Worst Cheating Incident you've ever witnessed

[mshills]

Caddying in a club championship when I was either in high school or early undergrad, I had my player offer me $250 to hustle up to his opponents ball and give him a nasty lie.

This fellow was about a 25 handicap and IIRC, this was in the 5th flight!

I looked at him with a blank stare as if I did not speak English, continued up to his ball, and gave him his yardage. Lost the match, and I caddied for him for several years thereafter -- this incident never came up again.

[theslflash689]

I've seen 2. One was just playing with a random guy, the second was in actual high school competition.

The first was this guy who teed up from the rough and hit driver on a long par 5 when his first shot went in the bushes, That was just plain funny,

The second was playing against this team in high school, where instead of re-teeing a lost ball or taking a penalty, they had holes in their pockets and would drop balls through their pants and say they found their ball. They never got caught.. and I'm pretty sure their coach was encouraging this.

[Stretch]

[quote name='FLOGMR' timestamp='1340735825' post='5171584']

The next day the guys slated to play with him refused to play with him so the committee let him play alone with no marker....this time he posted an even par 72... (10 h'cap) and won his flight.
Just the most blatant cheating I have ever witnessed.

Who says crime doesn't pay???
[/quote]

I'm genuinely surprised he didn't "trip and fall" in the parking lot afterwards.

[Roddy1]

When I as young one of my fathers friend would mark with a silver dollar. In front of the ball when placing the mark and then the ball in front of the mark when he placed the ball. He's in his 80's now and I'm sure he's still doing it. No telling the miles of putts he's reduced as he played most every day.

I was playing in a 2 man and the first day the pair we were grouped with were missing on purpose after they figured they weren't going to win the championship flight. The second day I was watching them closely and I watched one of the guy pick up their ball in a hazard during alternating shot. Right before his partner yelled at him to not tougch the ball. Too late!

When we went to the next tee, I teed off first. One of the guys said "hey, we had the tee". I said not with the penalty for picking your ball up in the hazard. They were pissed that I wouldn't sign their card withoout the penalty stroke. F*&^% them! They want extra stroke the first day, they sure as hell were getting all they diserved the second day. Turned out one was the club presidents son. I haven't played there anymore.

[Cwing]

Playing with a friend and his buddy. The buddy of the friend hits a drive in the right rough. I hit my drive in the right rough. He finds his ball and I do not find mine. I put green dots and a green sharpie line on all my balls.

Three holes later on a par 3 we both go short of the green. Two balls identical green marks, lines and brand of ball. I have no clue which one I just hit but I know both balls are mine.

He still claimed it was his ball.

Same guy also does the mark in front of the ball trick.

[Golf Gods]

I've played with friends that everytime they go out of bounds they say'I found it!" even though I know they were 100 yards in the muck. I just think that in the end there not going come out clean in the end. Shows what kind of person you are I guess. I could care less unless it's for money or when it counts in an event. Your only lying to yourself but I'm sure everyone knows what the real truth is.

[Prof3ssor]

[quote name='MarkFromTheUK' timestamp='1340727106' post='5170456']
The worst case of cheating I ever witnessed was at Stoke Poges Golf Club in 1964. A rather portly businessman had hit his ball in to the left rough, and his Korean, bowler hat wearing caddy rolled a ball down his trouser leg. The other player, a Scotsman knew he had cheated because he was standing on the original ball.

In the end the Scotsman won through. However, the Korean caddy was furious, and went on a statue decapitating and ball crushing rampage.
[/quote]

Well played mate.

[jahopki]

[quote name='WildDog06' timestamp='1340728089' post='5170582']
[quote name='MarkFromTheUK' timestamp='1340727106' post='5170456']
The worst case of cheating I ever witnessed was at Stoke Poges Golf Club in 1964. A rather portly businessman had hit his ball in to the left rough, and his Korean, bowler hat wearing caddy rolled a ball down his trouser leg. The other player, a Scotsman knew he had cheated because he was standing on the original ball.

In the end the Scotsman won through. However, the Korean caddy was furious, and went on a statue decapitating and ball crushing rampage.
[/quote]

Caddying seems like an [color=#ffa500]odd job[/color] for someone of that temperament.
[/quote]

Ooooo! I see what you did! Brav-O! Very well done, sir!

[isaacbm]

Sadly, I could fill a whole thread but 2 stand out the most

1. Notorius cheater hits a white titleist balata with his name " doodles" on the ball into a thick forest with under brush.. Comes out with a orange kroflight. I realize I just dated myself but this one really stood out. I was a teenager in one of my first city events and I just looked at him sideways thinking " is this idiot kidding here or what?" He wasn't kidding. I told the committee and at first they didn't believe me. Why would they, it was so stupid they thought I was kidding. When they confronted him, he said, " I didn't want to play tomorrow anyway and quietly left. The next event he was back like nothing ever happened. Weird.

2 One of our buddies always "finds" his ball in a nice lie on the edge of the trees right after he hit it deep into the under growth. So one time I found his ball and put it in my pocket to see what he would do. He "found" his ball 60 yards up in a perfect lie with no branches blocking his swing. I said " is that really your ball? I mean I thought it went in way back here somewhere..." " must have got a good bounce."

Another time I parked the cart on his ball in the rough and he found it 90 yards ahead of where I was parked. He marks his ball with one of those plastic half moons that leave red lines all over his pro v's so there no mistaking his ball. I can identify it from 25 yards away.

Trouble is if I actually call him on it, that will be the end of us being golf buddies. what do you do?

[pssywgn]

1. Playing in a junior golf camp in probably 1996 a kid on the 9th hole hit it probably 30 yards OB into the woods on the right. We all look till the limit. He 'finds' it. I then watched him toss it by hand into the fairway from an impossible scenario. Of course being a junior golf camp, they refused to do anything about the kid. Little brat grew up to be a cheater too. With his dad, in every tournament they were together in, they won their flight. Imagine that?

2. I refuse to play in any 4-man superball tournaments ever again. None. When you get to play with your own group, with no outsiders to record score, you're gonna get some "59" and "58" scores for 18 holes from guys that between them couldn't do better than 110 for 18 holes. That's just not fun competition when you know a third of the field is cheating as hard as they can.

[nbg352]

[quote name='WildDog06' timestamp='1340728089' post='5170582']
[quote name='MarkFromTheUK' timestamp='1340727106' post='5170456']
The worst case of cheating I ever witnessed was at Stoke Poges Golf Club in 1964. A rather portly businessman had hit his ball in to the left rough, and his Korean, bowler hat wearing caddy rolled a ball down his trouser leg. The other player, a Scotsman knew he had cheated because he was standing on the original ball.

In the end the Scotsman won through. However, the Korean caddy was furious, and went on a statue decapitating and ball crushing rampage.
[/quote]

Caddying seems like an odd job for someone of that temperament.
[/quote]
Didn't that caddy really lose his head not too long after the incident you speak of?

[Colum]

[quote name='CARDY' timestamp='1340723647' post='5170098']
Good friend had this happen at his old club ... had a member DQ'd also. He was caught "hand grenading" a ball out of a steep greenside bunker on the 18th. His partners couldn't see him do it but the green sits right under the clubhouse and at least 12 guys on the patio saw it happen. He claimed duress etc and stress at work (he was a lawyer)

Any other beauties out there?
[/quote]

That must have been amusing to watch, and a lawyer too....couldn't have happened to a nicer type!!!

I recall an old guy who had won a big club event with a score nobody believed as he was a hacker, with an old staunch member of the club marking his card, neither of them well liked but he got the prize anyway. A few weeks after I was playing with him and the third guy marking the cards asked him what he got on a hole and he said Par, so the guy writes down Par without thinking, next hole same thing and the guy says to him how could you have got Par, it took you 3 to get on and 2 putts, thats bogey, so the reply was "haven't I a shot there, it was a Nett Par!!!" So going back through the scores and previous holes he realised he was after giving him 1 shot better each time he asked, the old guy was thrown out of the club in disgrace!!!

In our region there was one well-known hotelier who played off a 10 index even though he was considered to be significantly better than that. He would win truckloads of team events where his handicap couldn't be cut, the hoteliers had an organisation with very good sponsors such as the breweries that gave them great prizes and this guy was winning year after year which didn't go down well and the question was always asked why he was playing off 10 but his scorecards returned had him at 10. One time another hotelier became HCP secretary at our club and was watching this guy and he had a particularly high score recorded on a day giving him 0.1 back to push his index higher yet again, so the secretary decided to quietly ask his regular playing partner and close friend whose name had signed the card did he think the hotelier had a genuine score on the day or was he dropping shots to keep his index up at 10. The guys whose name on the card, Frank was quite surprised to be asked the question cos he said he was golfing on a different course with different golfers on the day!!!! They checked back through previous 0.1s the hotelier had and most of them were bogus with his buddies name being put on the card for a particular date, he got away with it for so long because the winning scores are the only ones to usually get a close scrutiny. Presumably he was at it for years, he tried to laugh it off, but he was thrown out of the both the club and the hoteliers society in disgrace, the guys who used play with him cut contact with him and soon after his hotel closed as many locals who were golfers stopped giving custom!!! Quite a serious consequence for the years of cheating.

[Colum]

[quote name='pssywgn' timestamp='1340743965' post='5172644']
1. Playing in a junior golf camp in probably 1996 a kid on the 9th hole hit it probably 30 yards OB into the woods on the right. We all look till the limit. He 'finds' it. I then watched him toss it by hand into the fairway from an impossible scenario. Of course being a junior golf camp, they refused to do anything about the kid. Little brat grew up to be a cheater too. With his dad, in every tournament they were together in, they won their flight. Imagine that?

2. I refuse to play in any 4-man superball tournaments ever again. None. When you get to play with your own group, with no outsiders to record score, you're gonna get some "59" and "58" scores for 18 holes from guys that between them couldn't do better than 110 for 18 holes. That's just not fun competition when you know a third of the field is cheating as hard as they can.
[/quote]

I never knew the cheating had become so widespread in my region either until the last few years. I only retook the game recently and reported cheating at least was relatively rare with everyone trusting everyone else, but its quite bad now apparently. One 4 index player told me his work colleagues who are hackers and knew to the game invited him to play in a team event so he agreed as he gets business off them. On the first hole he said one of the group, the guy paying for it, hit his ball into the rough and from the fairway he couldn't see the ball, then just before he hits the shot he sees the white ball sitting up nicely in the rough, so 4index asks him what is going on, he says "I don't play golf like that, anymore of this and I am walking off". He says the guy protested innocence first, then apologised, on the the second hole he said the exact same thing happened and continued right up until the end. He is a fine player himself and with the other 3 cheating they had a very good score, the 4 index told me during the round he used his subtetly to manouvre the marking off the card from the guy who had it from the start. When they walked off the 18th he says to the others, thanks very much and was heading for his car to drive home even though there was a meal included, and one of them says "hold on, we must add up the scores and sign the card first, we have a good score here" and 4 index replies to them, the card is in the bin and don't ever ask me to play with you again!!!

[Carolina Golfer 2]

I personally witnessed a guy on TV, once hit a ball over the roof of the clubhouse into the parking lot, and then take a drop behind the 18th green with no penalty stroke.

[Medic]

Match play. Cart versus cart and coming down to the wire. Opponent hits a worm burning hook towards a wooded area off of the tee. His pard is in play but it is cart total so both scores are "for the money".

The clock starts and we are all looking all over the place for his ball. It is nowhere to be found. We looked in the woods, around the area in the fairway and rough, and even past it.

Low and behold right as time is about to expire his ball magically appears on the edge of the cart path. "Must have walked past it."

He hits a nice "second" shot, makes a bird, takes the hole, and wins the match for he and his pard.

Later his pard admits "he dropped it there - I saw him".

Needless to say we never gambled with these two again and the pard won't even play with the cheater. (ironic isn't it - he was as guilty in my book because he saw it and didn't let anyone know)

It was a small wager too - $5 per man. Not that the amount matters. Cheating is cheating in my book. I look at it this way. I paid $5 to learn the true integrity of a so-called friend.

[clyden]

I played a scramble not too long ago and whilst I can not prove any wrong doing, I'm certain something was fishy. The teams were broke up in two days and my team played the second day. When we signed in, the best score from the previous day was 68. I was in shock. After seeing everyone warm up, we figured that 63 might be good enough to win. We shot exactly that, and it wasn't really a surprise that the team behind us turned in 62. The course conditions were absolutely crushing. Pins were in brutal spots, it was unbearably hot, just an all around miserable day. We knew that we had left a few on the course and the 62 was not a shock. The shock was the team that came in next peacocking their 54.

I have played a lot of this format and I thought that I had seen it all. I don't like to accuse because I have seen teams get unfair reputations. I've played behind and witnessed a team shoot 23 under on a short easy track, only to have people call B.S. on them. But for the conditions and seeing them on the range, there was no way. When I made a comment that the score was unreal, I was told that the woman on the team was a really good putter. Really? A good putter. I just left.

I'm not the most by the book golfer. A vast majority of my rounds with my buddies include improving lies and giving putts. Of course, these rounds are more about having fun and knocking back a couple beverages and not for handicap purposes. I think though that in these scramble formats, cheating has become so rampant that people lose thier minds a little bit. They can't stand to lose and it no longer becomes fun for them. I think some people figure out a score ahead of time, fill in the scorecard and then play.

I was invited onto a team where I witnessed someone pencil whip the card. I didn't "call the guy out", but when the round was over I didn't stick around and I've politely declined further invites from that group. I make it clear now when I get invites from people that I'm doing it for fun or to support the charity and that I have no expectation of winning. It's a lot less stressful that way.

[StarFleetGolfer]

I've done that. Problem is the other guy then says " oh I forgot it was a Taylormade".


[quote name='CARDY' timestamp='1340730181' post='5170792']
In matches against guys you don't know ... whilst looking for a ball in the elephant grass or shrubbery or wood or barancas etc

I've seen this work quite well before with shady characters

YOU "Here's a ball. You were playing a Titleist 4 right?"
OTHER GUY: "Yup, that's it"
YOU "Oh sorry it's a Taylor Made"
[/quote]

[StarFleetGolfer]

Or the tour pros pretending they are going to play a fw out of the rough until they've padded the grass down . Then switch to an iron.

[Onewaggle]

The eraser incident will go down in history!

Informal fraternity scramble, lots of beer, most everyone is liked. I was running it and taking scorecards. Most teams were coming in a couple shots within each other, with a 63 leading the pack. Last team off the course brings in all the hole prize markers and their names were on 4 of 6, so everyone congrats them on that. Then the scorecard appears and it reads 59. No big deal except it obviously looks like they erased scores, there were bits of eraser on the thing and it was generally beat to hell. The obvious part is in their drunken state, they had gotten careless with the eraser and taken out part of the team name, changing a 4 to a 2 on the first hole.

Big fist fight breaks out when others see the card.

That team has never been back.

[rama5]

I was cadding for my uncle in champ flight city champ, his father was also walking too. 9TH hole hit slice into the thick rough everyone looking when I spy the dad pull ball out of his pocket and quickly yell "found it." sure enough it was the correct make, # & had the same ball mark. sad to say I fail to report the "incident." granted I was barely in high school and could match up. Years later my uncle cheated on my aunt, married another state legislator, who she later became state supreme court judge, he a lobbiest.

[FLOGMR]

On the other side of the coin....I played in a good sized local event some years ago and a guy in my group hooks it left of a par 3...it ends up in knee deep fescue and up against a tree......he points it out to me (I was his marker, and it was his ball) He then jams his back up against the tree and take s few exploratory swipes through the grass.......then he calls me over and says he is taking an unplayable....chips it on and 2 putts it...I figure he made a 5...he tells me it was a 7.....[i][b] "The last 2 swipes through the grass were attempts to hit the ball and I missed both times"[/b][/i] The grass was so deep you could not have known that if you were standing 3 feet away.
Kinda the opposite of cheating....obviously he did not need to be watched!! We have formed a long time friendship since then.

[MrTitleist2U]

Great thread. Absolute worst ever, high school match 25 years ago, playing along the coaches son. I sh!t you not, started the hole with an orange ball, and came out of the trees with a white ball. he had switched back and forth on holes, but didnt think when he did the ole drop the ball inside you belt line and let it run down your leg which ball he was using. WTF!!!

[kygolfer]

The one "cheating" incident I still remember well was playing in a skins game and we had three foursomes. Two players fade drives into the rough along the tree line. As we were looking for their balls one of the guys thinking it was his ball behind a tree kicked it out not knowing the other player had already noted the ball, identified it to another player as his and they had moved forward a few yards looking for the cheaters ball which they found apparently within seconds of the "kick." When the player went back to chip his ball out from behind the tree he saw it out in the clear. I stayed out of the verbal frey that followed, but our group was a threesome at that point. At the time I was only invited to join the game when a player could not make it as I was a fairly new member at the club. For the next 7 years I was a regular member and developed some great friendships as a spot "opened up" and of course I always remembered the situation.

[MaybeImLeftHanded]

I was playing a guy I know for money and after 9 holes he had 5 skins to my 2 (10 was a carry over hole for 3 skins). The 10th hole of this course runs paralel to the driving range. I hit mine down the left side but in play and he hooks his pretty bad, to where we weren't sure if it was in play or not. He's looking for his ball about 20 yards short of where I think his is but fine, I go back to help him find it. He yells out that he's got it and proceeds to hit it. I walk up to where my ball should be and I see a ball in the rough and then another one up further which was mine. Sure enough the first one is his.

He had picked up some weird brand I'd never heard of and made a big deal before the round how great they were. I asked him again "you sure that was your ball?" and he says "yes". I say "bullxxxx, it's right here you f*****g cheater."

He immediatly cops to it, "sorry, you caught me. my bad." My bad? I went on to call him a bunch of names which I can't post here. We finished the round and he was pretty rattled. He never won another skin. Not sure if it was because he was scared or if he was just done in mentally from what he'd done.

[bmorejared]

[quote name='MarkFromTheUK' timestamp='1340727106' post='5170456']
The worst case of cheating I ever witnessed was at Stoke Poges Golf Club in 1964. A rather portly businessman had hit his ball in to the left rough, and his Korean, bowler hat wearing caddy rolled a ball down his trouser leg. The other player, a Scotsman knew he had cheated because he was standing on the original ball.

In the end the Scotsman won through. However, the Korean caddy was furious, and went on a statue decapitating and ball crushing rampage.
[/quote]

Was the portly man playing a Slazinger 1? I may have witnessed the same incident.

[Supra GTR]

One of my playing partners always brings his friend who no one likes and we all tell him. He is that one guy who can take a 5ft gimme, but if yours is short and inch and you pick it up tells you hes adding another stroke. Goes and looked for his ball in the 10 feet tall rough/ hazard that he shanked into it, and gods hand couldnt even help you find it, and yet finds it just outside of the hazard. Insists on telling you all about each hole and what he thinks you should do, and what club even tho you played the course twenty times and this is his second time playing it. He is always a score nazi, you could get a hole in one, yet he still would say are "are you sure you got a hole in one???" being serious. He is always the shaving, and i am not talking about hair either; his score. He is also ALWAYS talking while you are hitting. Once one of the guys who we play with is about to his his three wood on a par 5, and this guy comes yelling down the fairway "MATT MATT, IS THAT A 3 Wood?? MAN I LOVE THREE WOODS. WHAT KIND IS IT I THINK I HAVE A 5 AT MY HOUSE OF THAT CLUB".

So we are on the 9th hole at a local course, a longer par 3 (yes he was trying to tell me what to hit and all). He hits his first show short, then his second in the bunker on the right side of the green. Hes in the sand, takes a few practice swings taking sand and all. Then hits 4 shots without getting out. he is at the lip of the bunker, picks up it ball then fluffs up the sand and sets hit ball on top. He hits out, then one putts. When someone asked for score he replies " I got a par". IM SITTING HERE GOING WTF ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think i have played with him once or twice since not knowing he was going to play until I was halfway to the course.

Just my rant on this guy.

[nova6868]

I play with a couple guys who use the "I could have made that one" putt-scoring technique.

Meaning... if you miss a 4 or maybe 5 foot putt... that miss doesn't really count. "I could have made that one." Let's just pretend I did and count the score that way.

Haha... cracks me up. Especially when they do it 5 or 6 times during the round and then brag about their score later. Coincidentally, these are also the same guys who rarely count a penalty stroke. Whatever though, it's just a friendly game. No big deal.

[anth]

I could tell some stories here about one of the guys I play with every week, but as long as I don't bring him to task it's just useless whinging on my behalf.

The thing is once you see something untoward and let it pass, you are setting a precedent for yourself. It's got the point where I've seen so many BLATANT acts of cheating....

And do you know what the irony is? He half-jokingly said that he wasn't going to sign my card a couple of weeks ago because we had both seen my tee shot land on a 12 yard strip of land between 2 water hazards. I said that if I didn't find it I would just drop at the point of entry. He said that I had to be certain that it went in the water hazard to drop up at the water hazard. I replied that given the strip of land was 12 yards wide, if I didn't find my ball I was virtually certain that it was in the water (the point was moot anyway because I found my ball on dry land in between the hazards).

This from a guy who 2 weeks prior I saw chunk a wedge up a hill, walk past his ball, pick it up, and continue to walk up to the green where he leaned over and dropped it just off the green. He must have thought I was too busy in my pre-shot routine to notice or something. I've seem him do other seriously dubious things of a similar nature.

I really should say something to someone at the club but I just don't know how to approach it now...

[MadGolfer76]

I had a friend on my high school golf team. The ABSOLUTE WORST PLAYER EVER! You have no idea.

I played a late evening round with him that was pushing dark, and we had a regional tournament the next day. After nine holes of him walking around in the trees (worst slice ever - you couldn't start it far enough left), I asked him what he was doing. "Oh, nothing...looking for balls" was the response. By the 12th hole I wander over to see what he was doing in the trees. Bear in mind, we are in Maine, so there are trees on almost every hole.

I see him laying twigs over his ball, leaving himself space to pitch out. I said, "WTF do you think you are doing?" He said, "I am leaving a ball in the places where I usually land for tomorrow." I just let him do it, because there was no way he would have ever placed in the tournament the next day. I was fifteen and stupid (or compassionate, take your pick). In a way it was genius, because no one would end up missing where he did. No one was that awful.

He went out the next day, finished dead last and didn't come within 17 strokes of the next highest score. I won't tell you what he shot because you would never believe it.

[Desert Golf]

You guys won't believe this one. It was 1999 in Phoenix and I witnessed a dozen guys out of the gallery move a HUGE boulder out of the way for a pro and they called it a "loose impediment". LOL