MOORHEAD — Andrew Beliveau loves the Golden State Warriors and has an affinity for ahead Kevon Looney that he completed, with a bunch of fellow Concordia School graduates, on the golf journey of a lifetime.
“It was a surreal week,” stated Beliveau, a 2004 Concordia graduate who additionally performed males’s golf for the Cobbers.
Beliveau and 6 different school associates and former roommates grew to become one thing of a global sensation, attending the British Open final weekend in St. Andrews, Scotland, after their story broke. The journey was funded primarily by the wager they cashed in after the Warriors gained the NBA Championship in June.
“All of us contribute,” stated Beliveau, who lives in Edina, Minnesota. “It was all or nothing.”
Golden State defeated the Boston Celtics within the NBA Finals and Beliveau and his associates gained round $30,000 from round $5,000 to $6,000 in bets. Beliveau stated a part of the group drove to a on line casino simply throughout the border from Iowa to put sports activities bets that aren’t authorized in Minnesota.
A number of the cash was at 10-to-1 odds, and because the NBA season progressed, Beliveau stated, the group put extra money on the Warriors, with the percentages narrowing to 6-1, as they have been extra assured that Golden State was championship caliber.
“We do not do plenty of betting, however we prefer to wager on the occasions we go to, however the Warriors factor was one thing we have by no means executed earlier than,” Beliveau stated. “We now have by no means taken such an enormous leap of religion in one thing like this.”
Mike Dokken, Marshall Moore, Tom Lybeck, Nathan Ohme, and Dan Ryan, who all graduated from Concordia in 2004, have been additionally a part of the group together with Clarence Hunt, who graduated in 2005. All however one within the group are former Concordia athletes. .
The group had taken three SEC soccer sport journeys to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Baton Rouge, Louisiana and School Station, Texas, since 2018. Nevertheless, a visit to Scotland for a serious golf match was priced a lot larger. . , which led the group to resolve to wager on the Warriors.
“These have been on a a lot smaller scale, however would not it’s enjoyable to do one thing large and go all out?” Beliveau stated.
The outdated associates rented an Airbnb for the week close to the 18th inexperienced in St. Andrews for $18,000. Beliveau stated that if the Warriors hadn’t gained the NBA title, he had a cope with the Airbnb host to recoup about 80% of the fee. That wasn’t crucial, nevertheless, as Golden State defeated the Celtics 4-2 within the best-of-7 collection.
Beliveau, who lived in San Francisco earlier than Edina, and his spouse Roz Beliveau have been at Sport 1 of the NBA Finals on June 2 on the Chase Middle in San Francisco. The Warriors gave up a large fourth-quarter result in fall behind 1-0 within the collection.
“That was a heartbreaking ending to Sport 1 for positive,” Beliveau stated, additionally realizing what was at stake with the wager.
Over the past two days of the British Open, the Concordia group wore Looney shirts that have been handed out by one of many group members on the airport.
“The Looney t-shirts weren’t even deliberate,” Beliveau stated. “I’m a die-hard fan of the Golden State Warriors. I’ve at all times stated that Looney is the important thing to the staff, not kidding, however he is a man who does all of the soiled work.”
Nevertheless, the seven sporting Golden State’s distinctive gold jersey with Looney’s quantity 5 turned heads through the course. Beliveau stated Golden State had a public relations staff on the match that received photographs of them in Looney jerseys.
“We did not know they have been there,” Beliveau stated. “They see us from afar. They chased us and wished to take an image and so they have been texting Steph Curry about us I assume. It was loopy”.
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They wore the Looney t-shirts on Saturday and Sunday. Former NBA participant Pau Gasol noticed the group and took a photograph with one of many guys, Beliveau stated.
“Folks have been seeking to take photographs and we’re not well-known, we’re simply seven regular individuals,” Beliveau stated with a smile.
Beliveau and his group have been
first appeared in a Golf.com article
and the legend appeared to develop from there with different media shops choosing up the story. Looney retweeted the Golf.com article.
The intense jerseys additionally served a twin objective within the huge crowded match.
“Whenever you’re in a match with 200,000 (followers) a day… we prefer it after we can see one another from a distance since you get misplaced,” Beliveau stated. “Having these yellow jerseys made it very straightforward to get again collectively to get again to regular.”
Of Golden State’s winnings, Beliveau stated the group additionally wager round $5,000 which was break up between six completely different golfers to win the British Open. One of many gamers the group wager on was match champion Cam Smith, which become a $25,000 payday, Beliveau stated. In addition they had cash to beat Cameron Younger and Rory McIlroy, who completed second and third.
The proceeds from Golden State and Cam Smith paid for many of the complete journey.
“We went for it,” Beliveau stated of the bets. “We are going to at all times do the SEC journeys as a result of we will all afford the smallest quantity, however this was a really costly journey.”
The subsequent group plans to attend an Alabama soccer sport at Ole Miss subsequent fall.