Hole-in-one prizes,insurance and your Amateur status

Hole-in-one prizes and your Amateur status
11-02-2005

When Bernie, Marvin, Tom and Joseph reached the 7th tee at the 2005 City Charities Invitational and saw that shimmering new Cadillac that Tom's brother Roger put up for the Hole-in-one prize, do you think that anyone of them gave a second's thought to their Amateur status in the event the he should ricochet one off a tree into the bottom of the hole.

( Roger is also the local Cadillac dealer and underwrote the hole-in-one insurance himself one year trying to save a few dollars, but, knowing nothing about the odds, lost sleep for 2 nights when he found out Tom had gone to the driving range to prepare for tournament.)

Anyway Right...what they are thinking about is whether they are going to be able to get their tee shot air born, should I change over to a "water ball", maybe I should hit my 3 wood, ( and I do mean 3-WOOD, Joseph is playing with the set of clubs he bought in 1971), Should I play that range ball I found going down 3 ?

"Gosh Marvin great shot, I'll have a Dewar's and water. Oh by the way if you accept that hole-in-one prize not only will Roger's next year's hole-in-one insurance premium go up but you'll loose your amateur status for a couple years."

Are you kidding me ? Do you think this matters ? Marvin plays golf 6 times per year, once during City Charities Invitational, and 5 times a year when he visits his brother-in-law's house in that fancy golf community in Arizona for two weeks in January.

No, in short this segment of the market for hole-in-insurance will not change as a result of the USGA changing the rules on hole-in-one prizes and amateur status.

However there is another segment of the market for hole-in-one insurance that may change and that is your low gross amateur tournaments. The use of hole-in-one prizes may see an increase in usage as a means of attracting players. So now you have a tournament, involving better players, that increases the odds of a hole-in-one happening. This means that hole-in-one insurance underwriters may need to do a little refiguring of premiums.

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