Cheater!!!!!!

[sam]

I've played golf with a guy two times in the last two weeks and all of last summer. He's in my general group of friends, but I am not a fan of him because he CHEATS. Today we played 9 holes and he claimed to shoot a 39, but he plAyed multiple balls, didn't count OB shots and shaved strokes. My buddies and I agree this is getting old. He also brags all the time about how great his drives are and how amazing he is. Should we quit playing with this moron or confront him??? What would you say to him?

[HSip]

Quit playing with him.

[klaymon]

I had a situation at work where I golfed with a guy and he came in the next day and was bragging about how he beat me. Never counted OB, dropped 30 yards ahead of OB shots, took gimmies, etc. We went out a couple weeks later and I told him "If you want to run off at the head about score, we're playing by the rules. Otherwise, shut up." He did (except for one shot) and got his ass kicked and never said anything about score again.

[RocketSauce]

  klaymon said:

I had a situation at work where I golfed with a guy and he came in the next day and was bragging about how he beat me. Never counted OB, dropped 30 yards ahead of OB shots, took gimmies, etc. We went out a couple weeks later and I told him "If you want to run off at the head about score, we're playing by the rules. Otherwise, shut up." He did (except for one shot) and got his ass kicked and never said anything about score again.

COOL! that was a great way to handle that

[David in FL]

Tell him he's a lot better than you are but you'll play him a $25 Nassau heads up, just for the experience of playing against a better player.

Then call everything on him. You'll take his $75 and as an added bonus, you'll never see him again. Win, win.

[beachbreak]

Why does he even bother keeping score?

It has no meaning.

[RocketSauce]

  David in FL said:

Tell him he's a lot better than you are but you'll play him a $25 Nassau heads up, just for the experience of playing against a better player.

thats a GREAT suggestion!

[BigBoy]

A friend of mine taught me this lesson two years ago before I was serious at all about golf. Only charged me $400.

I thought I usually shot around 100 in the 4-5 times I played a year, and we went on a golf outing at a bachelor party. We like to gamble in all aspects of life, and decided to play a stroke play match for $400. He is about a 10 handicap, and offered me 25 strokes. I thought it was a steal, because I thought i was probably a 28 handicap. The catch was that it was going to be the first time I ever played fully by the "rules of golf" , stroke and distance for OB and lost balls was the biggest thing that I didn't even know was a rule back then -

I ended up losing to him by 1 stroke after a CAREER back 9 for me at that time (an honest 47, the front was a DISASTER, more than one case of 3 tee shots)

At that point I realized how much I had been "cheating" before. It was at least 10 strokes a round with taking inappropriate drops from hazards, not playing stroke and distance etc -

it was a good learning experience -

[Fat Slice]

  HSip said:

Quit playing with him.

That's my solution, unless he's hilarious or buying all the drinks.

[Marmitetoo]

Why not suggest that you place small bets for each whole, but that you must all agree to play strictly by the rules.
Then you can call him on his breaches. Maybe, he's always played this way and doesn't actually realise that he's doing anything wrong. If he gets upset about it then, this would be an easier way of pointing out that you'd rather find someone who takes their game a little more seriously.

Steve

[mirv]

almost always before the first tee shot is hit, i'll say openly to the people with me "how are we playing? strict? foot wedges? mulligans?"

that way everybody knows what the rules are and everyone's got the same priveledges as everyone else. if they want 2 mulligans per round, well... you've got that same option. or you can say "okay, you can have 2 and footwedges, but i'm playing strict" and that'll just make them feel that more lamer when you hand them their ass at the end.

[billm408]

Don't ever bet with a cheater!
And I'm assuming you guys aren't playing for money... so who's he hurting?
If he's a decent guy and good company on the golf course, who cares?

What makes more sense is to start a friendly game with the other guys and exclude him from the bets. There's a guy I used to play with semi regularly who used a creative scoring system. He wasn't allowed in any of the bets and we told him exactly why. It didn't change the way he played... it changed the way we looked at how he played. Just sayin'...

[Three Putt]

Sounds like a doorknob.

He doesn't know the rules, and has no interest in learning them, he would think you are the azzhole by calling penalties and "making up rules" if you were to have a match for money.

[McGolf-Doggie]

Didn't know what a "footwedge" was. But it seems to defeat the whole idea of golf and playing it where it lies.

Guy I was playing with the other month did 3 little soccer kicks in one small area to get out of the rough and from behind some trees. I was flabbergasted. But there was no competition going on, just three strangers getting in a 9-holer after work, so his foot wedge was between him and his maker, so to speak.

That said, I guess I could have used this er, "concept" a couple of months ago, when the ball landed on a shallow indentation on a tree root. (Just kidding) The impact was not nice, even with the LW. Anyone know if there is an eco-tree-friendly rule — could be useful in those instances to avoid unnecessary harm to tree roots?

Also could have used this "foot wedge" idea, I guess, the other weekend when my ball landed 6 inches behind a watering hose. (Just kidding again) Sho'nuff my follow-thru hit the darn hose. Don't know why it biffed my stroke but it did. Ugh. I had figured a steep chip/ abbreviated follow-through would work, but it got all fouled up.

That said, I still don't think I could bring myself to do the FW thing. I like to know the score is true and not fudged.

[billm408]

  McGolf-Doggie said:

Also could have used this "foot wedge" idea, I guess, the other weekend when my ball landed 6 inches behind a watering hose. (Just kidding again) Sho'nuff my follow-thru hit the darn hose.

Umm... hope you're kidding here. A hose is a moveable obstruction. As are yardage & hazard stakes, benches, ball washers, cart path signs, etc... Moveable being the operative word here.

[eeLad]

To be honest, I have always seen golf as a solo sport. Unless you're actually in an organized competition, you're only competition is yourself. If the guy wants to cheat, who cares. He's only cheating himself. If he brags, just tell him that he sucks and that he doesn't play in accordance to the rules and laugh it off.

[microcrayfish]

I don't see why it should bother you unless you're playing for money. If he brags that he beats you then it's easy enough to just tell him it doesn't count because he cheats. I'd just ignore his cheating as long as he's fun to play with because what he's doing doesn't affect your score and that's what matters at the end of the day.

[Fourputt]

  sam said:

I've played golf with a guy two times in the last two weeks and all of last summer. He's in my general group of friends, but I am not a fan of him because he CHEATS. Today we played 9 holes and he claimed to shoot a 39, but he plAyed multiple balls, didn't count OB shots and shaved strokes. My buddies and I agree this is getting old. He also brags all the time about how great his drives are and how amazing he is. Should we quit playing with this moron or confront him??? What would you say to him?

If you can't deal with it then either explain the facts to him or don't play with him.

  mirv said:

almost always before the first tee shot is hit, i'll say openly to the people with me "how are we playing? strict? foot wedges? mulligans?"

Even better just say I'm playing by the Rules of Golf. Then they have the choice of following suit or you can just ignore their foolishness. I any event, if they don't play by the rules then when they say what they shot you can truthfully say that they don't actually have a score at all. Just don't be foolish yourself and play for anything against them.

  McGolf-Doggie said:

That said, I guess I could have used this er, "concept" a couple of months ago, when the ball landed on a shallow indentation on a tree root. (Just kidding) The impact was not nice, even with the LW. Anyone know if there is an eco-tree-friendly rule — could be useful in those instances to avoid unnecessary harm to tree roots?

Tree root rule.... Rule 28 - Ball Unplayable. Follow the drop procedure and add a penalty stroke.

Water hose... movable obstruction. Move it out of the way and play on - no penalty.