Golf has always been rooted in respect for the Rules and trust, which is why cheating is THE MOST emotive subject in our game.
Justin Doeden’s recent admission that he cheated, reducing his score to try to make the cut in a PGA Tour Canada event, made headlines mainly because it’s so rare in a professional event for someone to think no-one’s going to spot what they’ve done.
Professional golf, even at relatively low levels, has multiple cameras and replays, plus scorers with every group and roving officials on carts or buggies.
Not so amateur golf, sadly, where the only people present can often be the player and his or her partner.
A guy at one of my clubs was recently called out by a playing partner for moving his ball in the rough... his response was simple: “So what? People cheat all the time!”.
I may have just been incredibly lucky, but in my experience that’s simply not true.
Cheating is incredibly rare, which is why the attitude that permeates many a group of casual golfers – that everyone should be regarded as a cheat unless they can prove they’re not – is as petty as it’s counterproductive.
Of course, “cheating” can be subjective: crossing out a 7 and writing a 5 in its place is cut-and-dried, and Doeden will be branded by the incident now, just as Patrick Reed may find himself, after numerous incidents.
But what about not really trying too hard so your handicap index goes up a shot and you get a better chance of winning some money off your mates – is that cheating?
Don’t be shy though: if you suspect someone isn’t playing by the rules then report them to the Committee or call them out yourself.
If I’m playing in a competition with someone who’s apparently not too accurate with their scoring, I’ll always arrange to mark their card, and when they hole out I'll say “good six” before they get a chance to tell me it was a five.
Ultimately, golf is better and more enjoyable for being based on trust, than sports that put an umpire or a referee in place and if they don't see an incident then it’s all good and accepted.
More From Stewart Golf
No other sport shows the true character of a person as clearly as golf. Those who cheat at golf also cheat themselves and others in normal life. That is a pity.
The only cheats I knowingly avoid are the high handicap cheats. I just don’t get that approach. Surely you should be prouder to say your HC is 8, than to say you shot 42 points?
Pleased to say all my golfing group who are not club members are really good with the wanting to know and follow the rules :)
Amazed at the amount of guys I play with who are Accountants or watch every penny, yet suddenly can’t count to the true number of shots they have on a golf course, without correction.
There’s a guy at our club who is wayward off the tee but regularly “finds” his ball sitting pretty in the rough miles from where it went in. High handicapper, never wins anything, but he now has a reputation and playing partners tend to watch him closely.
Another guy- single figures- got so bad with the standard of his ball marking on the green that I told him that I would forfeit our match and tell the pro-shop why if it didn’t stop. He seems to be more careful now.
But the worst are the (very) few members who enter all the matchplay comps and scrambles off handicaps that are way too high, but which never come down because they only put 3-4 cards in each year. We have three of them, one who should be off 5 max but played and won our winter matchplay comp off 12. To be fair to him, he’s a newish member, but he was 2 at his previous club. Another won the singles ko off 22, when his normal social group have him off 15. This guy is actually proud of the fact that he is so competitive in the matchplay comps and so useful to any scramble team. To me this is a major failing of the new WHS system. The club should simply be able to impose a very low handicap on him until he puts in his 10th card of the year. This guy plays every week and simply doesn’t care that people call him a cheat to his face.
I actually like all of these people, but I avoid playing with them if possible.
Just played a senior match against another club, my opponent stated his playing handicap was 29.4, all I heard was “4 net 3” or “5 net 4”; having played the game for over 4 decades I’m familiar with what a 29 handicap swing looks like, and what I saw that day was not it. Ruined what was a good day, it’s a senior match for fun, not some world championship. If you cheat at golf, you cheating in life!