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Bent Rules...Scrambles tend to bring out the cheaters

Tadashi70

Tadashi70

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I have played in more scrambles than I like to admit. I have tried to pick and choose which scrambles I play due to obvious cheating going on. It's odd that people feel the need to cheat while playing in a scramble, I mean you aren't winning anything large and the results are only know by those that competed. It's not like ESPN or GC will post your 22 under on the 6pm show. So why do people cheat? Have you been edged out by a group you suspected of cheating? Have you witnessed cheating from the group in front of you? Thoughts....:angry:
 
We were actually beaten out by a team made up of 4 people that not a single one plays over 4 times a year and none of them could break 100. They shot 13 under and then laughed about it when they realized the pencil had put them in 1st place. They each won a small 13" TV, before the days of flat screens. It was a customer appreciation tournament so they were all pretty much in their cups or they would not have been so blatant with their cheating.
 
Yup, my scramble team has been "pencil whipped" plenty of times. I play in tons of scramble tournaments, and I have typically played with the same 5 or 6 guys for the past few years. We seem to always come in 2nd place, behind the same freaking team every time. It's become a behind the scenes joke really. We play in these tournaments b/c the money raised goes to great causes. I tend to focus more on winning the closest to the pin stuff than anything else anyway, lol. I've never really witnessed anyone cheating as I typically am oblivious to what's going on around me.
 
I would say 4 man scrambles are the worse for cheaters. We have one scramble tournament every year that people always accuse the winning team of cheating. I have played in it once and I won't do it again. I witnessed first hand cheating by two of my own team members and I was not happy about it at all. I'll never play in a tournament with them again. It really left a bad taste in my mouth and I lost all respect for those two guys.
 
I definitely believe that it happens based on the comments above. I can see one person cheating...some people are just like that (and it is terrible and wrong). But, FOUR golfers cheating together...that is just pathetic.
 
When I first started playing in scrambles it was through work and our team was so bad it didn't even matter if other 3 were 30+ handicaps to have chance at net. I think the first team I put together we got pencil whipped since team shot -16 or 17 and handicap was about that high to win gross. When they announced it you could hear the Bull SH*T remarks and team just laughed. I don't think I've ever played in that scramble again since it bothered me and nothing was done about it.

Now I put all teams together for the scrambles for work. I stack them to my liking unless I'm told the owners are going to play. Myself and 3 other friends will shoot -15+ anytime we play. We have won COBA last 3 years and Chamber last 2 years that we have played. I think lowest we finished was 3rd and that team was only 2 man stacked team. Since work is paying for it all it wouldn't bother me but now I expect to win with team I bring. People don't get mulligans, string, and move up holes when they question how we win. I remember last scramble we shot -22 or -23 and had team question that -21 but we could go back and tell you every shot and show you were. That upset me the most because it was legit and lowest score we have ever shot. I enjoyed the look on their face when they announced we won and we were the ones with the last laugh. However their team had done some cheating because you could team teams behind and infront of them question when they saw their score.

It's a shame with the cheating you hear in scrambles. Most of the ones I play in are community fundraisers where winners get maybe $50 for 1st place. It doesn't even cover the entry fee but even so it's pretty sad. Eagle on #18 is always hard to beat if it comes to scorecard playoff too.
 
johndeere10 said:
When I first started playing in scrambles it was through work and our team was so bad it didn't even matter if other 3 were 30+ handicaps to have chance at net. I think the first team I put together we got pencil whipped since team shot -16 or 17 and handicap was about that high to win gross. When they announced it you could hear the Bull SH*T remarks and team just laughed. I don't think I've ever played in that scramble again since it bothered me and nothing was done about it.

Now I put all teams together for the scrambles for work. I stack them to my liking unless I'm told the owners are going to play. Myself and 3 other friends will shoot -15+ anytime we play. We have won COBA last 3 years and Chamber last 2 years that we have played. I think lowest we finished was 3rd and that team was only 2 man stacked team. Since work is paying for it all it wouldn't bother me but now I expect to win with team I bring. People don't get mulligans, string, and move up holes when they question how we win. I remember last scramble we shot -22 or -23 and had team question that -21 but we could go back and tell you every shot and show you were. That upset me the most because it was very legit. I enjoyed the look on their face when they announced we won and we were the ones with the last laugh. However their team had done some cheating because you could team teams behind and infront of them question when they saw their score.

It's a shame with the cheating you hear in scrambles. Most of the ones I play in are community fundraisers where winners get maybe $50 for 1st place. It doesn't even cover the entry fee but even so it's pretty sad.
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No need to cheat when your team is totally awesome.

Our 52 here was legit and with no string.

brodie.jpg
 
Only played in one and it was so full of cheating, drunks, and bs that I decided not to do it again. You know it was bad if I'm complaining about the drunks.
 
I organize the tournament for our universities athletic department last year there was some question as to the validity of the winning score. With first place being an all expenses trip for the 4 to represent the university in a national tournament at Pinehurst for 3 days we've decided that because we have two teams at each hole for the shotgun start they will go off together and keep each others score. We dont sell mulligans so it's pretty cut and dry. It's a shame that it has to be done, but with such a big prize and players that dont adhear to the rule of golf, we need to do somthing.
 
I would not confuse scrambles with real golf. Scrambles are fund raisers that only resemble real golf. The whole concept is to make it fun for those that rarely play. I've been in a few where the winners really thought they did something great by posting a score in the high 50's but seemed to forget it was against people that rarely play. I just don't do em any longer. I would rather just give money if it is a worthy cause.
 
I hate to say this but I have been on both ends of pencil whipping, not by choice though. The scrambles I used to play in always had the same top three groups in them. The teams I was always on were good teams regardless of the pencil. And the pencil whipping was only 1 or 2 strokes when it was done. Prizes were never great so I knew the winning was just a thing between the top members of the teams. I was never for doing the pincil whipping, but what am I gonna do? Say something then never get invited back to play? So I would just go with the flow and play golf.
 
Our company has a tournament every year and some of the results are obviously crap. Teams where everyone is down for a 20+ handicap shooting very low 60's and then having their handicap added on. Please. Even the gross scores are sometimes questionable (gross in the mid-50's for instance).

Another tournament I have played in for many years running was run by the former head writer for the Jaguars.com website, and he would always announce as part of the rules, in honor of the Raiders of old, "If you aren't cheating, you aren't trying." So we all assumed everyone was taking an extra mulligan or foot wedge here and there and we all laughed and joked about it and had a good time anyway.

Cheating when everyone is cheating and it is expected and encouraged is kind of fun. Cheating when it isn't allowed is not.
 
Scrambles are fun, but I never expect to win any. I play in one or two each year with the same three guys, and we've posted respectable scores in the past, maybe -11 or -12. But the winning scores are always ridiculously (and questionably) low.
 
I can't abide by cheating. I work too hard at this game to lose to a cheater.
 
Penglynns said:
Our company has a tournament every year and some of the results are obviously crap. Teams where everyone is down for a 20+ handicap shooting very low 60's and then having their handicap added on. Please. Even the gross scores are sometimes questionable (gross in the mid-50's for instance).

Another tournament I have played in for many years running was run by the former head writer for the Jaguars.com website, and he would always announce as part of the rules, in honor of the Raiders of old, "If you aren't cheating, you aren't trying." So we all assumed everyone was taking an extra mulligan or foot wedge here and there and we all laughed and joked about it and had a good time anyway.

Cheating when everyone is cheating and it is expected and encouraged is kind of fun. Cheating when it isn't allowed is not.
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Haha this could be kind of fun actually. How to out-cheat the others!
 
Ugh, I am so sick of cheating and I hate that it goes on in golf. In paintball, you had to cheat to maintain that competitive edge and everybody did it. While I didn't cheat much, I can't say that I am completely not guilty of it. This started a bad habit with me of doing anything to win. This is one of the reasons that I quit the sport. It is just not a respectable sport when you get into some of the higher competitions. I love golf because you call your own penalties and I have called several on myself when I was at address and the ball moved an inch and didn't settle back in its original spot. I really hate to hear about this cheating because golf is supposed to be an honor sport and where in the world is the honor of being able to write a better score instead of actually shooting it?
 
RatFink said:
Haha this could be kind of fun actually. How to out-cheat the others!
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Oddly enough I think most people don't mind at that one, and don't go out of their way to cheat. It is almost like having it out on the table takes the fun away, though every time I've played we have taken the extra mulligan here or there, but never more than one per shot (out of the foursome - if any) and we don't just kick the ball closer on the green or anything like that. I think most people go in expecting to lose because of the lax rules and in the end everything is the better because of it.
 
Interesting thread!

I have seen a little of this myself. I was playing a little four man scramble to benefit a local church effort to build a new youth building. As we were playing a hole that was directly adjacent to us, I saw a pretty prominent individual sign his name to the "Long Drive Stake" and move it 20 yards in front of where his drive landed.

Sometimes it's so hard to believe things such as this until you see it with your own two eyes..
 
Any time you can buy mulligans and beer at the same time people are going to get confused. The sad thing about cheating in a scramble is that there are at least 3 other people who now know you are a cheat. I would never look at my partners the same way. Some people who cheat in business don't cheat at golf, but everyone who cheats at golf will also cheat at business.
 
I actually was a victim of a long drive cheater. I came out of the my shoes on #12 at Shingle Creek and was beat by some dude that did the exact samething. we were in the next fairway over watching him step it off. The beauty of this story is that the head of the tournament happened to be in my group and witnessed the whole thing. When it came time to hand out the prize my name was called and that guy went ape sh*t in front of everyone. He was quietly pulled aside and informed of his over sight. My prize was handed out to the tournament staff that played golf.

Weezy said:
Interesting thread!

I have seen a little of this myself. I was playing a little four man scramble to benefit a local church effort to build a new youth building. As we were playing a hole that was directly adjacent to us, I saw a pretty prominent individual sign his name to the "Long Drive Stake" and move it 20 yards in front of where his drive landed.

Sometimes it's so hard to believe things such as this until you see it with your own two eyes..
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I have never played in a tournament because...well...I'm a bogey plus player despite 5 years of regular play. If I could play with other terrible players in a terrible players tournament, maybe this would change.
 
manofoak said:
I have never played in a tournament because...well...I'm a bogey plus player despite 5 years of regular play. If I could play with other terrible players in a terrible players tournament, maybe this would change.
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Scrambles aren't golf tounaments. Big difference. Anyone playing in a scramble should know what they are getting into. Not sure there is such a thing as cheating in a scramble. The whole concept is cheating and far from normal golf.
 
Played in one a few weeks ago and I KNOW we got cheated out of a win. I played in a foursome with 2 club pros and my brother, who is a pretty good player himself. We finished @ 8 under and for a while thought that was good enough to win. All of a sudden this foursome strolls in with a card of -12 and claimed they eagled the 6th hole. The 6th is a par 5 that was playing into a 25 mile an hour wind. The one guy we were playing with is one of the longest hitters I know and he didn't get there in 2 and we were dead center of the faiway and had about 250 in with the 25 mile wind in our face. If he didn't get there this 50+ guy whom I've never seen at this place before, and I go there a TON, didn't get home in 2. Needless to say after he turned in his score we all just left! I don't mind getting beat or not winning but I HATE when people cheat!
 
I witnessed cheating in my own foursome. One guy hit his drive, definitly went right and maybe into the woods. I hit my drive 20 yards past where his went out, mine was in the fairway. We go to look for his and can't find it, meanwhile he is 20 yards ahead of my drive and we see him drop a ball into the fairway and says "here it is". We didn't say anything, there were only 3 of us in the group and we had no chance of winning. If we had placed, I would have spoken up.
I don't take scrambles seriously. It's just a different way to play a round of golf and give to a good cause (beer, food, and prizes don't suck either).
 
HoosierGolfer said:
Scrambles aren't golf tounaments. Big difference. Anyone playing in a scramble should know what they are getting into. Not sure there is such a thing as cheating in a scramble. The whole concept is cheating and far from normal golf.
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Yep scrambles at our course involve beer, laughter, and lots of fun. Our scrambles are very relaxed with string, mulligans, club lengths, etc. There really isn't a need to cheat but they still blatantly do it. I mean there is a limit of 2 mulligans but to take one on every hole if needed is a little ridiculous. I can't believe people would stoop so low as to falsify the longest drive marker. Unbelievable.
 
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