Woman Makes Shocking $1K Tips Selling Drinks on a Golf Course. Why It’s Not as Easy as It Looks (Exclusive)

• Jennifer Friday gave PEOPLE an exclusive, inside look at her unique job as a beverage cart girl at a popular golf course in Las Vegas.
• She opened up about her unpredictable interactions with often-tipsy players, like the ones she shares on her Instagram account of nearly a quarter-million followers.
• Friday shared the truth behind the tipping scene and how it’s not what newcomers may assume when first starting on the job.

Being a beverage cart girl on a golf course in Las Vegas is a game in itself. The job is a ball, interactions take strategy, tipsy men are the obstacles — and obviously, the tips are the prize.

The pro is Jennifer Friday, a veteran cart girl who’s been behind the wheel of the snack-stashed vehicle for almost three years at the Revere Golf Club located approximately 15 minutes off the famed Strip in the city where she was born and raised.

Steering the cart is an obvious responsibility of her role, but navigating the course mentally is just as important due to the unpredictable players on the field.

Friday, 25, opened up about the “craziness” of her unique job as a Vegas cart girl during an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, giving a glimpse into the sought-after role of serving drinks on the links and how she ends up making green on the green.

Offering a selection of drinks and bites to golfers on the course explains why Friday describes the position as a “bartender on wheels,” which ironically aligned with her previous experience as a bartender until she fell into the gig on the green “by accident” three years ago.

After moving back home from a serving stint in Hawaii, the Vegas native was searching for a job off The Strip having worked at the hot spot for six years since she was age 16.

“I was looking at golf courses and my friends worked at a golf course — and so I just went there and I asked if they had any openings,” Friday recalls of how she started out. “Then, right when I heard they had an opening, then I asked my managers and applied.”

Friday was offered the position — a sought-after one at that!

“Everyone wants to be a cart girl because it’s so much fun… you’re outside,” she says, specifying that the Revere Golf Club is “a really fun upbeat course” in particular.

“We’re a public course. We’re not a country club, so I feel like we are the key point for bachelor parties and huge tournaments,” Friday adds.

Plus, the link’s location is within the vicinity of one of the most party-centric cities in the entire world — which naturally, attracts a plethora of personalities along with interesting interactions that keep Friday on her feet.

“It’s important to match whoever’s energy that you’re around because we have a lot of different ages and a lot of different groups,” she points out. “So we have our regulars who are on the older side and they’re very sweet and they’re very mellow and calm… I treat them like they’re my grandpa.”

“And then with the bachelor party guys, they are going crazy! They’re ready to party screaming, throwing their golf clubs,” Friday continues. “They’re in Vegas, so I feel like I just have to be understanding of they just came off the Strip all night. They were at the clubs!”

“Every other guy will be different that you drive up to,” she notes. “So within three minutes you can run into a 90-year-old, a fresh 21-year-old… and then all the things.”

For someone who spends upwards of 10 hours multiple times a week on the course for her job, Friday notes she’s seen “all the things.”

In fact, Friday — who doubles as a social media content creator — built a massive platform by sharing her unique interactions online.

While there are the sweet, elderly golfers that come her way, she also documents her — at times — flirty, out-of-line tipsy players who shoot their shots with Friday, too. Often a swing and miss, for lack of better words.

“I feel like them hitting on any of the cart girls, me or any of the other girls, we usually just laugh it off,” she says of those bolder personalities. “They’re in Vegas and a lot of the time they think they can say different things to us, but we just say it right back.”

She adds, “You have to have a pretty strong personality or just a quickness.”

Friday admits that she doesn’t necessarily view it as “creepy,” like some of her followers comment on her videos. Rather, she says “everyone’s pretty respectful” — and if they’re not, she knows how to put them in their place.

“I feel like the second you turn around and look at them in the eye, then they’re like, ‘Sorry’,” she shares.

For a city synonymous with casinos, gambling — and if you’re lucky — hitting the jackpot, you could imagine the “tipping scene” being the “best part” of her cart girl gig.

“I lived in Hawaii for a year and I bartended over there — and when I came back I realized how crazy tipping is in Vegas,” Friday reveals, adding how “being a woman” helps, too. “Guys will tip you $20 just for putting ice in their cooler!”

She admits, “It’s definitely an insane thing to see… All they want to do is get their drink and go to the next hole so a lot of the times they just don’t even want their change. Whatever bill is the closest to their tab is what they’re giving you — and they’re like, ‘Keep it!'”

Of the craziest tips she remembers receiving, Friday had one instance that came to mind.

“I got a $1,000 tip for a golf tournament because they just bought three bottles,” she shares, citing Casamigos specifically. “I don’t remember exactly the price, but they were around $150 each and I think they gave me over $1,500.”

Sure, the tips are great for a job that pays minimum wage — but at the same time, Friday refers to the financial bonuses as the “hardest” part of the job. “Inconsistency,” to be exact.

“You never know how much money you’re going to make in a day… seniority is such a huge part,” she explains. “So probably starting out, you might be getting one shift a week. You might be working a Tuesday morning and you could make $20 in a day. It ranges from $20 to $1,000.”

Pay aside, getting to spend her workday in nature alongside her coworkers-turned-best friends is what makes the unique job “fun” for Friday.

Plus, giving her followers an inside look at her unique gig brings her joy, too.

“It’s such a difference trying to tell somebody what happens on the course. So I figured that I would just show what happened,” she says of sharing her videos on social media.

“There’s no place that they’d rather be than outside golfing, drinking,” says Friday — and seeing that is what drives a bev cart girl.

Credit: dotdashmeredith.com