World’s Classiest Sport Has Gone Awry

-Kyle McGuffey

Various types of cheating are on the rise in every level of golf. I’ve seen plenty of people pull fast ones during tournaments to lower their scores, and frankly, I am sick of it.

During a tournament in January, I couldn’t help but notice that a player hit into my fairway, then picked up his ball and placed it 200 yards ahead into his fairway. His drive went from 50 yards long and 150 yards to the right to 400 yards  long and perfectly straight. He also probably lowered his score from a 130 to a 129. Even though this isn’t a really serious incident, imagine if someone gets first place if they do something like that. Unfortunately, it happens and there is not much that can be done.  

 Like any other sport, there is more than one way to cheat in golf. But unlike any other sport, cheating in golf is made easier by the fact that not all tournaments have referees keeping players in check. In the PGA, about five other people besides you take your score, thus it is impossible to mark it down incorrectly. However for high school tournaments, a lack of supervision gives unethical players an opportunity tolower their scores by a few strokes.

Unfortunately for high school golf, it’s hard for tournament runners to afford supervisors. This forces everyone to rely on golfers to accurately relay their score, though this often doesn’t happen. The only thing that is keeping golfers from cheating is their conscience and that, for some people, isn’t enough.