Justin Thomas reveals his go-to golf gambling game with friends 

Engaging in a bit of friendly wagering on the course is a great way to incorporate pressure into your game. That’s why Tour players love gambling during practice rounds: it’s a perfect way to simulate the intensity of tournament golf, with both money and pride at stake.

Subpar hosts Colt Knost and Drew Stoltz are always up for making things interesting during a round, giving them plenty to talk about with this week’s guest, Justin Thomas, who shared his favorite go-to gambling game with groups.

“I would say it’s generally closeout,” Thomas said, referring to the match-play game in which a set amount of money is at stake for 18 holes, but if the match ends early, an additional bet (or bets) can be set for the remaining holes.

“When they’re kind of big games, if it’s, call it four, six or eight people to where you may even have more than one group, you know, you have multiple teams and, and then that’s maybe, you know, kind of a big pot kind of thing, and then you could have a skins game of the low score of those six guys or whatever it is. But I love playing in that kind of stuff.”

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But Thomas conceded that more personal matches are up his alley too.

“I want an indie game with whoever will take it,” he said. “Just because it’s, you know, I’m trying to get in that competitive mind frame and have a putt and around that, may mean nothing, actually means something.”

Another game Thomas mentioned he likes when it’s just a group of four players: Hammer, a match-play game in which a player can elect to “hammer” or double the bet at any time during the hole.

“I always enjoy playing those,” Thomas said.

“I love making net birdies on you,” Knost quipped.

“Yeah, that’s real fun,” Thomas said wryly.

For more from Thomas, including his relationship with Tiger Woods and Thomas’ thoughts on Jordan Spieth’s best man speech at Thomas’ wedding, check out the full episode below.

Golf.com Editor

As a four-year member of Columbia’s inaugural class of female varsity golfers, Jessica can out-birdie everyone on the masthead. She can out-hustle them in the office, too, where she’s primarily responsible for producing both print and online features, and overseeing major special projects, such as GOLF’s inaugural Style Is­sue, which debuted in February 2018. Her origi­nal interview series, “A Round With,” debuted in November of 2015, and appeared in both in the magazine and in video form on GOLF.com.

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