The American showman extraordinaire P.T. Barnum once supposedly famously remarked that "there's a sucker born every minute," referring to the audiences that came to see some of his famous hoaxes, such as the "Feejee Mermaid" - a creature that had the head of a monkey and the tail of a fish.  The Mermaid was, of couse, completely fake, but that never stopped Barnum from taking his receipts straight to the bank.  Later, Barnum founded the Barnum & Bailey Circus, which lives on to this day.  Some say that Barnum would never had said anything like that, and that while he was not shy about pulling a fast one on his audiences, that indeed he held them in high regard.

No matter, there's more than a grain of truth in the saying, and it is indeed a fact that con-men and hustlers take advantage of the unwary all of the time.  All it takes is an occasion for the two to get togather. For that, there are few better places than a golf course, a place where deep pockets with gigantic egos are often quite willing to place a bet just to prove their skills, especially when they think they have an edge.  Hustlers love the game, and probably every course in the land has a fellow who's more than willing to lay down a wager and let a player think they have the upper hand.  That is, until the bet is taken and the balls are on the tee.

Probably the most daring, the most successful and the most infamous golf hustler of all time was Alvin Clarence Thomas, a man better known to history as "Titanic Thompson."

Known as the man who would bet on anything - cards, pool, dice, feats, or even a game of his own creation, Titanic Thompson was also a legitimate world-class golfer who could and did best the best pros of his day...playing left or right-handed! 

 

"In 1934 a group of Dallas businessmen put up $3,000 to host a match between Thompson and a young Byron Nelson. By then Thompson had become famous in the golfing community, and people came from hundreds of miles to witness the match. Nelson spotted Thompson 3 strokes, and lost, shooting 68 to Thompson’s 70. Tommy Bolt, the 1958 U.S. Open champion, once said of Thompson’s golfing ability: "He could have been the greatest." Trophies, however, never interested Thompson. His rewards needed to be financial ones, and he left nothing to chance. One of his favorite ploys was to play a rich oilman right-handed. After collecting his winnings, Thompson would offer to give his opponent a chance to win it all back, for double or nothing, by playing left-handed. Unknown to the mark, however, Thompson was a natural lefty.

-American Heritage: "The 18 Hole Hustle" by Tom LeCompte

"His life was proof that truth is far bigger than fiction, given that Thompson traveled with a suitcase full of cash, a .45 revolver and his golf clubs.  He killed five men during his lifetime, and was always one step ahead of the law, and often one step ahead of men like Al Capone, who he swindled.

Interestingly, Thompson helped the world discover a then-unknown player out of the Dallas, Texas hard-pan municipal courses: Lee Trevino.  In 1965, Titanic bankrolled Raymond Floyd in a three day money match against the young Trevino, a kid who was a bit of a hustler in his own right.  Trevino wasn't a high-stakes player at the time, but as he once said, "real pressure in golf is playing for $10 when you’ve only got $5 in your pocket."  Trevino won against Floyd, taking $9,000 on his way off the course, and later, of course, into the history books as one of the best and certainly one of the most colorful men to ever play pro golf.

One has to wonder why so little is known about such a larger-than-life figure as Thompson.  Until this month, there was a 1972 Sports Illustrated article on him, an American Heritage story about him and a long out of print book that's now a rare tome, and a few mentions in various golf history books -- without a definitive biography of him in general release.  Fortunately, Kevin Cook, the author of "Tommy's Honor" - a superb biography of Young Tom Morris - took up the subject and has recently released "Titanic Thompson - The Man Who Bet On Everything."  Cook captures his subject well - a man who was both hero and villain, con-artist and friend to many.  It's a quintessential American story and one that should be on any golf fan's list of books to read.