I hope you enjoy this week’s featured story. After you read it please send me your personal favorite experiences about this topic. I’d like to include many stories into a larger collection of golf etiquette related stories. Thank you in advance.

Bobby Jones once said, “there’s golf and there’s tournament golf …and the two are not very much alike”. I say, “there’s beginner golf and there’s serious golfer’s golf”…and the same can be said. They’re not very much alike.

When a beginner doesn’t follow the rules it’s usually because they don’t know right from wrong. When guys (or gals) get together and play “beer golf” just for fun, it’s OK not to keep score and just play for fun. Just comply with these basic etiquette rules of golf and others:
-Respect the golf course. Replace divots and repair ball marks on the green.
-Play as fast as possible, maintaining a pace of play that doesn’t hold up any players behind you.
-Stand still and quietly while other players are hitting and don’t walk in anyone’s putting line on the green.

BUT, it’s a different story when experienced players feel that interpreting the rules “their way” is a right no one should dare to question. For these players, there’s only one word to describe what they’re doing; CHEATING!

Maybe I’m just noticing it more lately, but it’s amazing to see club players or members of the golf industry blatantly cheat and think it’s OK. They treat mulligans, do-overs, preferred lies anywhere, and mental lapses in counting their actual strokes like it’s a normal part of the game that no one notices. They’re wrong, I’m noticing.

One of the many beauties of golf is that each player is their own umpire or referee, responsible for enforcing their own rules. With all the talk about golf being a game of honor, a sport that epitomizes the balance between skill, competition and integrity, why is cheating such an accepted part of the game for some players? I’ll never understand what they’re thinking, except the golf course does make an ideal setting for any person with the mentality of “what they don’t see won’t hurt them”.

Golf is a special sport, with a large majority of golfers honest and trustworthy. My earliest memories at the golf course recall seeing bags of beautiful clubs standing unattended in front of the clubhouse and thinking anyone could steal these at anytime. I remember my father telling me that the golf course is the safest place around, because golfers are the most honest people you’ll find anywhere. Around the clubhouse is one thing, but on the course where no one’s looking (or so they think) is a completely different story, especially once the competitive juices start to flow and egos take over. Nothing surprises me anymore.

For the record I personally don’t consider it cheating when you violate a rule without realizing it. (The Rules of Golf has never been an easy read or very understandable). I also believe that a player should not be penalized due to the poor condition of the golf course, but the rule’s of golf Gods don’t agree. During my youth playing on public courses the rule of thumb was preferred lies on the fairway and leave it lie in the rough.

Most friendly and casual games are played using paradise rules, which means moving the ball onto a preferred lie on any shot, is OK. This is especially the case when golfer’s are first learning to play the game. The only BUT in the last statement is this; if you’re going to move the ball, DON’T move it closer to the hole, EVER.

The cheating I’m describing is either when the rules are violated or the score on the card doesn’t reflect the actual number of swings at the ball, OR BOTH. They usually go hand in hand.

Have you seen the TGW commercial on the Golf Channel with two guys in a cart adding up one player’s score. After replaying many shots, plus one in the water and one out of bounds, he says give me a four. I realize this is a bit far fetched but let me share some of what I’ve seen on the golf course battlefield. These are actual events I’ve witnessed, with each player’s name disguised, to protect further personal embarrassment.

Player 1 - Have you ever played with someone they call “the umpire”. That’s because he always keeps an extra ball in his pocket and drops it out when he can’t find his original shot. One round when I watched him look for a ball that sliced out of bounds I saw him take a ball out of his pocket and throw it ahead to play it. I called out, “you’re not going to play that one, are you”? He had a sick look when he realized I caught him.

On another occasion I watched him search 20-30 yards beyond where his ball actually was.In fact I found his ball (I know that because I saw the logo on the last green while he was putting), then called out “what ball are you playing”? His back-up plan just in case this happens is to say it has a Court TV logo. Since it never does, he drops one and plays on without penalty.

When he’s not moving the ball in the rough (almost always closer to the hole) and giving himself a preferred lie, this player often times picks up the ball and places it, (again closer to hole). This is the same player who criticizes his former group for doing the same. When he does have a bad lie and misses the shot he blames the course and takes his do-over. After skulling the first shot into the face of the bunker he tries it again, then get’s pissed off and starts swinging wildly.

On the greens, he takes liberty with concept of “the gimmee”. When his approach shot stops within four to six feet of the hole he putts with the pin in, so if he misses he counts it as if he made it, a gimmee. He almost always steals an extra inch (or more) by marking the ball on the green closer to the hole.

Last but not least, never play this player in a match or expect to watch every shot like a hawk. That includes asking him and agreeing on his score after every hole. Even during tournaments he’ll leave a stoke or two off the total when it takes four or five out of the bunker. In fact, as I’m finishing this story, I have a good example of this from yesterday’s round. On the 16th hole he pops up the tee shot about 150 yards, leaving 200+ yards to the green. The second shot goes left and ends up in high grass near a tree just short of the green. Shot three lands short. A chip and two putts. As he taps in the sixth shot he says, bogey and puts a five on his card. This is very common, as his scorecard often reads bogey or occasionally double-bogey or more. I know this because the new pull carts at our club have a clip for the scorecard which he now uses. Until this year he used one of my Cardkeepers and had his scorecard and pencil in his back pocket, hidden. Bottom line; after cheating all thorough the round, the score he ultimately posts for his handicap is now lowered once again. He’s been described as the world’s worst player, that plays almost everyday.

Player 2. - This is a member of the golf industry who often plays in events. During the ten times we’ve played together I’ve seen him taking mulligans on any hole, on any shot. I can’t remember ever seeing him with a bad lie. That doesn’t mean he’s never hit the ball in the rough, behind trees or in the tall grass around the greens. He always picks his ball up out of the rough and replaces it where he prefers it. When there’s a tree in his way he moves the ball out of the way (I guess that’s why they call it preferred lies).

One day on a par 5 he hit a good drive and went for the green on his second shot. The ball went far to the right. There was a creek beyond where he was looking and we never found the ball. Because he knew around where the ball was he felt he was robbed and deserved to play three from a free drop. After an up and down, he celebrates that he made a great par. To me, it doesn’t pay to question it. Just play on. Like Player 1 he’ll conveniently count only certain shots. What do you post on the card when you pick-up and say, that’s enough?

Player 3. - This one really shattered me inside. I have a friend I’ve played with for over twenty years. . He always wants to beat me and out drive me, but when we play for money, even just a few dollars, it gets real competitive. The first time I caught him cheating was during my first Myrtle Beach golf-o-mania vacation in March 2006. On the first hole of our first of eight rounds, he wanted a 3-foot gimmee, which I didn’t give. As he went down to mark his ball he tried to hide it with his body and then snuck the mark a few inches closer the hole. I didn’t say anything and never trusted him after that. I saw him do it a few more times at our home course and stopped playing for money until recently, after finally confronting him about cheating. Are you surprised to hear that he denied everything?

Player 4. - This one hurt financially. A regular member of my group in the 1990’s inherited a lot of family money. His basement looks like a golf club hall of fame, with a putting green and more new sets of clubs than most pro shops.

One day during a multi-hole Skins game carryover, I was about to win about $20. On a par 5 I’m on the green in three, with only a five needed to win. As his third shot ran just off the back of the green up against the tall grass, he groaned. As we approached the green I saw him scoop the ball with his wedge and move it a few inches closer, onto the fringe. I asked both players in the group if they saw what I just saw. They didn’t. Instead of a very difficult wedge shot to even make a par, he putted and of-course made it for birdie, robbing me of some much needed cash.

He didn’t need the money, but his ego couldn’t live with the loss. This is the same player that carries a +1 handicap (which means he’s under-par) because he only posts his low scores. Yes, he’s a good player, but maybe a 3 or 4 handicap.

Usually I end my stories by saying Golf is Great Theatre. This time is goes like this; Golf is a game that brings out the worst in people and offers the perfect setting for cheaters.

Author's Bio: 

I’m a passionate amateur golfer for over 40 years who invented the next "big idea" in golf in the process of fixing my own out of control slice in the mid 1990's. From that experience I developed a series of unique golf instruction How To guides and products, designed to appeal to the masses; ten’s of millions of everyday golfers and even non-golfers. Each product turns golf into business because they can be personalized and double as promotional items, like the logo golf ball.