Old Tom Morris was against gambling in golf and advised Donald Ross to never bet on the golf course beyond a small wager. “Why make a horse race out of a game like golf?” Morris posited. Ross took Old Tom’s words to heart and for the rest of his life rarely played for stakes beyond a quarter Nassau. Ross said that Calcutta pools “don’t belong in such a fine, clean game.”
Once at Pinehurst, a young man who didn’t know Ross asked him for a game and a $25 Nassau.
“Let’s just play for the fun of the game,” Ross countered.
The young man insisted, so Ross relented, played the visitor and beat him soundly.
“I built the course,” Ross told his opponent. “Let this be a lesson to you: Don’t play for high stakes with a stranger.”
Lee Pace