Q&A With Herb Kohler

Q: The top 10 of Golf Digest's ranking of America's 100 Greatest Courses are Pine Valley, Shinnecock, Augusta, Cypress, Oakmont, Pebble, Merion, Winged Foot, Seminole and Crystal Downs. How many of those top 10 have you played?
A: I've played every one except Merion.

Q: Do you do an annual golf trip with friends?
A: We do the Gnarly Balls.

The what?
A: It's the Gnarly Balls Gang. We used to go once a year to Scotland and Ireland. What we do today is travel all over the United States, and to some extent beyond, with the Gnarly Balls Gang. We have a great deal of fun with them.

Q: Is this once a year?
A: Oh no. The new year begins for us in January and goes through Memorial Day. And then we shut down because we never play in good weather. Then we start up again on Labor Day and go until the 22nd or 23rd of December.

Q: Who is this gang?
A: We have eight regulars, about twelve in all. We count a match if there are three or more present. We can be anywhere in the world. The match is always for money. If I bet you but you don't accept it, we don't have a bet. So that keeps the total amount of the bet very reasonable.

Q: 50 bucks? 20 bucks? 100, or is it more? What are we talking about?
A: Normally we play 10-10-10. No automatic presses. Only press when you're two down or more. In addition to that we play a $2 skins game -- $2 a skin with no carries. And then we play Honest John, which is possibly a game you have not heard of, but it's a great equalizer. You stand on the first tee, proclaim your score for the day, and to the extent you are off, you pay a dollar a stroke, high or low.

Q: Who makes up this gang? Are they old friends of yours?
A: Friends in the area. Some people in the company, some people outside the company. Just good friends.

Q: Do you keep a running score? Do you declare a Gnarly Balls Gang Champion?
A: It's whoever wins the most money. After every day we record the amount of money that exchanged hands. We adjust the running score and we always adjust the handicaps before any match so you're always playing with a current handicap. The money builds over the course of the year. The one who wins the most money is the Gnarly Balls Champion. The person who loses the most is the Glass Balls Champion.

Q: What do you get for both?
A: The Gnarly Balls Champion gets a large piece of driftwood. On this driftwood is a large eyebolt with a heavy steel chain. And on this chain are two softball sized cast iron balls -- and they're rusted [Laughing]. And there's a brass plate, and on this plate is recorded the champion and the amount that he won that year. And then there's a reserve champion and the amount the reserve champion won. And those two lists are on this piece of driftwood. For the glass balls champion, we give him a very polished piece of mahogany with a very tiny eyebolt of pure gold, and a little gold chain, and two very delicate golf ball-sized glass balls [Laughing].

Q: Have you ever been the Gnarly Balls or Glass Balls Champ?
A: Over the last 17 years I've won the Gnarly Balls about five times, and never the Glass Balls.

Q: Of your five titles, what's the most you won?
A: It was about 800 bucks.

Q: Tell us about your hole-in-one. I hear it was at a decent track in Scotland.
[Laughing]. It was at the 11th hole at the Old Course. It was 5:00 in the evening, it was overcast, so it was darker than normal. Earlier that morning I had sprained my left wrist so I was thinking about not joining the match, but for some reason I did. Maybe I did because of the nature of the players in the foursome. I was the most useless partner David Fay ever had. I was remarkably inept. I kept overpronating. I used a six iron. My caddie told me to hit it five yards left of the pin. I looked at him with a very puzzled look because there was nothing accurate about my game that day. I got over the ball and I said, 'Now Kohler, if you're going to hit one shot today this better be it.' It was an amazing environment. There were people coming off the 8th green. There were people teeing off on the 10th. There were people on the 12th tee. The whole course was slowed up and they were standing around. I said 'Kohler, you cannot be the laughing stock of the Old Course.' I took this damn swing and low and behold, I hit one of the prettiest draws you've ever seen. It started out three yards to the right of the pin and drew slowly to the left, hit just in front of the hill on the left, rolled over the hill, disappeared, came up onto the green and then rolled about three yards to the right and bloop, into the hole. It was amazing! It was absolutely amazing!