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Have you ever turned anyone in for cheating?

CAA_Beat

CAA_Beat

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I know in golf we are supposed to "protect the field" and I agree. However, I feel it can create quite an awkward if not always confrontational situation, if you point out to somone they have violated a rule or cheated.

I have pointed out a rules violation to someone during a round, and they took it graciosuly. However, I have seen a couple people blatantly cheat and didn't mention it. What have some of your experiences been?
 
If its just a leisurely round I tend to not say anything unless im fairly certain they didnt know or forget.
Tournament or money, ill be the first one to speak up. Not in an aggressive manor, but it needs to be said
 
I think it is different if the person didn't understand the rule or misinterpreted the rule than in a straight cheater. Turning in a cheater can get ugly and I would suggest talking to whoever is running the tournament or the course pro before confronting the player on something like that.
 
I recently had a penalty called against me for playing the wrong ball. Due to the circumstances around it, I didn't take it the best at first since I felt I did nothing wrong and got the short end of the stick but ultimately, to not lose sight of the purpose of the round, I accepted it and moved on. I do agreed, the first couple minutes after being called out for it were a bit tense but after that it was a smack talk motivator.
 
I have not in tournament conditions. I have discussed an issue where someone blatantly continued to pencil whup a score card.
 
Ole Gray said:
I have not in tournament conditions. I have discussed an issue where someone blatantly continued to pencil whup a score card.
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woodshed beavior indeed!!
 
"Turned someone in?" Technically, no. Called someone out? Yes.

A friend of mine and I were playing in a pretty friendly Member-Member at our course a few years back and were playing a couple of guys in a nine hole match. At one point, one of them took what I'll call a very generous drop. We mentioned it to him and his partner came to his defense even though there was perfectly clear the drop wasn't legal. [Note: I imagine it's a drop that's frequently used to speed up play during regular rounds at the course, but illegal none the less.] Since we were on our way to a sweep of the four points available in the match, we didn't press the issue, but I've certainly made it a point to not play with the two gentleman (if I can avoid it) since.

At the level that I'm imagining the vast majority of us play (recreational; some club tournaments), cheating really only hurts the cheater. Even if you won your match/tournament/whatever, a reputation can be formed instantly and can be impossible to repair.
 
Seems anymore every scramble I play in that is what we deal with, it is causing the scrambles to lose players. It seems that some of these golfers just can't stand to finish without turning scores in -20 to -24, you can see them playing in front of you or behind you taking 5 to get to the green and then turn in an eagle for the hole. There is no honor to some of these teams.
 
Mountain Slicer said:
Seems anymore every scramble I play in that is what we deal with, it is causing the scrambles to lose players. It seems that some of these golfers just can't stand to finish without turning scores in -20 to -24, you can see them playing in front of you or behind you taking 5 to get to the green and then turn in an eagle for the hole. There is no honor to some of these teams.
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I have not turned anyone in since a college match in 1985. I didn't notice it until the 10th hole but a guy in my group had 15 clubs and it still was difficult to turn him in.

From my experience, the cheating at scrambles has gotten much worse in the last 25 years. So many golfers now cheat regularly (sometimes unintentionally due to a lack of rules knowledge) a couple strokes each round that it has gotten out of control in scrambles. I will play in a few scrambles each year and often our group will have 3 of 4 players with and index under 3.0. The last scramble I won was a decade ago when we had 2 plus index players and two 1 index players. I would in fact be embarrassed to win a scramble and have get up in front of the crowd to accept my prize knowing that more than half of the golfers in the room would think I had cheated. 25 years ago, 15-18 under was a great score that would often win a scramble, not anymore.
 
tahoebum said:
I have not turned anyone in since a college match in 1985. I didn't notice it until the 10th hole but a guy in my group had 15 clubs and it still was difficult to turn him in.

From my experience, the cheating at scrambles has gotten much worse in the last 25 years. So many golfers now cheat regularly (sometimes unintentionally due to a lack of rules knowledge) a couple strokes each round that it has gotten out of control in scrambles. I will play in a few scrambles each year and often our group will have 3 of 4 players with and index under 3.0. The last scramble I won was a decade ago when we had 2 plus index players and two 1 index players. I would in fact be embarrassed to win a scramble and have get up in front of the crowd to accept my prize knowing that more than half of the golfers in the room would think I had cheated. 25 years ago, 15-18 under was a great score that would often win a scramble, not anymore.
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Agree on the scrambles. We won one last year at -16 I think. And we seriously maybe left one or two shots out there. How some of these -24's happen is sickening. But we mainly play to support my association and enjoy the course and day.
 
I called out a guy in our mens league one time and he has not spoken to me since. This was about 3 years ago and I had played many rounds with him over the years. Life goes on. Sorry thing is our league is match play in three 3 hole blocks, so it was just loss of hole for the guy but he took it as the end of the world. Our pro at the time said I did the right thing and that was good enough for me.
 
tahoebum said:
I have not turned anyone in since a college match in 1985. I didn't notice it until the 10th hole but a guy in my group had 15 clubs and it still was difficult to turn him in.

From my experience, the cheating at scrambles has gotten much worse in the last 25 years. So many golfers now cheat regularly (sometimes unintentionally due to a lack of rules knowledge) a couple strokes each round that it has gotten out of control in scrambles. I will play in a few scrambles each year and often our group will have 3 of 4 players with and index under 3.0. The last scramble I won was a decade ago when we had 2 plus index players and two 1 index players. I would in fact be embarrassed to win a scramble and have get up in front of the crowd to accept my prize knowing that more than half of the golfers in the room would think I had cheated. 25 years ago, 15-18 under was a great score that would often win a scramble, not anymore.
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The reason I don't do scrambles or consider them golf. I just donate the money and stay home.
 
No official rules I golf for scrambles. I believe in the rules of golf, it is against the rules to not call a penalty on somebody.
 
Have you ever turned anyone in for cheating?

I have turned in several rules violations in tournament play, though I'm more careful about it at my club. Busted one regular "Found my ball" guy... I put his ball in my pocket and he magically found it in a perfect lie a little deeper in the woods. This was his 4th "deep woods find" of the round...we had all expected him of this behavior for years.

The one rules violation that haunted me was a guy with an illegal putter grip. He had a normal putter extended into a belly putter by his pro shop pro. They used two different shaped grips - one round, one flat - on the same putter. Illegal configuration.

Yes, I turned him in. I first told him the putter was non confirming and he needed to quit using it. I wasn't going to turn him in, but instead of acknowledging it, he decided to call me names, tell me I didn't know what I was talking about - remember I'm a club and shaft designer, equipment supplier, and build and fit custom clubs. I then showed him the section in the rule book specifically addressing his breach - and he told me to mind my own business.

I turned him in. His whole group was DQed for the event - it was a team scoring event - and none of them will speak to me to this day...
 
tahoebum said:
I have not turned anyone in since a college match in 1985. I didn't notice it until the 10th hole but a guy in my group had 15 clubs and it still was difficult to turn him in.

From my experience, the cheating at scrambles has gotten much worse in the last 25 years. So many golfers now cheat regularly (sometimes unintentionally due to a lack of rules knowledge) a couple strokes each round that it has gotten out of control in scrambles. I will play in a few scrambles each year and often our group will have 3 of 4 players with and index under 3.0. The last scramble I won was a decade ago when we had 2 plus index players and two 1 index players. I would in fact be embarrassed to win a scramble and have get up in front of the crowd to accept my prize knowing that more than half of the golfers in the room would think I had cheated. 25 years ago, 15-18 under was a great score that would often win a scramble, not anymore.
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I played in a scramble last year the wining score was a 54 there were 5 teams in the 50's it was a joke my group was -10 under and we were near the bottom of the field we decided not to play that scramble any more
 
I played in a legit 18 under scramble. We birdied every hole. No eagles, though we had eagle putts on two of the par 5s that didn't drop - so we could have been 20 under.

We didn't do anything outrageous, we simply had long tee shots in the fairway every time, had some very nice iron shots to choose from, and a couple of guys who made just about every putt they looked at.

We donated the winnings back to the charity for the event.
 
what do you guys normally do in these tournaments for lost and/or OOB balls? In casual play most people take drop and stroke vs stroke and distance. If one wants to be more honest about it they'll take drop and two stroke to help make up for not taking the distance part. But in these competitive tourney or whatever you guys play in, what is being done? are most hitting provisionals? or not? are they going back to the tee? What is the normal practice you are seeing and experiencing with those two errant shots?
 
Rules of Golf

Hit a provisional or go back to the tee.

In match play you could just concede the hole.
 
Fortunately, I've never been in a tournament where someone in my group cheated. That could become no fun.
 
I've corrected numerous scorecard mistakes from guys I've played with. After awhile, you wonder how unintentional it really is. I've never played in a serious tournament where I would have to turn someone in. That's gotta be really awkward.
 
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