India Representin'

The guys in my office bet on just about everything. This year alone, we've had pools for the Super Bowl, the Oscars, the NCAA March Madness tournament, the NBA playoffs, a fantasy NFL league, the Masters golf tournament, and most recently the Zurich Classic golf tournament here in New Orleans.

I'm not much of a betting man. I'm 24 and I've never even been to a casino. The reason for this is simple; I know that once I got a taste of it, I'd be hooked. I've got something of an addictive personality. I take things too far; can't just do something a little bit. But now they've gotten me involved in all of these pools, and it may be the start of something terrible.

For the most recent pool, the Zurich Classic, we had to pick five golfers who were in the tournament to be on our team. I know nothing about Professional Golf, so I picked the names I recognized, and the guys who did well in the Masters tournament to come up with my five. All of my golf knowledge was exhausted at five players. Then we were asked to pick a sixth man from a smaller list so that the teams wouldn't all look the same.

For my sixth golfer, I was just guessing; shooting in the dark. I looked through the list with no idea who any of the remaining guys were. Then I noticed a name that looked interesting: Arjun Atwal. I looked at his bio and read that he is from Calcutta, India, the only Indian golfer in the PGA. I know a lot of people from India, and I like all of them. I've also always been interested in Indian culture. More specifically, my college roommate, who is still a close friend, still has family in Calcutta, so I went with Atwal even though his stats didn't make him look like much of a safe bet.

Well, when the tournament started, I surprised all of the guys at the office because Arjun Atwal was tied for first place at the end of the first day. On the second day he was in first place. Unfortunately, he slipped a little toward the end, and ended up in fifth, but with his score combined with the rest of the players on my team, I won the pool.

So, thanks to my interest in India and Indian people I have a cool 50 bucks in my wallet right now. So Joe, does this mean I owe you $25.00?