FIRST OFF THE TEE
$116.20.
Gambling is everywhere on the PGA Tour. Walk a practice round and you’ll see guys playing money games. Lurk by the putting green and you’ll hear ’em talking football. Listen to the chatter from the crowd and you’ll know who they’re pulling for and who they’re wishing evil upon. Think hard enough about it and you’ll come to the conclusion that the very act of turning pro is just making one big bet on yourself. So it was hardly a shocker that once the Tour started digging through its players’ sports betting histories it uncovered a few instances of guys gambling in ways that strayed outside its policies.
If you missed it, on Friday the Tour announced it had suspended two Korn Ferry Tour players, Jake Staiano and Vince India, for betting on the PGA Tour and violating the Integrity Program in the process. And to me, the biggest surprise wasn’t that they found two guys. It was that they didn’t find more. Staiano and India are suspended for three and six months, respectively. But this hardly seems like a Chicago Black Sox situation. The Tour made it clear neither pro bet on a tournament in which he was a competitor; this is the equivalent of a double-A baseball player betting on a major league game. And if you listen to Staiano’s account, this wasn’t exactly big-money business, either.
The 27-year-old Staiano joined Ryan French on his Any Given Monday podcast to explain that he’d placed four bets in total, each of them in 2021. One had been on Bryson DeChambeau to birdie a specific hole in a tournament. The other three had been on DeChambeau’s exhibition grudge match with Brooks Koepka in Las Vegas that fall. According to Staiano, the four wagers added up to $116.20. Now he’s out for three months.
For a top PGA Tour pro, skipping this three-month fall stretch would hardly be a punishment at all. But for Staiano, a guy battling to recapture his Korn Ferry Tour status, missing this stretch means missing Q-school. It means putting his dreams on hold another year.
To his credit, Staiano took full responsibility. He said the policy was clear and he recognizes he violated that policy. Still, it’s a jarring reminder that in an era where golfers earning unprecedented millions are dominating the discourse, $116.20 can change a career, too.
(You can hear the full interview with French and Staiano here. India has not yet spoken publicly about his suspension.)
WINNERS
Who won the week?
Celine Boutier won a nine-hole (!!) playoff over Atthaya Thitikul at the LPGA Tour’s inaugural Maybank Championship in Malaysia, charging into a share of the lead with a Sunday 64 before a lengthy duel ensued in which the pair went par-par-par-birdie-par-par-par-birdie before Boutier poured in the winning birdie putt on the 18th green to end things exactly one hole shy of the LPGA’s 10-hole playoff record. It’s Boutier’s fourth victory of her breakout season and the sixth of her career; she’s now in the lead for LPGA player of the year.
