Cheating. Is this a harsh decision?

[tony Q]

The story goes something like this, and is set in Sweden.

 

Its a club championship comp. at a golf club and its the final round. I will call the the players like this. Player A, B, and C.

 

Coming down the 16th hole, player A has hit a wayward drive into the trees. B, and C are on the other side of the fairway. Player A has no shot out towards the green. He suddenly thinks that if he moves the ball a couple of feet, he will have a gap big enough to go through. B and C see himm bend down to move his ball. Player A is just about to move his ball when he suddenly realizes what hes doing and decides not to cheat. Instead he plays out sideways and gets a bogie. He's not leading the comp. but is playing well. His playing partners see all this happening and wonder whether he was contemplating cheating.

 

At the end of the round, B and C tell the competition organizers what happend. They asked A if it was true that he was "thinking" about cheating and he told them that he was thinking about it.

 

They ended up suspending him from competitions for 3 months for "thinking" about cheating.

 

Is that a bit hard on him or more than fair?

[markus1*]

This decision is hard because he didn't cheat but thinking about this is also bad. I would have had a hard time to decide this. But I think the decision is fair.

[jportz]

Where is that in the rule book? Seems harsh to me....I guess his honesty wasn't worth anything. He should've denied it and said he was just removing some loose impediments or something.

 

Just because the thought crosses your mind doesn't make you a criminal.

 

I once found my ball resting against a softball sized rock...I knew if I moved the rock that my ball would move so my only option was to take an unplayable. I really wanted to just move that rock.....and I knew that none of my competitors were close enough to see the ball move. My conscious got me and I took the unplayable but the thought did cross my mind.

 

Heck...if we are to be punished for our thoughts I'm sure we'd all be in prison :drinks:

[sergizmo]

Either he cheated or he didn't. He didn't. There should be no punishment given. It's black or white here.

[Golfchicago]

Either he cheated or he didn't. He didn't. There should be no punishment given. It's black or white here.

Agreed. If we were all judged by our thoughts, we would all be in a lot of trouble.

[tony Q]

I think 2 good things come out of this.

 

1 He will think of this for a long time, and never ever cheat.

2 It makes everyone think twice about cheating

[DemolitionMan]

It's a stretch, but maybe the ONLY good thing to come of this is the person who made the decision to suspend will have shown him/herself to be a power hungry **** and everyone else will rebel until he/she loses her job.

 

Other than that, what a joke. I'd move out of Sweden.

[Golfchicago]

What might come out of this is he might think about joining another club. I hate cheaters but he didn't cheat and he was treated unfairly imho. Believe me if someone cheats, I would vote to throw them out of the club. I've got zero tolerance for cheating.

[lhsgolfer2]

sounds about the same as penalizing someone for almost going into a hazard. he didn't cheat, no punishment necessary.

 

mike

[chesterrc]

Just because the thought crosses your mind doesn't make you a criminal.

 

I agree 100%

 

 

I think 2 good things come out of this.

 

1 He will think of this for a long time, and never ever cheat.

2 It makes everyone think twice about cheating

 

But he didn't cheat in the first place. Im sure every player has had a lie that made you think "if only I could move the ball a few feet". That doesn't make you a cheater. If you moved the ball, then it would be completly different. But to punish someone for their thoughts is outrageous!

[TigerStrong]

NO rules broken. Whats the suspension for. Makes no sense to me. This story can't be true. That rules committee should be suspended for bad suspension. That makes no sense but thats how I feel.

[EHSgolf11]

Exactly, find a rule in the book that he broke, then suspend him.

[poppyhillsguy]

Too Harsh!

[Jetlv25]

Find a new club to play at.................

[gjones77]

You can't charge a man for muder for thinking about killing a person.

 

If you can start punishing people for thoughts then this world really is going to hell.

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm some one who sees the world in black and white with shades of grey, there is no grey area here, he did nothing wrong, thought about it, yes, did it, no.

[drewspin]

Is this story even true?

 

Seems absurd.

[mizuno]

Every single person at one time or another has had a thought that could be deemed unethical, immoral or illegal. Who has not thought I could kill someone for what they did, I could take something that doesn't belong to me and no one would ever know, or I could claim credit for something I didn't contribute to. Fortunately, as a society the vast majority of us do not act on those thoughts and choose to do the correct thing.

 

It is your actions that define you and upon which you should be judged!

[Kacper]

I think to not cheat you must first think of cheating and then come to the conclusion that it isn't a good idea. You don't make a decision to not cheat without thinking about the benifits and wrongs of doing so, and that's exactly what Player A did.

[Damo75]

I hope I'm not threadjacking, but this kind of reminds me about a funny story I read about an event during a game of Rugby Leage in the NRL here in Australia a few years back.

 

After getting a bad decision aginst his team, the player said to the referee "Bill, what would you do if I called you a cheat?"

 

The referee replied "I'd send you off."

 

Player: "Well what if I just thought you were a cheat?"

 

Referee: "Well there's not much I can do about what you think."

 

Player: "That's good, cause I think you're a cheat!"

 

Even the referee said he had to laugh at that one...

 

BTW, Player A was hosed big time. Bad call by the club to suspend someone for that...

[Boba]

The story goes something like this, and is set in Sweden.

 

Its a club championship comp. at a golf club and its the final round. I will call the the players like this. Player A, B, and C.

 

Coming down the 16th hole, player A has hit a wayward drive into the trees. B, and C are on the other side of the fairway. Player A has no shot out towards the green. He suddenly thinks that if he moves the ball a couple of feet, he will have a gap big enough to go through. B and C see himm bend down to move his ball. Player A is just about to move his ball when he suddenly realizes what hes doing and decides not to cheat. Instead he plays out sideways and gets a bogie. He's not leading the comp. but is playing well. His playing partners see all this happening and wonder whether he was contemplating cheating.

 

At the end of the round, B and C tell the competition organizers what happend. They asked A if it was true that he was "thinking" about cheating and he told them that he was thinking about it.

 

They ended up suspending him from competitions for 3 months for "thinking" about cheating.

 

Is that a bit hard on him or more than fair?

 

 

Did he bend over & touch his ball? Did he bend over & look at his ball? Did he start to reach for his ball & with 3 inches to spare did he pull away his arm, shake his head & announce to B and C he thought about cheating but didn't cheat because as he reached down he saw his "W.W.J.D?" bracelet and Jesus wouldn't cheat? Jesus would just ask moses to part the tree. My point is how does one differentiate Identifying ones ball & bending over to give it a toss? Did he make a practice tossing motion with his arm?

He must have a great poker face if he gets caught thinking about cheating.

[peteman29]

That's ridiculous, the way you described it the guy actually did nothing wrong. It would have been different if he was going to move his ball but didn't becasue he realised the other 2 were watching.

[vthokie1157]

Where is that in the rule book? Seems harsh to me....I guess his honesty wasn't worth anything. He should've denied it and said he was just removing some loose impediments or something.

 

Just because the thought crosses your mind doesn't make you a criminal.

 

I once found my ball resting against a softball sized rock...I knew if I moved the rock that my ball would move so my only option was to take an unplayable. I really wanted to just move that rock.....and I knew that none of my competitors were close enough to see the ball move. My conscious got me and I took the unplayable but the thought did cross my mind.

 

Heck...if we are to be punished for our thoughts I'm sure we'd all be in prison

 

i like the end of this one ^^^

 

but anyway, if it was a quick, "hmm if i move it here then i will be able to..." and then the bend and realization then that isnt too bad, maybe some sort of light penalty like a few strokes or 1 tourney suspension might do but if it was clear the player A was trying to sneak one by the other two and had a plan that was to secretly move the ball and play it from there but he got caught and played it off, then the ruling would fit (even though id rather see like 2 1/2 months max probably)

[bleuachdu]

Player A should tell the club that he is no longer going to be paying his dues as he'd prefer to think about writing them checks every month.

 

Speaking of which, I've been thinking about playing golf all day; maybe after work I'll be entitled to some free greens fees somewhere?

[cleatsupkeep]

This sounds like Minority Report meets golf.

 

"We have a premeditated breaking of the rules over in Sweden, we have 5 minutes guys, let's go!"

[rustyputterguy]

That guy got hosed.

 

If I was punished for my thoughts, I'd be divorced, broke and my face would be permanently red from being slapped by half the ladies in my office.

[kurob]

I think the guy got off way too easy. The death penalty should be in play here.

[Placebo]

Hang the sumbitch!

 

LMAO! DM you outdid my avatar you bastage!!!