Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Why Golfers Buy Hole In One Insurance

priceonomics.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 53 posts

Re: Why Golfers Buy Hole In One Insurance

#21

Post by mkonstan »

sokoloff wrote: post #14

Am I to understand that someone who is golfing is unable to absorb the costs of several hundred dollars of drinks in? And that this is common enough that there's an insurance product to hedge that miniscule risk? It seems like a much shorter article could have been written: Because they can't do math.

hole in one insurance is usually just charged by the club in addition to membership fee, not by an actual insurance company. its also inaccurate to assume that anyone who plays golf can afford $500+ in alcohol.

Re: Why Golfers Buy Hole In One Insurance

#22

Post by awalton »

Balgair wrote: post #18
awalton wrote: post #13

First World Problems: The Article. 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?"

Link?

https://twitter.com/Papapishu/status/492401740029775872

Re: Why Golfers Buy Hole In One Insurance

#23

Post by Sanddancer »

djloche wrote: post #3

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. If it's a large…

This tradition also goes down to a round of golf with friends, where there's no money on the line at all. Also, while golf started out as a game for the wealthy, there are quite a few teachers, etc who golf now too. Finally, a membership to the local country club could be someone's big monthly splurge; instead of lots of cable channels, etc, they just have a golf membership so they can go do something they enjoy without worrying about it. Golfing simply isn't as hoity-toity as it used to be.

Re: Why Golfers Buy Hole In One Insurance

#24

Post by cafard »

djloche wrote: post #3

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. If it's a large…

"Golfing is a game for the wealthy"

Not all golfing takes place at country clubs. The District of Columbia has four public courses (three of them nine-hole). I golfed when I was a kid, and though we were comfortably off, it would be a stretch to say that we were wealthy. I've since known golfers who, again, were comfortably off and not much more.

Do those golfers put wagers on their rounds? I have no idea; we never did.

Re: Why Golfers Buy Hole In One Insurance

#25

Post by Sanddancer »

mxfh wrote: post #10

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?

$3/mo is a flat, fixed fee that can be budgeted against. $650 out of the blue is a lot like having a car break down, and is enough to put a crimp in any other plans one may have coming up. If someone really enjoys golf, it seems like a reasonable thing to do.

Re: Why Golfers Buy Hole In One Insurance

#26

Post by notahacker »

67726e wrote: post #17
sokoloff wrote: post #14

Am I to understand that someone who is golfing is unable to absorb the costs of several hundred dollars of drinks in? And that this is common enough that there's an insurance product to hedge that miniscule risk? It seems like a much shorter article could have been written: Because they can't do math.

Perhaps for the American case of buying a few dozen martinis, but what about the anecdote of a Japanese man taking 200 guests on a dinner cruise? With a premium of $3, per the article, that might not be a bad idea.

The article gives a "typical cost" of $3-5000 for a Japanese person keen to show their generosity. It doesn't make it clear the policy will pay out anywhere near that much (the British policy we are given a direct link to covers a lot more than holes in one, but pays a maximum of £200 on alcohol only for holes-in-one, at an overall premium cost of £49.95 per annum)

Even if the $3 premium really is a one off fee which covers $3000 worth of celebratory cruises (both of which I doubt), an amateur golfer with a 1 in 12,500 chance of getting a hole in one and enough disposable income to join the sort of golf club that expects celebratory cruises probably shouldn't bother.

Re: Why Golfers Buy Hole In One Insurance

#27

Post by slyall »

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.

For instance my local club ( http://www.akaranagolf.co.nz/akarana_join.php 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 ( http://taierigolf.co.nz/?page_id=49#membership a bit out of a smaller city ) charges $650/year. You could play all year for just that amount.

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

Re: Why Golfers Buy Hole In One Insurance

#28

Post by whyaduck »

URSpider94 wrote: post #20
djloche wrote: post #3

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. If it's a large…

I disagree -- I don't think that a hole-in-one correlates with winning the round (I'd be interested if someone can crunch the stats for the PGA), and I also don't think that goes any further to explaining the reasoning. I think the article DOES hint at explaining it anthropologically -- there's a rich tradition of "potlatch" events in which community members demonstrate their power by how much they can give away. Ult…

I am (was - haven't played in ages) a truly terrible golfer, and I've gotten a hole in one. I don't remember EVER winning a round.

Funny story - when I got the hole in one, my foursome spent 5 minutes or so looking behind the green for my ball before someone looked in the cup and asked, incredulously, if I was playing a Titleist.

Re: Why Golfers Buy Hole In One Insurance

#29

Post by sokoloff »

sliverstorm wrote: post #19
sokoloff wrote: post #14

Am I to understand that someone who is golfing is unable to absorb the costs of several hundred dollars of drinks in? And that this is common enough that there's an insurance product to hedge that miniscule risk? It seems like a much shorter article could have been written: Because they can't do math.

Just because you play golf, does not mean you wouldn't miss several hundred dollars. Golf is not really a poor man's sport, but neither is it polo.

I can't shake this image of someone holding a $5 Starbucks in one hand, paying a $3 insurance premium to cover a less than 1 in 10K chance of losing $500 and complaining that they can't "afford to risk the $500".

Let's see: you just paid $3 to hedge a risk with less than a nickel's worth of -EV and you're holding your daily Starbucks. I'm beginning to understand why you can't afford the risk...

Yes, yes. I know I'd be erecting a strawman if the coffee was central to my argument. I don't think it is; I'm just trying to share my mental frame.

Re: Why Golfers Buy Hole In One Insurance

#30

Post by notahacker »

URSpider94 wrote: post #20
djloche wrote: post #3

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. If it's a large…

I disagree -- I don't think that a hole-in-one correlates with winning the round (I'd be interested if someone can crunch the stats for the PGA), and I also don't think that goes any further to explaining the reasoning. I think the article DOES hint at explaining it anthropologically -- there's a rich tradition of "potlatch" events in which community members demonstrate their power by how much they can give away. Ult…

Agree. A hole in one is usually achieved on a par three green which requires no real skill to hit (but plenty of skill to rarely miss) and subtracts no more than two from your overall round which is not a huge advantage in a tournament with players of mixed abilities. In a tournament the pin might well be placed in an awkward part of the green intended to deter golfers from intentionally aiming directly at it, leaving the more accurate and strategic golfers most likely to win the tournament actually less likely to score a hole in one. If anything, a hole-in-one represents the opportunity for people without any chance of ever achieving the consistency to win a golf tournament to earn bragging rights.

Anecdata: As one of the most erratic, temperamental and limited golfers ever in my teens, I once nailed an approach shot from 150 yards straight into the hole on the second hole (arguably, given that I was playing my second shot from heavy rough, a more difficult shot than a hole-in-one on a regular par three). In the same round I then managed to lose five balls in the process of scoring seventeen on the 17th during the same round. To be fair, it was quite a difficult 17th. Strangely, I haven't played much since.

Post reply on HN