Re: What to do with cheaters?

Slightly off-topic, but I don't give a lot of gimme's, because I know my ability to 3 putt from 2 feet, and I just KNOW I'm not the only one...

I never get the hump when my opponent doesn't give me a putt. I don't ask for it and I don't expect it. If he chooses to, more fool him. Accordingly, I like to think these Jedi mind games don't work that well on me (whether they do or not is another matter )

Re: What to do with cheaters?

Show em up! That's what I say!

I was playing in a trial match for our inter-club county competitions. We're all trying to get in the team so we can play matchplay against other clubs in our county.

I'm paired with a 60+ year old man who claims to play off of 7 (handicap limit for the team is 7.5). We're playing against a similarly aged chap and one of the good juniors at our club.

I had heard many stories on the grape-vine that this man I was paired with was a cheater, and numerous complaints had been made about him. I took it at face value but had not played with him enough to witness one of these indiscretions.

Until this day.

We were having a lovely game (better ball) and got to the 14th something like 1 or 2 down. He's played his approach into the bunker front right.

I was standing behind him as he attempted to splash out and he caught the whole ball rather than the sand. It flew out of the bunker, air-mailed the green, air-mailed the 20 ft high foliage 10 yards behind the green and disappeared out of bounds into an electical sub-station.

With that, I went left of the green to go and help our opponents search for one of their balls.

As I got halfway to them, they found it, so I turned around to walk back to the green. All the stories seemed to have been true. I saw my own partner walking up the green, still with his glove on, and with a ball sneakily tuckled into his gloved hand. He was walking well to the right of where his ball went out of bounds.

I knew something was up when I expected to see him playing a second from the bunker. But to see him walking up the green set alarm bells ringing. So I watched him.

He walked over the humps at the back of the green and bent down as if to move a twig or two, knowing full well that my vision would be obscured by the humps. As I walked onto the green with my putter I just looked at him in disbelief.

"Must have hit a stake and come back in!" he exclaimed. The spot at which he had "found his ball" was atleast 15 yards right of where it disappeared. The only thing it would have hit on it's way into oblivion would have been the sub-station.

I had a decision to make. We were having a good tight game until then. The company was pleasant and we were all striving to get into the team.

I decided to let it lie and played below my normal standard on the way in because it had annoyed me so much. We lost.

When we got in, we were to give the results to our captain. I made the decision to tell him what had happened. The only thing not working in my favour was that nobody else in my group had witnessed it.

The news did, however, spread through the club and he coudldn't tee the ball up again without 3 pairs of eyes watching his every move.

Turns out he cheated again infront of the captain and vice-captain 2 weeks later and ended up being banned from competition for 6 months. He was also removed from the club team.

The bare-faced cheek of it. Did he think I was stupid? For a grown man to behave like that was totally unacceptable. I wouldn't have been bothered if it was a knock-about, but it was for something important. I couldn't have played in the team if he was in it.

Re: What to do with cheaters?

hi neil
i had something like that a few years ago but it was his playing partner that spoke to me that his partners ball was in the sea and out of bounds and suddenly it turned up 40 years short of the beach, we left it till we finished and it did not make any diffrence to the game and i was going to leave it at that but his partner reported him and i backed him up as did my partner, it turned out he did not even use the same make off ball as he lost in the sea, he also was banned from playing in comp for the rest off the year and his membership would be reviewed at the end of the year. did not see him again.
some clubs wont put up with cheating in any form as it goes against all that golf stands for, not only are you cheating others your cheating yourself.
bill