IS CHEATING IN GOLF TRULY COMMON?

One of our jobs as golf professionals is to settle rules disputes between players and/or for players in tournaments, mostly, that is not a problem; but there is nothing that we hate more than getting into the middle of an argument between two players, one of whom is accused of cheating by the other.

Lets start with the following statement: cheating is not necessarily an action, it is all an attitude. In other words if someone breaks a rule, he is no necessarily cheating unless the breach was in purpose. The penalty, as far as the Rules of Golf, is the same (for instance, a player moving lose impediments in a hazard, incurrs a penalty of two strokes, whether or not he knew that his ball was in the hazard). The person who unknowingly made a mistake and incurred a penalty of action, only gets penalized in his score; the cheater gets penalized in his score and in his reputation.

No one likes to play with cheaters. A friend of mine who plays a little golf, has more than once told me that golf is not a "gentleman's game", that most everybody he knows, cheat. I disagreed in both counts: first, GOLF IS A GENTLEMAN'S GAME. The fact that there are some who are not truly gentlemen (or gentle-ladies) who play the game, does not change the game; and second, I DO NOT BELIEVE THAT MOST EVERYONE CHEATS. But, unfortunately, that is the perception, perhaps, because most everyone, talks about it.

"Defraud", "deceit", "dishonesty", "swindle", "impostor", "fraudulent", and to all of this, I would add, "lack of character" are all words defining the meaning of "Cheater". No one, not even those who deserve it, like to be called or known as a "cheater". Usually, cheaters get offensive when found out, non cheaters will get defensive... and they have a lot to defend. People who cheat, do it in various ways, and if you see one of these, it is probable that they use more than one: 1) Mark their ball incorrectly, usually gaining 1/2" to 2" in every putt; 2) Continually teeing up in front of the tee markers; 3) "give me a five" they say when they had a 6 or 7; 4) Continually moving the ball in areas where it should be left alone; 5) Lie about their handicap and; 6) When everything else fails, the eraser on the pencil is not used to correct mistakes, it is used to make mistakes... in purpose.

Many of you may recall that several years ago, one particular model of Callaway driver was banned from competition in the United States only (under USGA Rules), but allowed by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of Scotland (Ruling body of the rest of the world). Arnold Palmer, who had recently joined the Callaway staff and Board of Directors, was known to be playing, in friendly matches only, with a model of this driver. Part trying it, part enjoying it... part trying to have the specs changed so that it would conform with USGA Rules. Enter Peter Kessler, Golf Channel's top golf analyst of that time. So he had a "live interview" with Arnold (who by the way, is one of the co-founders of the Golf Channel), and asked, on whether or not Arnold knew or thought, he was "cheating" by using this driver. I remember the interview, and it was worded pretty bad by Kessler. Arnold, visibly, got upset during the interview and Peter Kessler was fired the next day. I am sure it was not Peter's intent to call Arnold a cheat, but that was the way Arnold took it, and that was the end of Peter's career in the Golf Channel.

In 42 years as a golfer, I have witnessed many who stretched the rules a bit (or a lot), but no one was more noticeable or angered me more than those who really cheated. After a while you learn to spot them Some years back, while patrolling a men’s tournament, I saw this player clearly moving his ball to a better lie. Though I was present, he did not seem perturbed by the fact that I had seen him, so I thought, “He either did not see me watching him or he does not know the rules or, better yet, I may have seen wrong”. After a few minutes with him and his playing competitors, I realized that I was in front of a true cheater. When one of the other players confronted him with his actions, his proud, cynic response was, “It ain’t cheating unless you get caught!” How is that for admitting you have no character?

Another time in a scramble, a player came to me to report a team, AFTER all scores had been posted and asked me to see the scorecard claiming that "he did not want to make a big deal out of it unless the team placed in the money". In truth, I was both grateful that someone had exposed and proved this team had cheated (I knew that it was nearly impossible for these four players to have shot the score they claimed) and upset that this player had waited so long. My answer to him was, "Thank you. But did you ever stop to think that if they did not win today, next time they would cheat more to be sure they won?"

One embarrassing moment was when a fellow golf professional exposed, privately to me, a man from our course, who the week before had played at his course in a team competition in which there was a "Skins Game". This man claimed an eagle on a Par-5 hole in which the ball, by the account of the other players on the same team, was just hanging on the lip. The team in front had seen them putt and saw the result. This man, unkowningly to the other team members, wrote down an "Eagle" and their team won a big skin there. When the players were confronted, they were truly embarrassed because they did not know what this man had done. They did not know if to turn the money back and call their friend a "cheater" in front of everyone or keep quiet and be labeled cheaters like him.

When I have taught golf, and particularly to high schoolers, I always stress the importance of learning the rules, this way, no one is put under the microscope of being accused of cheating, when in fact, they might just be ignorant of the rules.

My advice: KEEP GOLF DIFFERENT FROM OTHER SPORTS. PLAY THE GAME BY THE RULES AND DON'T PROMOTE CHEATING BY PLAYING WITH CHEATERS!