Representing The Bay Golf Club on Monday night in a TGL match against L.A. Golf Club, Neal Shipley took dead aim on “Set in Stone,” a 110-yard par 3. His virtual golf ball landed about 15 feet past the cup, reeled back down the slope and in.
Pandemonium ensued. It was the first hole-in-one in the brief history of TGL. The SoFi Center roared, The Bay won their match and everyone went home happy – especially TGL staff and media, who were treated to an assortment of adult beverages courtesy of Shipley.
The gesture is part of a long tradition where he or she who makes an ace buys the post-round drinks. At several private clubs, dues-paying members kick in a few dollars each month for “hole-in-one insurance,” which covers the cost of a round at the bar against that member’s tab if he or she makes an ace.
But should it be this way? Is a hole in one a celebration or a financial burden? GolfPass Managing Editor Jason Scott Deegan and Senior Writer Tim Gavrich sit on opposite sides of this one in our latest edition of Punch Shots.
Gavrich: Time to rethink the ‘Ace Tax’
“In this world,” Benjamin Franklin wrote in 1789, “nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” The tradition of buying some potentially intimidating number of people a drink after making a hole-in-one is as clear-cut an example of a tax as I can think of in the context of golf. And while many taxes make some sense – shared responsibility for upholding common assets and all that – this one runs in the opposite direction of common sense. Making an ace is a positive golf achievement. Sure, there can be a little bit of luck involved, but the overwhelming majority of aces are the result of beautifully struck shots.
Why should a masterstroke be penalized with a financial burden – potentially a heavy one in the case of a tournament ace? At times, while seeing a par-3 tee shot flying attractively towards the pin, I have found myself actively rooting against my own self-interest because I’ve been nervous about what it might cost me.
That makes no sense. If I make a hole in one, I am the one who deserves a drink from my playing partners, not the other way around. If I want to drown my excitement post-round, they should be too happy to facilitate it and then call me an Uber home. Besides, the expectation of an unearned treat from someone else’s good work grates against golf’s core meritocratic principles. At a time when pro golfers tend to treat wins with detachment, rather than with elation, we need to celebrate the ones who wear their big achievements on their sleeves and faces. It makes more sense for the rewards to flow in their direction than for their satisfaction to be undercut by a potential anti-windfall.
Maybe I’m showing some cheapness here; in all honesty, buying a round of drinks for one’s playing partners after making an ace is not that expensive, and it’s a sweet gesture of gratitude…when it’s not expected. But when it becomes an obligation, it takes on an unsavory quality, and in cases where one player’s ace somehow turns into drinks for 100 or more other golfers across the course, a supposedly fun tradition becomes a perverse burden. The next time I see someone make an ace, their next beer is on me.
Deegan: Keep the free drinks flowing
Golf is nothing without its time-honored traditions. Although no one knows where this tradition officially came from, it has been an unwritten rule for at least a century: Make an ace, buy the drinks. I’m a traditionalist in this argument.
If the ace maker is the only one getting drunk, as Tim suggests, where’s the fun in that? Playing a round of golf with three other people is a shared experience. By buying the drinks, the acer is sharing his good fortune with the group, and, by extension, the folks in the bar. He/she started the party and should pay for it.
I don’t look at buying the drinks as a financial burden. I look at buying post-round drinks as a celebration of the game and tribute to the golf gods who have blessed the ace maker with golf’s most special experience. If you don’t believe in those mystical, magical forces of the universe, you’re a fool. Karma is real, especially on the golf course. Just ask anybody who doesn’t have an ace yet. They’d gladly pay any amount of money to join the club.
I’m a very below mediocre golfer, but I have two aces (plus one “mulligan” ace) on my resume and seen at least 3 others. When I made my first hole in one in 2011, I was on a media trip in northern Michigan where dinner and drinks were hosted that evening. I could have skimped out on my obligation to pay. I didn’t. I bought drinks for every journalist on the trip. I vaguely recall a $95 bar tab, money well spent for the memory of a lifetime.
I think the golf gods appreciated my sacrifice by adhering to golf’s quirkiest tradition. I don’t think they would have allowed my second ace if I hadn’t followed the rules. My hole in one in Scotland on hole 11 of the Ailsa Course in the shadow of the Turnberry lighthouse remains my finest achievement in the game. Call it luck if you want but I don’t feel that way. My only luck that day was an empty bar when I got inside. I only had to buy something for my playing partner, a buddy who doesn’t drink alcohol. Good karma equals good luck. Keep buying those drinks and those aces just might keep flowing.
Do you love or hate golf’s tradition of the golfer who makes a hole in one buying drinks? Share your stories and voice your opinion in the comments below.