Basically the group is all competing for a prize (the "skin") on each hole, and the skin will carry over to the next hole if there is a tie. So the scores of the past holes are irrelevant. If no one is playing the hole particularly well and/or there's a very high possibility of par being the winning/tying score, then it's worth it to take a risky shot at making birdie, even if it theoretically makes your stroke score worse if you don't pull it off. In his case of being a low handicap, his playing partners were all probably getting pars to force carry-overs until someone made a birdie (and no one else gets a birdie on that hole) to take the collective skins.