It’s the stuff of dreams really.
You and six of your college buddies have to drive across state lines to put down a bet on the Warriors to win the title because they look good to start the season. Months later, Golden State lifts the trophy and you cash in your bets and book a flight to St. Andrews for what could be Tiger Woods’ final appearance at The Open Championship. The weather is perfect and you even get worldwide attention for wearing matching Kevon Looney jerseys to the historic links.
Well, that’s exactly what happened to Andrew Beliveau and his friends, who have known each other for about 18 years now. Beliveau’s story went viral last week and he joined 95.7 The Game’s “Willard & Dibs” Tuesday to share all the details on the ultimate guys’ trip.
“It was hard to describe,” Beliveau said.
Beliveau lives in Minnesota now but still has a single season ticket with the Warriors, a holdover from Oracle Arena and the time he lived in the Bay Area in the mid 2010s. He’s still a die-hard member of Dub Nation and put some money on the team to win before the year. Around November or December, the Warriors had some early momentum and Klay Thompson’s return was on the horizon. Beliveau liked the 6-to-1 odds he was seeing at a sportsbook at a casino called Diamond Jo in Northwood, Iowa.
“I’m like, ‘Guys, they’re still 6-to-1 down in Iowa. We gotta go now before their 2- or 3-to-1,” Beliveau said. “The optimism was there in my mind.”
So they pooled their money together and made the 90-minute drive down I-35 and staked their bets. A few months later, the guys were about $30,000 richer, which helped bankroll the group’s trip to Scotland.
“I knew that was enough to cover a good chunk of the trip,” Beliveau said. “I wouldn’t say it got it all, it gets expensive traveling overseas.”
So, why the Looney jerseys? Beliveau has been a fan since the Warriors drafted him in 2015 and a key figure in the group chat over the years. So when Looney emerged as the Warriors’ ironman this season and played in all 104 games, they had to show Loon some love. They got a lot of (mostly) positive comments while on the grounds at St. Andrews and former NBA star Pau Gasol even asked one of the guys to stop for a selfie. A reporter from Golf.com noticed the group and interviewed them as they followed around Rory McIlroy, before the story went viral over the weekend.
“We didn’t even have a plan to wear those jerseys,” Beliveau said. “And we show up at the Minneapolis airport on Tuesday before we left and our buddy has a gift for us. He went down there and cashed the tickets down in Iowa for us, and he goes, ‘I took some of the winnings and bought these Loon jerseys.’ … We didn’t think it’d be a big deal. It does help finding each other with seven guys among 200,000 people when you stand out like a sore thumb. That was the primary reason.”
Before the beers started flowing, the guys were getting nothing but props for the Loon jerseys
“The people there are out of this world,” Beliveau said. “I call it the best culture I’ve ever went to. I just couldn’t believe the hospitality. We brought those shirts out there and I bet we got a hundred comments from people in the first 10 minutes. … It was all positive comments until about the back nine on Saturday, it turned a little salty with some. They were like, ‘Eh, the Warriors suck, Go Celtics.’ When they got a little turned up at the end of the day. We were a pro-crowd early and I would say it was a 50-50 split down the stretch on Saturday.”
Shoutout to Beliveau for repping Dub Nation at St. Andrews and creating a memory for lifetime. Epic stuff from the boys.
