What's the worst cheating you've ever seen or heard about?

[Ronzo]

[quote name='ABFU' post='1848330' date='Jul 28 2009, 12:22 PM'][quote name='jbhmss' post='1847875' date='Jul 28 2009, 08:46 AM'][size=2]It was summer 1964. I just wanted to get out and knock it around a bit at Royal St. Mark's in Kent. Well, it wasn't long before I found myself involved in a bit of a money game with an older fellow and on the 17th hole he hits an errant tee shot that we, along with our caddies, spend some time looking for. His caddy, a large Asian fellow, finds the ball in some shaggy rough nowhere near the area we were searching.

My caddy turns to me to say, "If that's his original ball, I'm Arnold Palmer."

I reply that indeed it's not his ball only to be questioned by my caddy. "How do you know?", he asks.

"I'm standing on it", I tell him.

On the putting green, retrieving his ball from the hole, I casually notice that he changed balls somewhere and that this indiscretion will result in a loss of the match. While I beat this chap this time around despite his efforts to cheat me, it wouldn't be the last time we'd meet. There were ups and downs along the way but a long story made short, I was able to avert his plot to manipulate the world's gold supply saving the global economy.

James

[/size][/quote]


So you are standing on your opponets ball and not even nice enough to tell him O here it is.... Thats a great Delta Bravo moment there.
[/quote]
No. He is an honorable man. His word is his Bond.

[JoeF]

[quote name='ABFU' post='1848330' date='Jul 28 2009, 11:22 AM'][quote name='jbhmss' post='1847875' date='Jul 28 2009, 08:46 AM'][size=2]It was summer 1964. I just wanted to get out and knock it around a bit at Royal St. Mark's in Kent. Well, it wasn't long before I found myself involved in a bit of a money game with an older fellow and on the 17th hole he hits an errant tee shot that we, along with our caddies, spend some time looking for. His caddy, a large Asian fellow, finds the ball in some shaggy rough nowhere near the area we were searching.

My caddy turns to me to say, "If that's his original ball, I'm Arnold Palmer."

I reply that indeed it's not his ball only to be questioned by my caddy. "How do you know?", he asks.

"I'm standing on it", I tell him.

On the putting green, retrieving his ball from the hole, I casually notice that he changed balls somewhere and that this indiscretion will result in a loss of the match. While I beat this chap this time around despite his efforts to cheat me, it wouldn't be the last time we'd meet. There were ups and downs along the way but a long story made short, I was able to avert his plot to manipulate the world's gold supply saving the global economy.

James

[/size][/quote]


So you are standing on your opponets ball and not even nice enough to tell him O here it is.... Thats a great Delta Bravo moment there.
[/quote]


[b][url="http:///name/nm0000125/"]James Bond[/url][/b]: [[i]discovers Goldfinger cheating at golf[/i]] You play a Slazinger 1, don't you?
[b][url="http:///name/nm0002085/"]Auric Goldfinger[/url][/b]: Yes, why?
[b][url="http:///name/nm0000125/"]James Bond[/url][/b]: This is a Slazinger 7.
[[i]indicating his own golf ball[/i]]
[b][url="http:///name/nm0000125/"]James Bond[/url][/b]: Here's my Penfold Hearts. You must have played the wrong ball somewhere on the 18th fairway. We are playing strict rules, so I'm afraid you lose the hole and the match.
[[i]Goldfinger throws the golf ball to the ground in disgust[/i]]

[JB_Not_Holmes]

I was playing im my City Tournament about 10 years ago. I was in a higher flight with Higher Handicap players(avg score 90-100). I got to the Championship Match in my flight. Anyway the guy I'm playing was only 1 up after 8. We get to the 9th Teebox and he says to me I'll think I'll get a Birdie on this hole. Drives it down the middle, 2nd shot to 10 feet and sinks the putt. I just staired at him with the evil eye. Needless to say he won 3 and 2. All of the flight winners recieved the same thing for winning, a plaque and some money. Until a few years ago they started giving the lower level flight winners more money, so it cut down on it a little, but there are a few that you know that still sandbag. I didn't play in the tournament until 6 years later.

[dreamdrive]

Interesting thread. I don't play for money so I don't really care or notice when others cheat except in scrambles.

My high school had a yearly fund raiser scramble. I played in 4 years in a row and the same team won every year by a significant margin - mid 50's. I was impressed the first two year and the third year they were playing 2 groups behind us. While it was a slow event, you could routinely see where their ball was sitting. I saw them 4x and not once did they reach the green in regulation and were playing from deep rough or traps. I thought it suspect but said nothing.

The final year they were playing ahead of us and I had everyone in the group counting their strokes just to get a rough estimate. Of the 18 holes we estimated they made the green in regulation about 5x. Yet somehow they won yet again. Grrrrrr.

I played in a work tournament and a guy was telling about a group that went all over playing in scrambles and winning. It was at the end of their first season of making serious cash that a marshal followed them around and counted strokes and determined they outright lied about their score. Never understood how someone could sell their integrity for $300.

[prestiege]

i just started to really take up golf this year even though i had got a set of clubs in 05. im scoring myself the correct way as whats the point in cheating, your only harming yourself in the long run if your serious about playing. i totally stink right now, im shooting mid 70's on 9 hole courses lol.

3 buddies and myself were out on a course and there was a hole with a dog left, along the right side of the tee box was a wall of corn stalks. from the tee box there looked like some grass at the end of the corn stalks. my buddy tees off and goes dead straight over the stalks. my 2 other buddies stay left of them and i followed over them. looking for my ball, i found the stalks never ended and went straight to the fence that was around the course.

i seen the first buddy who tee'd off looking for his ball where one of the other 2 guys landed, eventually he said he found his ball in some high grass. i knew this was impossible as i pretty much followed his drive. regardless, since has was playing out of some high grass, (nice to use high grass to conceal a lost ball) his next shot went into a creek. im thinking his next stroke should be his 5th now. 5th shot came short of the green, 6th for a chip on the green and a 2 put to sink in what i counted as 8. he marks his score as 6 on a par 5 as if the penalty shots didnt count. i finished the hole with 10 myself as i ended up in the creek as well, but it was very disapointing seeing this as i plan to golf quite often with this old highschool buddy of mine, he's now 32 and myself 31and out of all my buddies, he is the only one who has a steady job to have the cash to golf. it doesnt bother me much but i dont understand, he's just cheating himself.

[ckern1]

In a very important golf tournament today a kid in my group turned in a 79 when he shot an 85. That is the worst cheating by far that I have witnessed in person.

[Golfinnova]

A member in our regular foursome is quite known for the foot wedge and improving the lie so the rest of us generally laugh it off; however, what happened Sunday just had us shaking our heads:

We're on the 11th, this hole goes straight with no hills. Our "cheater" tops his first drive so it only goes about 20 yards in the bushes, the rest of us hit good playable drives then with no word he tees up another ball and proceeds to top that one as well. We look for both balls and can't find either one so he "drops" one where the second one supposedly went and hits it. He then proceeds to take another four strokes to hole the ball.

Usually we play ESC so we agree to max out the score on a par 4 as a 7. Our carts have GPS with scorekeeping capabilities and I figure he'll give himself the 7; however, I notice that he gives himself a 5 and I'm thinking WT We get to the next tee and I make a hand gesture to my playing partners what he gave himself. They pull up to the box and ask him what he got and he said 5 with a straight face. Just sad IMO.

[Mentor58]

One Quick Story...

It's not a tourny, an outing, and for reasons that will soon become clear, no money was riding on the game. I went to the local muny one Friday afternoon (playing hooky from work) to get in a quick nine, and there was a 3 some getting ready to go off, they invited me to join them. It was one of the local preachers, of a particulary conservative bend, the preacher's son, and an Evangelist that was in town for a big tent revival that weekend. I know I'm in trouble because I'm a lapsed atheist at best, and have been know to occasionally mutter a curse or two in the direction of my golfball as it ignores my wishes and heads off to parts unknown.

All is good until we get to the 6th hole, a par 3 over water, maybe a 100 yard carry. Preacher puts 3 into the lake, drops on the other side, 2 onto the green, and 2 putts from there. As we're walking off the hole, I asked "What did you have there?", because I had lost count. He looked me dead in the eye and said "Put me down for a 6". (in his defense, he didn't say he HAD a six, just to put him down for one).

All I know is that anytime I'm keeping a scorecard it's ball down, strokes all count, take my penalty's like a man, and realize that when my scores get better it's because I'm shooting better.

I truly believe that you can tell a lot about a persons true inner quality from how he behaves during a round. I was golfing with a former boss (he was my boss at the time, but was fired for cooking the books) and a couple of sales people. (I work over in the technology side of the business). All I can say is that I saw a lot of "Creative Accounting" going on, and am convinced that the graphite that most improved their games was the one in the pencil.


Just my .02
Steve

[Ty_Webb]

[quote name='flyfishin4trout' post='1848321' date='Jul 28 2009, 12:20 PM']So 1 stroke penalty for the lost ball and I dropped hitting my third into the green. She couldn't believe it.[/quote]

No, me neither. That's not right. Lost ball is stroke and distance, so you should be playing your third from the tee.

[mihi4]

[quote name='Ty_Webb' post='1849792' date='Jul 29 2009, 05:32 AM'][quote name='flyfishin4trout' post='1848321' date='Jul 28 2009, 12:20 PM']So 1 stroke penalty for the lost ball and I dropped hitting my third into the green. She couldn't believe it.[/quote]

No, me neither. That's not right. Lost ball is stroke and distance, so you should be playing your third from the tee.
[/quote]
Full ACK on that one...

I heard a nice story yesterday from a guy I played a round with. He's a marshall at a local club, and plays quite a lot at other clubs, too.
He's paired up with a nice old lady, a "real lady", according to him, one you would see around kings and queens .
They start to play (no tournament, just a casual round), and he's counting her scores, too, just for himself. When he counted a 7, she said "4", his 6 was her "3" and so on. He didn't bother too much, but on the next par3, she made 4 strokes and called out a "1".
This was the time, he decided, to ask her about her score. Confronted with the question, she just looked at him, and without a twitch told him in her nasal voice:
"I - my friend - only count the good strokes"

greetings
michi

[freelanceterry]

Fellow wrx member Rodger was golfing in a 5 person scramble not too long ago. Pretty decent prizes, etc. for around here.

Combined caps were to be a minimum of 60 to enter.

Some people were suspecting the winning team of cheating so he went online and checked the caps of the winning team.

4 of the 5 people's caps added up to 16 and he said the 5th regularly shoots in the 70's.

That's pretty blatant.

[WilCox]

I played in a 4-man monthly scramble today with about 30 other teams. My team rarely wins anything because we don't cheat. Last month's winning score was 19 under. Today I noticed marshalls parked in strategic places while others were just roaming the course. I'd never seen so many marshalls out. So I had to ask what was up.

"We're watching the cheaters. We're counting their strokes. There won't be any 19 unders today." Then he smiled. Imagine that.

[roll - gybe]

Here is one from another sport - sailing, where we also self-police and hold ourselves to high standards.
In a national championship event a boat comes underneath me and tags me. A pretty clear (and crunching) foul. Requires a penalty turn or a DQ.
It was a really lumpy day and my boat stalled out for a few seconds after we had been pounded by this guy. Our rig taps his due to the force of impact and lack of wind (everything was swaying around), and he says.

"That's a foul on me! Let's just call it even"

Now there is no offsetting penalty rule like in football. And his foul created the whole mess. There is no such thing as "let's call it even." It's like a gimme in golf. The whole rest of the field suffers.

Here is the punchline.

The guy is a senior rules official and the head coach of a multiple time national championship collegiate team.

I knew I wouldn't win in a protest, because this guy was so powerful and so "clean." I would also make big time enemies that would hurt me downstream.

So, I didn't protest him in the race, but I did tell him he was a "cheating asshle and a total disgrace"

At least that was somewhat empowering. It blew my mind that a senior judge would cheat.

[Jean-Claude]

Of the guys I know on a personal level that I golf with, occasional or not, one instance stands out above all the rest.

Two of my buddies were playing together about a month ago. One of them told me the story....
D and G, that's what we will call them. D tells me how they were playing a par 3. G tees up his ball and hits an errant shot that was unplayable. He tees up again and holes it out. Since then, G has been telling everyone how he has his seconds hole in one.

I know in his head he's not being malicious about it and ultimately it's not a huge deal. But it is dishonest.

[jrsass]

Weekly members outing, throw balls up, those guys are on your team. Average winnings by "winners" are less than $50 and they get stuck with the bar tab.

So a casual friend of mine tells his boss (father in-law) and wife he is making a sales call in another state about 200 miles away. At about hole 12 she calls his cell and he tells her he will be running late as he hasn't left yet. Needless to say she smells something fishy. She calls proshop and asked when he teed off so she could have dinner ready at the right time.

Pro says "1230 just like always".

She calls friend back, now were on 15, he is sticking to his being out of state story, and is VERY adamant about being late for dinner because of his impending drive home. She says fine and hangs up.

Calls back 15 minutes later as we are driving to the 17th tee. Tells him she knows he's playing golf and she's changing the locks.

He sucks on 17 and 18, heads for the parking lot takes off.

She wasn't kidding. He gets home, he's locked out. Goes to work on monday. Her dad cans him on the spot.

Divorce took less than a month to finalize. she gets everything.

He loses wife, house, and job paying 100K/yr.

Whenever a group gets killed in our weekly game we always revert back to the fact that no one ever lost more in our game than he did.

[Carolina Golfer 2]

[quote name='jrsass' post='1872404' date='Aug 8 2009, 12:09 AM']Weekly members outing, throw balls up, those guys are on your team. Average winnings by "winners" are less than $50 and they get stuck with the bar tab.

So a casual friend of mine tells his boss (father in-law) and wife he is making a sales call in another state about 200 miles away. At about hole 12 she calls his cell and he tells her he will be running late as he hasn't left yet. Needless to say she smells something fishy. She calls proshop and asked when he teed off so she could have dinner ready at the right time.

Pro says "1230 just like always".

She calls friend back, now were on 15, he is sticking to his being out of state story, and is VERY adamant about being late for dinner because of his impending drive home. She says fine and hangs up.

Calls back 15 minutes later as we are driving to the 17th tee. Tells him she knows he's playing golf and she's changing the locks.

He sucks on 17 and 18, heads for the parking lot takes off.

She wasn't kidding. He gets home, he's locked out. Goes to work on monday. Her dad cans him on the spot.

Divorce took less than a month to finalize. she gets everything.

He loses wife, house, and job paying 100K/yr.

Whenever a group gets killed in our weekly game we always revert back to the fact that no one ever lost more in our game than he did.[/quote]
^^^^ Heck of a story. I'm glad I thought twice today about calling off work

[Boomermike]

[quote name='Carolina Golfer 2' post='1841104' date='Jul 24 2009, 12:37 PM'][quote name='StraightShooter' post='1840776' date='Jul 24 2009, 11:22 AM']I've only been playing a month and am very, very strict on myself to play by the rules. I just broke 100 recently (97) and it was rewarding because I know it was legit (I shot a 115 and 105 following that, so I'm streaky haha).

Anyways, seems like everyone I play with (even my brothers) adjust their lie on every shot, mis-mark their ball on the green, and don't count their scores correctly.

Is this just the nature of the game?[/quote]
StraightShooter, I've read some of your other posts here since you joined recently, It's apparent that you have been bitten by the golf bug and that's great. I also know from reading some of the posts you already have an admirable healthy respect for the game and those around it, that's great to see in a newcomer.

Congrats on breaking 100 so soon as well. As for the example of the guys you've been playing with, I'm sorry to say it will most likely get more aggravating, as you play by the rules and shoot solid honest scores and you watch them roll, nudge, kick, scott and everyting else all over the place. Then of course they will brag saying the beat you or almost beat you. It's enevitable, so just either let it roll off your back or you'll find new playing partners.

I'm in the Maryland Burbs and we have a group of guys who range from 5 to 21 in HC"s and all play by the rules and enjoy the competetion. Your already playing at most of our levels, if you ever want to join us , we'd be happy to have you. Shoot me a PM if interested.
[/quote]

I can totally relate. I started playing two years ago, and the first group of friends I played with believed in all the classic "rule-bending" (cheating) ploys. One mulligan per nine, foot-wedge with no penalty, "winter rules", counting putts that start to drop & rim out, playing second shots from o.b., and the list goes on. They always rationalized it by saying "hey...we're just out here to have fun...nobody's trying to win the Masters." I went along with it, because those were the only guys I knew who played at the time. But the first time I broke 100 - with a 99 - I took no satisfaction from it whatsoever, because I knew it was a "two mulligan, winter rules" bogus 99, not a USGA by-the-book 99.

Anyway...long story short...I found a new group of guys who have just as much fun & drink just as much beer on the course (a priority for me), but play STRICTLY by the rules. NO mulligans, NO foot-wedges, NO "winter rules". So when I shot a personal best 93 with them a few weeks back, I knew it was a legitimate score that I'd earned by the rules. Much more gratifying than looking down at a dishonest number on the card.

[Ty_Webb]

[quote name='Carolina Golfer 2' post='1876469' date='Aug 10 2009, 08:52 AM'][quote name='jrsass' post='1872404' date='Aug 8 2009, 12:09 AM']Weekly members outing, throw balls up, those guys are on your team. Average winnings by "winners" are less than $50 and they get stuck with the bar tab.

So a casual friend of mine tells his boss (father in-law) and wife he is making a sales call in another state about 200 miles away. At about hole 12 she calls his cell and he tells her he will be running late as he hasn't left yet. Needless to say she smells something fishy. She calls proshop and asked when he teed off so she could have dinner ready at the right time.

Pro says "1230 just like always".

She calls friend back, now were on 15, he is sticking to his being out of state story, and is VERY adamant about being late for dinner because of his impending drive home. She says fine and hangs up.

Calls back 15 minutes later as we are driving to the 17th tee. Tells him she knows he's playing golf and she's changing the locks.

He sucks on 17 and 18, heads for the parking lot takes off.

She wasn't kidding. He gets home, he's locked out. Goes to work on monday. Her dad cans him on the spot.

Divorce took less than a month to finalize. she gets everything.

He loses wife, house, and job paying 100K/yr.

Whenever a group gets killed in our weekly game we always revert back to the fact that no one ever lost more in our game than he did.[/quote]
^^^^ Heck of a story. I'm glad I thought twice today about calling off work
[/quote]

That is really, really harsh. The boss having a word if he catches you in a lie is one thing, and likewise his wife, but to up and divorce him just over that? I have to think it was the straw that broke the camel's back.

[quote name='Boomermike' post='1882422' date='Aug 12 2009, 09:29 AM']So when I shot a personal best 93 with them a few weeks back, I knew it was a legitimate score that I'd earned by the rules. Much more gratifying than looking down at a dishonest number on the card.[/quote]

Congratulations Boomermike. Shooting PBs is a LOT of fun. I haven't shot mine for a very long time.

[Ronzo]

I think it was his lying about his whereabouts to her and his insistence that he would be home late due to the "VERY adamant about being late for dinner because of his impending drive home" side of things.

It may well have been the straw that broke the camel's back, but I don't know the man at all.