Ivey vs. Corey Pavin golf bet

TNAchicago · #1 01-04-2007, 02:08 PM

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I've played golf for a living for a few years and feel pretty qualified to give everyone a reliable opinion. Phil Ivey has absolutely no chance to win this bet. I've given people these types of bets before myself and it's a sucker bet. Ivey will be scrambling to make pars and will still have an occasionally devastating hole and is basically just hand Corey money. I'd personally take this bet with Phil Ivey and I'm not as good as Corey obviously. TPC at Summerlin is an easy course even from the tips and you can expect Corey to shoot in the 60s more often than not. From what I've heard of Ivey he will probably still shoot in the mid to high 70s at best. At Corey's absolute worst he's not going to shoot much more than about 73 or 74. He's also not going to succomb to the pressure of $10k a hole because he has putts for those kinds of money everytime he plays golf. I'll take Corey if anyone want's some action on this..lol.

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This makes the most sense. I don't know why we don't see more things like this on TV: i.e. REALITY SPORTS. Weird rules & matchups, big money on the line, etc. I know ESPN tried it a little recently with some contest (it was lame). Awhile back there was something like this with Tiger vs some amateurs. Every hole Tiger won, the amateurs got to remove a club from his bag. Random, but interesting....
Somebody's going to come up with a cool format, make it marketable, and clean up, eventually.

But no way could I get on board with Ivey here - I'd bet big on Pavin.

* Too hard for Ivey to avoid one or two big numbers
* Pavin shoots 73-74 at worst. Summerlin isn't that hard. One of easiest on Tour.

TheWorstPlayer · #2 01-04-2007, 02:22 PM

Almost everyone on here is missing the biggest thing. The belief that PI is a 17 or 18 handicapper comes from HIM SAYING SO ONLINE. WTF. This is obviously terrible information. There is no way he did not inflate his handicap.

stinkypete · #3 01-04-2007, 02:37 PM

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Almost everyone on here is missing the biggest thing. The belief that PI is a 17 or 18 handicapper comes from HIM SAYING SO ONLINE. WTF. This is obviously terrible information. There is no way he did not inflate his handicap.

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if he's sandbagging then he's probably going to win. i kinda doubt he's better than a 15 though.

drewjustdrew · #4 01-04-2007, 02:39 PM

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Almost everyone on here is missing the biggest thing. The belief that PI is a 17 or 18 handicapper comes from HIM SAYING SO ONLINE. WTF. This is obviously terrible information. There is no way he did not inflate his handicap.

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if he's sandbagging then he's probably going to win. i kinda doubt he's better than a 15 though.

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I think he was saying the opposite. His handicap is likely much higher.

TheWorstPlayer · #5 01-04-2007, 02:43 PM

No i was saying he was sandbagging. That's what people do when they are going to be betting a lot of money on their game...

drewjustdrew · #6 01-04-2007, 02:52 PM

My bad. I took "inflate" to mean his abilities.

Another consideration in this discussion is that handicap is a measure calculated with your best results, and not an overall average. Even if Ivey's handicap of let's say 15 was accurate, I have to believe his score variances are much higher than Pavin's, thus resulting in too low of a handicap in comparison.

RiDiK · #7 01-04-2007, 03:04 PM

All I'm saying is in an article on Cardplayer by Mike Sexton about golf he said "Getting a good game w/ Phil is like wrestling an alligator" as well as talking about how he would bring in sandbagging ringers as partners and stuff like that. Also on one of the poker programs it was showing a clip of Ivey's progress in golf i.e. chipping in, making long putts, sticking iron shots and even though he was half joking he still seemed generally a little concerned that those clips were "killing his action."

In the end, none of us really have a clue and the bet will come down to who plays better on that particular day most likely.

True North · #8 01-04-2007, 02:46 PM

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Almost everyone on here is missing the biggest thing. The belief that PI is a 17 or 18 handicapper comes from HIM SAYING SO ONLINE. WTF. This is obviously terrible information. There is no way he did not inflate his handicap.

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if he's sandbagging then he's probably going to win. i kinda doubt he's better than a 15 though.

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I think he was saying the opposite. His handicap is likely much higher.

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Yeah, if Ivey had to submit a handicap (which implies playing by the Rules of Golf and counting all strokes), I wouldn't be surprised if it was in the mid-to-high twenties.

Clowny · #9 01-04-2007, 02:47 PM

What seems to amaze me with these top poker pros playing golf is that many of them seem pretty poor - especially considering the amount they play. I remember DN's blog and he was shooting 110 (or around that) and that was when he was playing daily!

Why dont they just get a good coach and start doing some regular lessons? It cant be a cost issue and its bound to start dropping you a few shots eventually - probably quite a lot initially when your at your worst.