Subtle Cheats

[iacas]

I don't condone any of these kinds of things, but I'm curious what kinds of "subtle cheats" anyone knows of, has seen done, has done themselves, whatever...

In high school, we quickly found that applying a nice ol' coat of lip gloss (chap stick, lip balm, whatever you wanna call it) to your driver could really add some distance/straightness. Kinda along the lines of the whole "high launch, low spin" mantra. Less sidespin, too. You can pull this one off pretty easily - it's not hard to slide your thumb across some chap stick and smear it on your driver.

Completely illegal, but quite subtle. I'm not sure what else qualifies as a subtle cheat. Sitting here, trying to think of any, I can't.

Oh, one more, not always very subtle: pressing down a bit of sand in the bunker before playing your shot. Kinda puts the ball on a little "shelf" and not noticeable unless everyone's watching. Don't kick sand up on your backswing and you're probably home free.

What can anyone else think of? Again, not that I'm condoning any of it, but it's interesting anyway.

[gas_can]

A guy in a twosome I was paired with would very subtly place his marker in front of his ball on the green and then once clean, replace his ball in front of the marker. Not knowing him I kept my mouth shut, but I wondered the whole time . . . why cheat for an extra inch?

[iacas]

I was tempted to write that down, too, but I don't consider it cheating much. I mean, it is by the rules of golf, but what's he really gaining (as you point out)? Cuz an inch ain't gonna matter at all. Ever. For it to be even 5% of your putt, you've gotta be in gimme range anyway.

Perhaps - quite seriously - he thought that's how you did things?

[jcgolfpro]

I played with a guy that would ALWAYS be first to the green and mark his ball whenever possible. One time someone beat him to the green but was off to the side and he didn't know it. When he was bending down to mark his ball, he was flipping his quarter ahead 8-10 feet on some longer putts and then replacing from there. We put the stop to that practice.

[iacas]

I played with a guy that would ALWAYS be first to the green and mark his ball whenever possible. One time someone beat him to the green but was off to the side and he didn't know it. When he was bending down to mark his ball, he was flipping his quarter ahead 8-10 feet on some longer putts and then replacing from there. We put the stop to that practice.

I've seen that before!

Another of the obvious cheats is the guy who never wants any help looking for his ball in the trees or rough, yet then always has a great lie and a big opening.

[muskegman]

Before I got serious about the game (I would play once or twice a year) I would "forget" how many strokes it took me to get into the hole. Actually that's not hard to believe especially on par fives. I'll bet none of you could remember that many strokes either .

When I started playing seriously (about 8 months ago) I made a strict "no forgetting" pact with myself .

[skrumple]

Its not very sutle but a kid kicked his ball in the hole for a hole in one once during a touneyment and he got cought. Who would of guessed they would have seen that.