so frequent that Riggs and his group of high-rolling suckers were followed in golf carts filled with bookies.
Jeanne Carmen
Jeanne Carmen’s story is an amazing one. She was one of the greatest golf hustlers as well as a trick shot master—and she was a total babe.
Her love of golf began in New York City after she started modeling clothes for golf pro Jack Redmond’s store. Redmond offered to teach her to play the game. To his surprise, she was an incredible natural. Redmond soon was teaching her how to play both right-handed and left-handed, and she was an ambidextrous natural.
Jack Redmond soon began to see dollar signs and put her under the tutelage of one of golf’s great legends, Jimmy Demaret.
After learning all that Demaret could teach her, including amazing trick shots, Redmond took her on a multi-state tour to milk all the country club suckers.
Jeanne’s greatest trick shots included stacking three balls on top of each other and driving the middle ball 200 yards without touching the stack’s bottom ball. Another stand-out trick was driving a ball 200 yards while standing one-legged on a chair. However, her piece de resistance trick was hitting a ball on a tee wedged between the lips of a prone volunteer, driving it 200 yards without touching a whisker on the volunteer’s face.
Eventually, Jeanne Carmen caught the eye of dapper mobster Johnny Roselli and he saw even bigger dollar signs than Jack Redmond. He took her to Las Vegas golf courses.
It was after her run in Vegas that she moved to Hollywood to become a B-movie bombshell.
References
- “18-hole Hustle”, Tom LeCompte, American Heritage.
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Riggs
- http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,907843-7,00.html
- “All Bets are on”, Michael Kaplan, Cigar Aficionado.
- http://www.palmspringslife.com/media/Palm-Springs-Life/Whispering-Palms/They-Dream-of-Jeanne/index.php
- http://golf.about.com/cs/golfterms/a/formatsbets.htm
- http://amarilloslim.org/default.aspx
