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True Sportsmanship at its best!


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Nice story and good on the game of golf. Hope this isnt a double post.

http://ca.sports.yahoo.com/golf/blog...rn=golf,238912

There are times to be competitive. Moments when all you want to do is humiliate your opponent as you defeat him. It's the nature of sports, and what our internal competition meters usually read.
That, we all know, is how athletes feel most of the time. But, at times, and these are few and far between, we see acts that defy wins and losses. A moment when a girl is brought in on crutches to score a layup to break a record or someone being carried around the field after she twisted her ankle rounding the bases. Opponents coming together to transcend the game.
That is what happened between two collegiate golfers, vying for a spot in the NAIA National Championship.
Grant Whybark (left), a sophomore at the University of St. Francis, had locked up a spot in nationals with his team, which won the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference Championship, but was in a playoff against Olivet Nazarene's Seth Doran (right) for individual honors.
As championships go, both the winning team and winning individual are asked to move on to nationals, so if Whybark won the playoff against Doran, he'd be honoring both spots and Doran wouldn't be asked to move on.
What happened next is the type of stuff movies are made about. Whybark stood over his tee shot on the first playoff hole, looked down the fairway and back at his ball, and hit it 40 yards right of the fairway, out of bounds by a mile. He made double bogey, Doran made par, and Olivet Nazarene had a man in nationals.
What makes it so incredible? Whybark intentionally did it, because he felt Doran had earned a spot in the next round.
"We all know Seth very well," Whybark explains, "and he not only is a very good player, but a great person as well. He’s a senior and had never been to nationals. Somehow, it just wasn’t in my heart to try to knock him out.
"I think some people were surprised, but my team knew what I was doing and were supportive of me. I felt Seth deserved to go (to nationals) just as much as I did.
"It was one of those things where I couldn’t feel good taking something from him like this. My goal from the start was to get (to nationals) with my team. I had already done that."
Too many times we read about cheap shots or fights or cheaters, and it is stories like this that make it all seem petty. A golfer simply knew his place, was comfortable with where he was, and thought that a senior, playing in his final tournament as a collegiate golfer, had done enough to earn one more week with the game he loved.
I'm not a big believer in karma, and I'm sure the story won't end the way it should, but if Whybark somehow won nationals, it would make for a really nice screenplay.
Whybark did what most of us would never do, and although he is short a trophy in his case, he earned respect from anyone reading this story.
Nice shot, kiddo.

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GREAT Story!
This game is full of people that are honest and have respect for not only the game, but their opponents as well
That right there is a class act
"My swing is homemade - but I have perfect flaws!" - Me
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I'm more inclined to agree with the

lead article today :
Call it sportsmanship all you want, but how awful must it feel to be Doran? He birdied that first playoff hole, but he can't feel fulfilled. What's the point of competing if someone's going to hand it to you in the end? By throwing the game, Whybark robbed Doran of the chance to say he won fair and square. And that's the opposite of sportsmanship in my mind.

I agree. I think it was not sportsmanship at all. It's like when your parents let you win a game because they think it'll boost your confidence. How great does that feel compared to the first time you beat them at something (even HORSE in the driveway) when they're actually TRYING?

I'd have wanted the guy to play out the hole properly if I was the opponent.

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I don't think it was the right thing to do.

It's a hollow victory for Doran.
Whybark basically stated he was better than Doran and that if he didn't hit the ball OB he would have won.

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I've got to agree. That may be a lot of things, but it's not sportsmanship. Sportsmanship is conceding a short putt because you've been beaten fairly and you don't want to wind up winning if the guy picks up the yips on a 2-footer. It's calling that penalty stroke---the one that nobody else could have seen---on yourself. It's not throwing the match.

It may be a nice gesture, but as someone said, but even then you don't go trumpeting later about how you threw the match on purpose.

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Very good points. Its a nice story and great to not take a spot away when he had already locked up his own spot. But yes he doesnt get to win it on his own. I think if the circumstances were different then this would not have happened.

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 SM4 52*,54*,60*   Pickemup 42" Belly Putter  titleist.gifPro V1x  adidas.gif 360 footwear

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I'm more inclined to agree with the

It hit me that way too - nice on the surface, but tinged with a patronizing head pat if you're on the receiving end.

Reminds me of the spam email that's circulated for a few years. A special needs boy walks onto a baseball field and the players let him think he's just hits a home run - his dad is so proud. Proud of what? My point of view is as an uncle of a great kid with cerebral palsy who has accomplished so much, on his own merit, that even though he'll probably never hit a home run, we're all very proud of him.

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There's no shame in losing gracefully. If I was the other guy, I would be embarrassed to think that the golfer who shanked the ball had to believe that I was not good enough on my own to make it. What if they have to face each other later? Is he beholden to throw a match then for the guy that threw in the towel? Competitive athletics is about trying your best, and if your best just isn't good enough, that's okay, because you are trying your best. For someone else to make that judgement for you is, like I said, embarrassing.
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I suppose I can see both sides. I would be much appreciative to be in nationals, but I would also have wanted to win it fair and square. Ultimately I would just swallow my pride and thank the guy, but still...

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Also, isn't it a bit of a peculiar format that a single player can fill two slots at the next stage? It seems like the right thing to do would be to say that if the individual leader is already advancing, the runner-up takes the slot.

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A story from professional cycling...

Lance Armstrong was leading a race, climbing Mt Ventoux in southern France. Marco Pantani was on Lance's wheel but was unable to pass him. At the finish line, Lance let up and allowed Pantani to pass him, supposedly as a gesture of respect. After the race Pantani basically cussed out Armstrong for giving him a win he didn't deserve.

No true athlete/competitor will appreciate being given an honor they didn't earn on the field of play.

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If Doran had been good enough he would have earned the spot, life doesnt give things away. Whybark shouldnt have let him win, now its all about him and how he "let" Doran win like he's the little retarded kid who couldnt do it on his own and actually made the story more about himself losing than Doran winning, like he wants some kind of reward for disgracing the game. Even in childrens sports like little league baseball they never let the other team win except on tv. He should have played the hole out and made him earn it, no real competitor will let him win next time out. Its not the kid is missing an arm or leg, he just wasnt good enough to make it without someone else letting him win. Sorry kid, you just werent good enough, thats how sports go sometime.

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he just wasnt good enough to make it without someone else letting him win.

See that's the disservice Whybark did. Obviously Doran could play at that level he made it to a playoff with Whybark, but in that instance of self important gift wrapping we all tend to think Doran couldn't have won, and now Doran gets to spend forever wondering about it himself. Plenty of ways to lose a hole on the downlow and noone would be the wiser, but now Doran gets to go up against someone at nationals with possible self doubts from himself, and worse maybe razzing from opponents because it's assumbed he wouldn't be there without Whybark's gift.

Dumb kid move acting without thinking.
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I could maybe understand if they were on the same team helping out a teammate here it doesnt make sense. It would be like a player on tour missing a putt to let someone else make a cut or keep their card or make the top 25 in the money list on the Nationwide Tour and get their card. Someone deliberately making their score worse to help someone else. I dont even want my friends to let up on me if theyre beating me and thats just for fun, someone else pushing you will make you better, that goes for just about everything in life. Granted they're just kids and he did it so his buddy could go, maybe thats how we should just look at it and not read so much into it.

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I agree, why not play the game as hard as you can and see what happens? I'd much rather lose to someone giving their best effort than win because someone tanked it... I'd always wonder what could have been.

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What a load of BS!
Consider this scenario:
A PGA Tour player is competing in the Players Championship (or whatever) and comes up the final fairway on Friday. As things stand, he is 8 shots behind the leader and there are 5 (or whatever) guys who stand to make the cut if he bogeys the hole. One of those guys is his buddy, who has had a rough time and needs some $, or just needs to play on some weekends to get some confidence back. On arriving at the green, the player has a bit of a chat to his caddy, stares at the leader board for a while and deliberately 3 putts from 10 feet. His buddy is in the field for the weekend. I would not call that sportsmanship at all. That player would be criticised. This is basically the same thing.

In the race of life, always back self-interest. At least you know it's trying.

 

 

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Call it what it was...Charity. A critical component to Sportsmanship is Fair Play which refers to all participants having an equitable chance to pursue victory, and acting toward others in an honest, straightforward, and a firm and dignified manner even when others do not play fairly.
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Note: This thread is 5074 days old. We appreciate that you found this thread instead of starting a new one, but if you plan to post here please make sure it's still relevant. If not, please start a new topic. Thank you!

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