The Fat Man

Martin Stanovich



Some years ago there was a notorious golf hustler nicknamed, The Fat Man.  He was legendary.  The tales about him are endless. Here is mine.
I met the hustler Marty (Martin) Stanovich) when the notorious golfer from the windy city, who played with celebs like Jackie Gleason, Joe Louis, Dean Martin, Joe Dimaggio and many others, was having lunch with another guy at Bayshore Golf Course.  I was waiting to play with Charley Schwartz,  who came in, called me over and we sat down at the Fat Man's table when the guy he was sitting with, got up and  left.  At the time Charley owned Hamids Pier on the boardwalk in Atlantic City.  It seems they were good friends. Charley introduced me, they started discussing some exploits and it became a fun lunch before Charlie and I went out to play..
A few days later I saw him practicing on  Bayshore's small chipping green which I had to pass to get to the putting green. He saw me, swung and sculled his chip shot.  Said, "shit."  Both elbows clamped to his sides, his hands became shaking fists and the ball, it never got off the ground, went up to the green and it stopped within decent putting distance from the pin.  He smiled at me . . . . .and said,  "In case you missed that".
He swung again, sculled the ball again, his elbows went in tight again, his hands became shaking fists, again.  He said shit again and the ball, it never left the ground, again, it went up to the green stopping within decent putting distance of the pin, again.  And The Fat Man . . . . . .
He  just smiled, . . . again.