Is Golf the most hypocritical game?

[Titleist99]

Listen to your last comment "He tried to cheat" ……..had he went on to win and signed a score card that would have been cheating.....IMO

[Sean2]

People play this game for a variety of reasons, and in a variety of different ways. During a casual round, I don't care if someone uses a toe wedge, fluffs his lie, or what have you. For me, I follow the ROG as that is how I enjoy playing the game.

[oiler45]

So you're saying you are only guilty if you get caught? If you write down a 4 on your scorecard when you actually made a 5, but your playing partners didn't notice it - are you NOT a cheater?

Not sure I'd want to play you for money  ….

[tannyhoban]

Recreational golf is just that. I don't understand why anyone would harbor angst over that.

 

[Titleist99]

How you got that out of my comment is beyond me....What I'm saying is that if you breach the rules and you are given a two shot penalty,

how did you cheat?

[teejaywhy]

Feeling bad about yourself?

 

[bogeypro]

You either play by the rules or you don’t. I don’t understand the problem.

[bladehunter]

I look at it like this. If I play recreational checkers , and each time I jump someone I i palm another of their pieces till I win , is that ok ? Or if I am playing recreational poker and have a few cards up my sleeve. Is that ok ? No ? Then why is it ok to cheat at recreational golf ? It’s just a mild irritation sure. But the guy who rolls every shot , fluffs it in then rough and always runs ahead to “ find his ball not ob” irks the crap out of me to hear him announce a “ 74 “ To my well earned 72-3-4 on a tough day. Me knowing full welll the guy doesn’t break 80 playing it down.

[ray9898]

What a well planned troll thread.

[Sean2]

Unless it's a tournament, I don't care what people in my group do. So a guy says he shot a 78 when he really shot an 84...I don't really care? I have had guys "beat me" in a casual round playing fast and loose with the rules. It's no dimple off my ball. Besides, if he ever finds himself playing in a tournament, he will be in for a rude awakening.

[tannyhoban]

Again, unless you are playing for something who cares?

[tannyhoban]

This sums it up for me. If a guy wants to beat me in a casual round playing loose, so be it. I still got my round of golf in.

If he's turning that in somewhere for cap he's reverse sandbagging himself, ha.

And they will be exposed quite self evidently in any competition.

None of it worries me in the least.

[bladehunter]

True. I guess that’s my disconnect. I’m never not playing for something. Either $ or just to win. The game for me is a competition outlet. Not a social game.

[Pepperturbo]

Hypocritical (adj) and hypocrisy (n) are behaviors frequently claimed by social media voices, as they chase perfection in others, but never stop to look in a mirror, themselves.  The game of golf and its rules, on the other hand, are incapable of being insincere or phony or provide a double-standard to those of us that play the game.  The man that plays two balls and a stickler for rules my just be divided in ways those nearby can't see. Yep, an imperfect kettle casts all the stones.

[tannyhoban]

I get that. My regular foursome never has anything on the line, the others started the game later in life and we just enjoy our rounds of golf.

The dynamics would totally shift if we put something on the line. I know it, they know it and that's why we don't do it.

Played in a two man scramble with one of them last year at his urging, weather was miserably cold. He put so much pressure on himself, I felt bad for him. I had zero expectations going in, figured it would be fun. We used my ball on just about everything, ha.I cant even imagine what it would have been like if that had been a solo tourney off scratch. He is actually a pretty decent player, but he could not find a swing that would work for him that day.

And that is the crucial difference. In competition you'd better find a way with the swing you have that day.

I don't sweat anyone who tells me how well they shot, how good they are, etc. Good for them.

When it comes to brass tacks there really is only one way to find out. I'm long past trying to prove my golf to anyone, or measuring them up. And I've never been big on bets. When needed I can get competitive, but golf is a different thing for me these days. Mostly me against myself.

Its a refuge for me.

To each their own.

[Titleist99]

No sir, I do not feel bad about myself. I thnk that people (Brandel Chamblee, several talking heads on the Morning Drive) are going way over the top with their Outrage IMO.

While I think that pat Reed was caught trying to cheat, he was given a two stroke penalty....Nothing that I don't see on the golf course everyday

Nothing nearly as bad as Segio Garcia and his antics on the golf course, especially spitting in the cup....INO

[Pepperturbo]

I totally identify as my competitive/fighter nature is one of my worst attributes. Even when playing with strangers or isn't a game, I quietly play against whoever. Since childhood, I have always trounced my opponent(s) and step on their neck as they go down...I won't back-off or quit. Football coaches and martial arts instructors loved that in me...go figure. That is the reason I won't play simple games with my wife and closest mid-hi cap buddies. I want to keep it friendly with them.

 

[gvogel]

You're just messing with us, right? You don't actually believe that.

[Titleist99]

What part do find factually incorrect?

[Sean2]

When I play a casual round, my opponent is the golf course. I don't worry about what other folks are doing, or if I am winning or or not. I am old enough now where golf isn't an ego related activity. I work hard at the game, but if the people I am playing with are playing better, props to them. I root for them to make that putt, or execute that shot.

[wobgon]

Given the choice between a guy who spits in the cup and a guy who cheats, I would take the guy who spits in the cup everytime.

[tannyhoban]

True story. Throttling it back in friendly rounds is a good thing for me. One thing I discovered in competitve golf, there are really fine golfers better than me everywhere. In sports growing up I was that kid who could outwork everyone to achieve, don't even want to think how hard I would have to work to get to even a top regional am in golf. So many with so much ability.

 

[Pepperturbo]

Agree, lot's of talent out there. Since leaving private clubs and not playing in regional events how I go about my golf and don't encounter really good players. I am the type that thinks more about winning and easily let losing roll off my back. Losing is like a bad round of golf, they happen.

[Outlier]

You mad Bro.? (again).

[Outlier]

Bu wait....those are the best ones!

[ExTrumpet]

I misread the thread title, thought it said hypothetical.

 

It would make more sense if it did. Guessing OP has never played match play.

[Lincoln_Arcadia]

Love threads like this one! Golf isn’t hypocritical.

Too bad so many people are... golf is a really difficult sport, why make it harder by cheating and being hypocritical?

I think BC can comment all he wants, but the fact remains that Tiger is one of the most honest players in the sport, just not so good with his ex-wife.

[ExTrumpet]

 

This.

 

Since I rarely make a putt, my partners give me my three-footer, thus I never have to reach into a tainted cup.

[Jeff58]

IMO the problem here, as was pointed out earlier, is that you used essentially the inverse of the correct term.Hypocrite definition, a person who pretends to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that he or she does not actually possess.

In a world where people are constantly raped, robbed, murdered, etc., and our environment overwhelmed by pollution and overpopulation, the most significant event in our sport’s collective psyche is that someone moved an ounce of sand. The issue isn’t that people are pretending to have moral outrage over this, rather that they actually are.

[Hankshank]

Don’t know about hypocritical but it’s cozy.