Cheater Tricks or Golfer Helps

The great Evil Knievel was a very good golfer and would play for large amounts in Las Vegas. He mentioned two tricks that he saw, Life Savers for teeing up irons in the fairway, and lip gloss on the face of the driver.

Yep I have see all of those. What you or he is referring to as lip gloss is chap stick. Can tell you a more modern one I saw myself and on the PGA Tour no less. The newer Titleist umbrellas have a red retaining strap and I have spotted them turned certain ways to gauge the wind. And I will tell you from experience in Vegas or Charlotte NC anything went as long as it was agreed on before hand. Back in those days you better not cheat those cats is all I will say but if it was agreed on before hand anything went. Even to this day and I have never cheated an opponent I will not carry chap stick or life savers on the golf course. Vaselene also works on the club face and it is a integral part of the game in many circles

Chapstick is a must for Vegas golf.

The dry desert wind is tougher on your lips than any winter I've been through!

I did mean chap stick, thanks. I am seriously considering tees for the fairway and just ordered some plastic 1/4" tees for all shots except driver. I really don't play tourneys anymore, so I will give it a try and see if it helps. I have heard of senior tournaments where it is used here locally. If it makes the game more enjoyable, then I will stay with it, and my friends who complain can play with someone else.

Perhaps once you master that you could get a pencil with a good eraser.... May as well get non conforming clubs and tee off in front of the markers.....another good trick is to distract your playing partners while you kick the ball out from behind a tree...... Be sure and turn scores in that are 8 to 10 strokes higher than what you shot to establish a handicap that will give you an advantage in case you do play in any tournaments.

We suspected the Lifesavers thing.

There was an old man that played at a local course.

He always carried green ( mint??) Lifesavers in good weather, and tan colored ( butterscotch) in winter months.

He would offer them to everyone, but we never saw him eat one.

You would find them all over the course.

Once guy said he wanted to ride in the cart with him and eat all the Lifesavers.??

I played money games with "Evel" (not "Evil") many times in Florida in the early 80's. He was not the golfer he thought he was, which is why he was someone you wanted to play, and why he lost hundreds of thousands of dollars on the golf course. He was always quick to bet, and many times slow to pay...

But, he was like an ATM machine for some people. Ha! I mention him a little in my novel about golf gambling.

All good tricks. But yeah I agree, best thing you can do to cheat is just flat out lie about your score. Most people aren't really counting your strokes

Have a few balls in your pocket that are the same as the one youre playing is also good. Slip it into your hand and when you bend over you've "found" your ball

If you can get close to your opponents stuff, you can just take money out of his wallet during the round (like at the turn when hes in the bathroom) . Than if you lose you are just giving him back his money, which is another good one

The cheater not only cheats those he is playing against, but he cheats himself as he robs himself of integrity.

How does the Life Saver thing work? Wouldn't it be pretty obvious to be rolling a ball on top of a Life Saver?

It’s the old drop it on the ground nudge the ball up on it,similar to guys that nudge a lie improvement but this centers the ball on the life saver like a tee and breaks apart on impact .it was a serious and common hustler tactic

I guess on tight lies it would be quite an advantage with the life savers. Golf rules allow lift and clean when the ground is wet and soaked, so is improving a lie a bad thing if agreed to before a round? Also a friendly round and a tournament are not the same to me.

The life saver thing only works IF you allow lift clean and place. If you insist on playing it down ( as any good player should ) you take that option away Since you don’t get to roll the ball.

It's all golf, and all golfers should attempt to play by the Rules, not find ways to obviate them. Your view may be different and may not resemble the real game.

The real game? I guess as an older golfer I see things differently. Par is what a pro would usually score on a given course, so what is that to me or the majority of golfers? To achieve par(not gonna happen) I need to look at golf differently than a pro. The rules as they stand are for pros and not for the average bogey player. Pros are at an advantage as they can play golf balls that play way to long for their game and the golf course, think you will see a ball rule anytime soon? So how is that fair, please tell? So the bottom specter of the game is given nothing by the rules, and the top end keeps manipulating the rules to their favor. Those who keep preaching the rules usually break par, so that means nothing to me, as they are just taking care of themselves. Some mods are okay if they are agreed to before hand. If your a tourney golfer then your rules do not apply to my golf. I do play "by the rules," but that will change as I get older. I am going to improve my fairway lie, and the pros can keep playing hot balls that they should not be playing.

Where is there any evidence that the pros are playing with golf balls that are not available for you to use? If there is, please provide it. The Rules are universal, and this includes equipment Rules. Sure, par or under par may not be achievable for the average golfer, but the average golfer can use a different measure for his accomplishments, such as par plus his handicap as a target score. It's not the Rules that prevent the average player from shooting "par", it requires skill, talent and a lot of daily hard work. Enjoy the game, playing by the Rules.

The average player does not shoot par, but he can par, birdie, and eagle some holes. The golf ball is hot for the pros because of their club head speed. The skill, talent, and a lot of hard work usually does not apply to those working every week. So the person who dedicates their life to playing better should have the same rules as those who don't have this luxury. No wonder so many people find the rules a bit snobbish, and leave the game, thanks to the so called purist. Their should be a different set of rules for seniors and women, just like a different set of tee boxes. They change the rules to benefit the pros, but don't help the bogey golfer. The long putter should have been okay'd for non pro use, not taken away.

The long putter has not been taken away and is still okay for use by any golfer.

The absolute best cheat of all time is practice.

Why are we talking about how to cheat in a Rules of golf discussion forum - should be in the 19th hole or somewhere else. We discuss Rules and Rules interpretations here, not ways to not play by the Rules - it's ludicrous!

And this is not my first rant about the discussions that are inserted or moved to this forum (and not likely the last).

No. not your first time. I find the topic interesting. Lifesavers, vaseline... I'm curious about other cheats and would want to read the book about golf gambling.

There seems to be a certain honor to cheating. Pencil whipping might get you dumped in the desert but vaseline or a lifesaver is just hustling.

There speaks a gambler as opposed to a golfer

Several readers may find the topic "interesting", but it certainly doesn't belong in a Rules of golf forum. It should be in "Cheaters Anonymous" or the Local Pub.

Save yourself a lot of time and effort...….Go to the course, go into the bar and spend the day drinking your beverage of choice...….When people come in, tell them you shot the course record.

It's not up to me decide what topics are worthy of this sub forum.

How does chapstick on the face of the driver help?

Chapstick is supposed to reduce spin, therefore the ball goes straighter. No idea if it works, but cheaters will try anything.

Put chapstick on your driver on the tee box, while your opponent is nearby. He will inevitably catch you doing it, get really mad and get in your face

While he is yelling at you, have one of your friends take his car keys from his bag

I will never touch someones wallet or keys, unless their dead. Light humor nothing serious. My boss loved his foot wedge, but he's the boss, and I wanted to keep it that way. Tennessee does not have decent grass or soil that is easy to get through, not in my area. Take a divot here in the summer, and you will need a new shaft in that club.

Sorry, I meant anchoring. Someone accused Adam Scott of cheating by anchoring, which he has denied, same for McCarron and Bernhard. But to me, why has the general public even been bothered by this? They okayed the long putter(Finchem?,) then banned anchoring after a bunch of complaining, as a compromise. That should have involved only the pros, not the average golfer, who should have been allowed to anchor.