The article doesn't cover it - but the reason why people are expected to buy everyone drinks is because if you're lucky and skilled enough to get a hole in one, you will likely win the round and all the money wagered. If it is a local club or casual tournament, this can be a few hundred or thousand dollars. Even if it is just four people playing, there will usually be money wagered between themselves.<p>If it's a larger event, the purse for winning easily covers the hole-in-one celebrations. On top of this, if you are a member of a local country club - you're already paying hundreds if not thousands a month on membership dues. You're expected to have such wealth that to cover drinks/food isn't a big deal. Some clubs are structured such that you aren't directly paying for the celebrations, but your membership dues are such that it includes the cost of any potential celebrations.<p>Golfing is a game for the wealthy, including the traditions surrounding it.
A lot of the comments here seem to assume that only the rich play golf. I'm from a golfing family (don't play myself) and that is definitely not always the case, at least in New Zealand. Sure you'd get doctors and lawyers playing but the bulk of the club would be middle class people making well under the equivalent $100k. Certainly not people who can afford to drop say $1000 casually.<p>For instance my local club ( <a href="http://www.akaranagolf.co.nz/akarana_join.php" rel="nofollow">http://www.akaranagolf.co.nz/akarana_join.php</a> in the middle of Auckland ) charges $1875/year ( $NZ but close enough to $US) for a full member while the club I used to play at ( <a href="http://taierigolf.co.nz/?page_id=49#membership" rel="nofollow">http://taierigolf.co.nz/?page_id=49#membership</a> a bit out of a smaller city ) charges $650/year. You could play all year for just that amount.<p>I just asked my relatives what the rule is at their club (which is fairly nice/expensive as clubs go) and they said "In the old days the club would shout the bar, at our club new the club pays $150 and you pay the rest. So normally people wait till few have left before buying". So just a single round of drinks. I've found similar bits in the rules of other clubs
Am I to understand that someone who is golfing is unable to absorb the costs of several hundred dollars of drinks in?<p>And that this is common enough that there's an insurance product to hedge that miniscule risk?<p>It seems like a much shorter article could have been written: Because they can't do math.
I have been around professional golf my whole life and have seen many hole in ones. No one ever purchased me a drink. I have made a few hole in ones, and no one has ever even asked me to buy them one.<p>I have heard of this "tradition", but after travelling week to week with the PGA tour for years and playing golf with a multitude of new people every week, and have never even heard of someone buying more than three drinks for their playing partners.
I worked in reinsurance, and there was the (apocryphal) story one year of how the government of South Africa had promised a million dollars to every player if their team won the world cup. On the flip side, the government looked for a reinsurer to insure them for that risk. My company said no because so basically it distilled down to sports betting and we did not have any experience in that market.
Whattt? Golfers who get a hole in one are expected to buy everyone drinks? I caddied during the summer months in high-school and college. Whenever someone got a hole in one there would be a 2-4 hour open bar after that round came in, for all of the members and their guests who happen to show up at the bar during that time. This is not the tradition around the world?!
This looks more like a gimmick to cash in on overconfident people, who want to have some extra bragging rights on the course, than an insurance. Who gets insured for something that costs you $650 at max and is totally avoidable?
First World Problems: The Article.<p>There was just someone ranting on Twitter yesterday about Bill O'Reilly's ranting of how few millennials actually play golf - "Why Is The Generation We Sunk Into Crushing Unemployment and Debt Not Playing Our Shitty, Classist Sport?"
I think the key here is that the hole in one insurance is 'frequently bundled with other services'. It's something that basically costs nothing for the insurance companies to provide, but could act as a selling point for the right customer.
I mean, it's not pick-up basketball, but golf doesn't have to be an expensive sport. My first set of clubs were used, maybe $50. I'm not so sure, because it was 20 years ago and my father bought them for me. We were not rich by any means. We would play once a week together.
What happens when someone gets a hole-in-one and then doesn't buy anyone anything? Are they kicked out? Are they shunned? Seems like an easy solution: don't do things for people when you get a hole-in-one.