Cheating at Meet-Ups

[BC-to-MI]

My buddy and I had a few things in league last year, but we generally didn't make much of a fuss about it if it didn't impact the outcome of our matches because it was the lowest flight at our club and most people in that flight are there to drink beer and have fun.

I caught one group fluffing their lies in the rough a couple of times, but the two guys are everyone's favorite at the club so it wasn't worth bringing it up. They also were quite high handicaps (and definitely vanity caps even at that) so it didn't make any kind of difference.

Another guy hit his tee shot right near some white stakes in a group of bushes but found it "literally right on the line." He then duffed his second shot and punched out his third. After he came out of the bushes, he laughed and said "wow, my second shot went backward," which would seem to mean it must have been OB. But, my partner and I were on the other side of the hole, so we didn't have any view of the ball to call him on it.

We also played with a guy who only had a few rounds of golf played at the time. He started giving himself free drops when he couldn't find his ball and raking putts he felt were gimmes before we said anything. We tried to find the balance of kindly teaching him the rules while also ensuring he knew that we were applying the penalty strokes because they were affecting the outcome of holes (over 9 holes, he was getting 13 strokes against me, so every extra shot really mattered). This one was definitely awkward because he was getting upset as it appears his friends never make him play by the rules. Not so much blatant cheating as unknowingly not following the rules.

[DaveP043]

19 hours ago, iacas said:

But seriously, people… when have you seen people cheat? What did you or someone else do about it? Let's hear the stories.

I can't say I've ever seen anyone cheating, but I did have a pretty uncomfortable thing happen a few years ago.  I was playing in a 2-day stroke play event at my club, paired with two friends.  On the 16th, a medium length par 3, one of them hit a shot that came up short.  He turned around and said "Let me give you some advice..." and I started waving my arms "...take an extra club, the wind is against".  I told him that's a penalty, you can't DO that.  The other friend suggested that he didn't really mean to give advice, I had to tell him that when you begin a sentence by saying "Let me give you some advice..." that the intention was pretty clearly to give advice.  We're still friends, but I hated to do what I really HAD to do.

[aannddyy00]

10 minutes ago, DaveP043 said:

I told him that's a penalty, you can't DO that. 

It’s not a penalty. 
 

If you asked him, that’s a penalty. 

[dennyjones]

4 minutes ago, aannddyy00 said:

It’s not a penalty. 
 

If you asked him, that’s a penalty. 

Rule 10.2 

During a round, a player must not:

• Give advice to anyone in the competition who is playing on the course,

Rule 10.2

Edited November 14, 2020 by dennyjones

[iacas]

32 minutes ago, aannddyy00 said:

It’s not a penalty. 

If you asked him, that’s a penalty. 

As you now know… it is.

[aannddyy00]

14 hours ago, iacas said:

As you now know… it is.

Next you’ll tell me I can’t post a solo round. 😉

 

Is that a new rule? I always thought you couldn’t solicit advice. 

[Carl3]

22 hours ago, bkuehn1952 said:

 I still can't imagine how his ball silently ricocheted 50 yards back toward the fairway.  I wish I had watched him closer during the search.

I see that happen once or twice a year. It does happen and the search team is not focused on the fairway, so it is ignored. If a ball hits a tree line, I would think the ball would/could wind up on the fairway side more often than it does.

[iacas]

11 hours ago, aannddyy00 said:

Is that a new rule? I always thought you couldn’t solicit advice. 

You can’t offer it either. Never really could.

[DaveP043]

23 hours ago, aannddyy00 said:

Next you’ll tell me I can’t post a solo round. 😉

Is that a new rule? I always thought you couldn’t solicit advice. 

I just looked up a random time period, this is from the RoG from 1980-1984:

Quote

Rule 9.  Advice (Def. 2) and Assistance
1.  Giving or Asking for Advice; Receiving Assistance
a. Advice
A player may give advice to, or ask advice from, only his partner or either of their caddies.

A player may GIVE advice to . . .  ONLY his partner.  This has been the rule for as long as I've been playing golf.

Rules Of Golf 1980

 

Edited November 16, 2020 by DaveP043

[GolfLug]

I've had a few. Mostly folks who have trouble with addition of score on a hole that I have helped correct in cases where it mattered. Mostly in a nice way like @bkuehn1952.

But my 'best' experience is at the cc I was a member at for couple of years. One of a prominent members in our co-ed league had this habit of picking up the ball and shoving the marker a loooong way forward past the ball location in a swift single motion. It was fairly crafty actually when it was only a few mm off. But many times she would shove the marker 4-6 inches closer to the hole even in plain sight and it would be so blatant that we would all cringe. One of guys asked her to mark it again properly in our co-ed league once. She indignantly said 'no' but the marking seemed clean for rest of the round. He fumed no one else spoke up including myself and I regret it. 

I heard she got called out at once at a husband-wife format tourney. Not sure if she still does it don't think leopards change their spots so easily.