Editor’s Note: This is the first installment in a 10-part USA Today Sports series on sports cheating. )
If you look at golf through the prism of cheating, it becomes a paradoxical game. The game is rooted in class and integrity. Golf is one of the few sports that can be manipulated despite a 200-page rule book.
Cheating is often tolerated in golf. In some cases it’s understandable, whether you are on the PGA Tour or playing with friends at your local municipal course. The majority of players – except those on the PGA Tour – walk or drive to their shots alone. This isolation can be appealing.
Hand wedges – move the ball in a more advantageous direction. Stepping with a kick that is exaggerated to knock the ball out of the rough and onto the fairway. You can’t find it? You won’t be seen dropping the Titleist 4, “weren’t you playing 2 before?” on the backside of the green. What about that 6 on the 7th hole? It was a 5, but we don’t count the swing where a ball landed 27 yards above the hole. Sandbag the sucker by lying.
It’s possible that cheating in golf is a time-honored tradition.
