Bank Championship

Deutsche Bank Championship
By Jeremy Church

At the pizza parlor tonight, where they serve food at the bar, which is where I was sitting with my girlfriend, the guy next to me said to the bartender: “That Sox bet isn’t looking so good now.” I wasn’t able to figure out what that bet was, but I bet it was made after the Yankees swept the Red Sox in five at Fenway, and I bet it was that the Sox will still make the playoffs, despite the massacre.

“You wanna double down on Tiger not winning the Deutsche Bank?” the guy next to me continued. He’d ordered the chicken parm and a beer when he walked in. The trash talk would last beyond his house salad.

The bar tender went to another customer, maybe because he didn’t want to deal with a double down offer, maybe because he didn’t want to bet against Tiger, maybe because he didn’t know that that would be a pretty good bet. I don’t know.

He came back in the vicinity of us and the guy said, “He’s won four in a row.” The bar tender went to the other end and filled a beer. “He’s won four in a row?” I asked. My neighbor said, “Four. He lost the U.S. Open.” I said, “I think he’s won five—--the Western, the British Open, the …” He turned away from me and asked the bar tender how many straight Tiger has won. The bar tender, still busy, put up his hand and opened his fingers. “You’re right,” my neighbor said. I wasn’t, though. Tiger finished T2 at the Western. It’s been four straight since. I’m not proud of not knowing that---I oughtta be able to hold my own in a very rare tavern discussion of golf, of Tiger’s results. But, the fact that the bar tender thought he won five straight, too, and that the guy next to me was quick to agree, quick to second guess himself, gives some indication of the run Tiger’s on now. It already seems like he’s won more in a row than he actually has.