Kenny Pinns
Kenny Pinns is the only person I have ever known who made a living hustling and gambling at the game. He lived in an era when big money games were pursued and set up between good players, big egos, gamblers, and fools. I first knew of him in 1965 when Bud Nolan, a Minneapolis businessman, hired Kenny to play and win the three resort tournaments in northern Minnesota. Rumor at the time had it he was paid $1,000 a week to win. Amazingly he did, the only person to ever do so. From the early 80’s until his death at 71 in 1995, I was around him as he came to town to see his friend David Rovick, an Interlachen member.
If there ever was a player who looked the part of a gambler it was Kenny Pinns. Standing 6’3’, looking fit with broad shoulders, he had long black hair, with a heavy dose of “Brylcreem”, combed straight back. With a shadowy mob reputation preceding him, Kenny was an imposing figure.
Kenny Pinns was a talented athlete. He played professional basketball in the '40s and early '50s, barnstorming in the midwest, playing against teams like the Phillips 66ers. One summer day an Interlachen member and NBA Hall of Famer, George Mikan, walked by a table where Kenny was seated. “Kenny, how are you?” George said and followed with a conversation about their early basketball days.
He was also an exceptional pool player. After relating a story where he won a nine ball game in which his opponent did not get a shot, his son Doug said, “Ya, I saw that happen many times.” However, the game where he made a living for decades was golf.
He lived in Chicago from high school until 1962. He then moved to Palm Springs and Las Vegas, divorcing and leaving five children behind. From this time until his death he made a living gambling at golf.
His two sons, Doug and Gary, have had long careers as PGA Golf Professionals and are excellent players in Chicago.
For nearly 100 years there has been a series of three resort tournaments in northern Minnesota. Played over three consecutive weeks in August, the Resorters at Alexandria, the Pine to Palm at Detroit Lakes and the Birchmont at Bemidji, have attracted great players, many of whom have gone on to play the PGA Tour. All three are match play tournaments after 18 or 36 holes of qualifying.
While it has subsided in the past thirty years, for decades a calcutta was held at each event. In a calcutta players are auctioned off. After a player advances in the tournament, the person "owning" the player wins a per centage of the total pool. Strictly illegal and a violation of amateur status, the calcutta was a fixture at each event. The sale of the players was held at the club and along with the golf, a centerpiece of the week's events. Until the tournament got deep into the match play portion, the most common question was, “How big was the calcutta pool?”
A large board listing the selling price and buyer stood next to the scoreboard. How the local police allowed it to go on was always a mystery. It was probably because the police chief was taking part in the event! Calcutta pools would approach and even exceed $100,000, at a time when $1000 was a lot of money. Today any calcutta is held off property and kept quiet.
Certainly Kenny, in addition to his fee for playing, was compensated from the calcutta pool.
Minnesota was on the fringe of the mob in the '50s and '60s. A Wayzata Country Club member for whom I caddied, Diehl Gustafson ran into a mob problem in the mid '60s. As the operating partner of the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, his partner was reportedly the Kansas City mob. Diehl was caught “miscalculating” the split of the profit. A report soon surfaced that he was taken to his cabin in northern Minnesota where his hand was forced into the propeller of a boat motor. I never saw Diehl play golf again.
Times have changed from the '60s in terms of gambling on the golf course. While there may be hustlers in Las Vegas, they have disappeared from Minnesota. Big money matches between anonymous hustlers and unsuspecting locals is a thing of the past.
It appears Kenny never worked at what most would call a regular job. He worked for the teamsters in Chicago checking on Union owned property in northern Wisconsin, an area known for tolerance of the mob. With an attitude of “don’t cause problems for us and we won’t cause problems for you”, northern Wisconsin has many stories about mobsters in the Al Capone era and later.
One summer at Interlachen I asked Kenny what he did in the winter. He reported, “parked boats at a restaurant" in Florida. A restaurant I later found out was mob owned. “A boat owner will tip $100 for docking a boat,” he said.
Kenny played the tour from 1957-1960, apparently without much success because he reportedly regained his amateur status and won the Birchmont Resort tournament in 1962. I have never known of the USGA reinstating amateur status to a PGA tour player within two years. An examination of this timeline raises questions about the veracity of this being possible. It does seem unusual, however, with the amount of money involved, someone would not have called the USGA to see if his claim of reinstatement was accurate.
Not knowing he played the tour, I asked him why he did not play the tour. He responded, “I could make a lot more money gambling as an amateur.” He played at Tam-O-Shanter Golf Club in Chicago, making his living playing gambling games.
Another Tam-O-Shanter member at the time was Martin Stanovich, “the fat man”, who also carried a big gambling reputation throughout the Midwest and Las Vegas. Rumor had it he also ran into a problem with his hand in the till. The punishment was unknown individuals slammed a car trunk on his hands, bringing his golf game to an end.
Trying to stay under the radar during qualifying at a resort tournament, Stanovich intentionally hit his ball out of bounds in order to avoid being medalist, thus holding down his value in the calcutta.
Indeed Pinns was a good player. In 1965 he won 16 matches in a row to win the three resort tournaments.
I played golf with him occasionally in the summers. He would drive into town in a motor home and park it at David Rovick’s house for a month. This was in the '80s, well past his prime of the '50s and '60s. However he still played at scratch.
I played with top 30 money winning tour player, Mike Morley, against David Rovick and Kenny Pinns one sunny summer afternoon in 1984 at Interlachen. Playing best ball, Pinns and Rovick made five threes and a two the last six holes to beat Morley and me, with Pinns doing nearly all the work.
Rovick called Pinns, “a character. He wanted to bet on everything. If we were practicing chipping he would want to hit crazy shots and bet on them.”
“We went to a restaurant with pool tables one night,” David told me. “We were playing pool when an observer wanted to play Kenny for money. ‘How much do you want to play for?’ asked Kenny.
“$100." stated the observer.
“Well, if I am going to play for money it will have to be for a lot more than $100," said Kenny.
After consulting with friends the observer countered with, “Ok, $200.”
Pinns then won the right to break on a lag, made a ball on the break, ran the table and took the observer’s $200 without his getting a shot," reported David.
Pinns was a good story teller. He told me about playing a big money match in Las Vegas. One of the opponents made putts from everywhere, all day long. After yet another long putt at # 18, Pinns' partner said, “Kenny, we need to pay and get away from these guys.” Pinns responded, “Oh no, they can linger, but they can’t last. We’ll double down tomorrow.”
In 1982 I drew Kenny in the quarter finals of the Birchmont Tournament. We had a good match and I was fortunate to win 3 & 2. As we walked in Kenny said, “You caught lightning in a bottle to beat me today, son” Maybe there was not enough money on the match.
He was not a person that I admired, respected or approved of, but was always pleasant and enjoyable to be around. Not being a big gambler, our games were always small wagers. Kenny Pinns was a great athlete, terrific player in his day and the only full time hustler I have known In A Life of Golf.
