Hello.

I am preparing to write an essay for an English class I am taking this year, and I have chosen to write about how golf is a game of honor, and how you must enforce the rules on yourself often, and such. I need several pages on this, so I figured somewhere I can include a little thing on how it is often different in professional golf with everyone watching.

I was wondering, can anyone recall any scandals or something like that of professionals caught cheating, or accused of it at least? If you can post any sort of link, I could probably use it in the bibliography, and that'd be great.

I'm also curious about this myself anyway, so even if you can't post a link, I'd love to hear.

Thanks for any and all help I can get everyone, I appreciate it.

Vjay was way back in like 1985 I think we he first turned pro. Don't know the specifics or what not.

Singh was accused of altering his scorecard in an Asian Tour event in 1985 - specifically changing a score on a par 5 hole to read two strokes less than his actual score - which allowed him to make the cut in the event rather than not as his recorded scorewould have dictated. Apparently his playing partner noticed his name on a list of players who had qualified and challenged Singh's score knowing that this should not have been the case. An examination revealed that the scorecard bore evidence of having been altered and Singh was challenged and denied any wrongdoing. Nonetheless, the tour committee felt that the evidence was sufficient to substantiate the allegation and he was suspended from the tour and took a job as a club professional in Malaysia when he lost his playing privileges.

In 1988, he was allowed to enter the European Tour Qualifying School at La Manga for the secondyear running and was successful in gaining his tour card that year (along with Jesper Parnevik if I remember correctly) and went on to play in Europe for several years.

There are several allegations of cheating in pro golf besides. Greg Norman once accused Jumbo Ozaki of being 'creative' with the use of his driver when he observed Ozaki placing the clubhead behind his ball in deep rough, supposedly flattening the grass, before subsequently hitting the shot with an iron. A furious Norman was apparently told: 'You can't accuse Jumbo of cheating in Japan' (or something similar) by the Japan PGA and the matter was apparently whitewashed due to Ozaki's celebrity, much to Norman's chagrin.

Gary Player once famously criticised Tom Watson (albeit stopped short of calling him a cheat) when the latter's iron set was examined and found to have some illegal grooves. He went as far as to suggest that some of Watson's major victories should be annulled in light of the discovery. They weren't, and the episode generated a bit of an atmosphere between the two players for some time afterwards.

Didn't Greg Norman accuse Jumbo Osaki of cheating once? I think it was improving his lie in the rough by using a driver to ground behind the ball then switching to an iron.
Good old Greg also had a spat with Mark Maccumber over tapping down spike marks too I believe.

Ross Fishers first Win, even though nothing came of it, they looked for a long time.

Colin Montgomerie's drop after a rain delay a few years ago. I don't know how to help you find any of these suggestions...

Kevin

monty a few years back improved his lie after a rain delay from right outside a bunker to further away from a bunker to built a stance.

Sorry my friend, we posted at the same time. Great minds, and also not so great minds, think alike!

Cheers,
Kevin

Was this the one in the Dutch open that was spotted by someone on TV, phoned in and they investigated it? Think he moved a brambel or something...

Woody last year - (Hard to explain, but...) it looked like he ment to tap the ball in the hole but his putter caught a bit too much of the ground first and stopped. Looked like a stroke to me.

I thought it was the other way round..Watson accusing Player of blatantly cheating..improving his lie in the rough..the same thing Norman was upset with Jumbo over..I wonder if Player got Watson back in vengeance..
Player was accused of cheating a few times..

do a google search on golfers who cheat..I am sure some names would come up...hopefully no one on this board

Wow thanks for all the help so far guys. Keep it comin', if possible!

search on the following with cheating as a your key search:

Norman- McCumber
Norman- Jumbo
Watson- Player
Woody Austin
VJ Singh
Azinger


still with regards to how many people play pro golf..the number of known cheaters is still rather small

Very true about Player; or 'the little man' as I think Watson referred to him in the aftermath of Player's comments.

Player is indeed no stranger to controversy although I think a few people preceded Watson in calling him out on some of the episodes. The most famous 'Playergate' was during the Open Championship when Player (or rather his caddy) was alleged to have possibly done a bit of an Oddjob after it looked like he was a dead cert to lose a ball in the hay on the 71st hole. Miraculously, the ball was found (or dropped down a trouser leg if you choose to believe the conspiracy theorists) with seconds to spare and the Man In Black went on to win. It caused a ruckus at the time, but the diminutive South African has consistently gained four inches in height and in chest size ever since whenever he's asked about it and anyone doing so runs the risk of getting a nasty right hook to their kneecap..

Great story... the last sentence has me in stitches.

how about bobby jones calling a shot on himself when his ball moved, unperceived by anyone else, at the US Open in 1925 if memory serves. Kind of a great story of NOT cheating.

probably stems from Watson says that Player improved his lie from time to time and didn't know how to make his ball on the greens.. no surprise there.

As touched on above, a cracking televised spat occurred at Kiawah in the first days' foursomes of the '91 Ryder Cup when Seve and Jose Maria Olazabal were matched against Chip Beck and Paul Azinger.

On one tee Seve's beady eye spotted something amiss with the number on Beck's Titleist and realised that the American pair had apparently been swapping between 90 and 100 compression Titleists as the conditions dictated - contravening the 'one ball rule' that was in effect as per the regular tour's regulations.

A bit of a heated debate occurred on (I think) the 10th tee, which the TV crews understandably gave some coverage, and Seve accused the pair of knowingly switching balls. Olazabal and Beck played a pretty minor role but Seve and Azinger went at it like men posessed. Whether Seve actually used the word 'cheat' is disputed, but Azinger was vociferous in the defence of himself and his partner, memorably stating 'we screwed up but we weren't cheating' and calling Seve 'the King of Gamesmanship.'

After a bit of peacekeeping by officials, things were encouraged to continue and Seve and Olazabal responded by turning a match they looked like losing into a 2&1 victory by storming through the back nine with a vengeance. Seve did a sort of golfing equivalent of Mel Gibson's William Wallace after his wife was bumped off and was the lynchpin of some wondrous play that turned the match around.

A bit of a cold war atmosphere existed for a while afterwards (and, in fairness, there always had been a bit of a rift between Azinger and Seve after the Spaniard accused Azinger of taking an incorrect drop on the Belfy's 18th in their singles match in the preceding Ryder Cup) but despite the press building things up to a supposed vendetta, Azinger revealed that one of the first people to call him and offer support after his cancer diagnosis was Seve.

Didnt Normal get DQd for an illegal ball or something to do with his golf ball? Maybe 10 yrs ago?

Yes, his Maxfli XS had not been submitted to the R&A for testing and was therefore not on the conforming list for competative play. Not really cheating though.

That wasn't cheating. He was inadvertently using a Maxfli XS ball that had different cover markings to the ones that were on the USGA conforming list.

Edit: Great minds mate. Great minds...

I am pretty sure MArk O'Mear had a ball marking incident in 97 or 98 where he was accused and apparently caught on video replacing his ball a half inch closer to the hole from where it originally lied. Not sure if this was cheating or just a boo boo.

Jane Blalock had a LPGA Tour ball marking incident haunt her for quite some time, but I'm not sure if it was deserved or not.

What about the guy who was found to have been marking his ball way closer to the hole in Open Qualifying and was subsequently DQ'd and banned from Pro golf for life??
I'm sure Mat has the details!....Think Robertson was his name?

Thats the one logie, because Fisher had beaten a Dutch player, they got abit nasty and reported him

I do remember it mate. David Robertson was the lad's name I think and it was the year of Sandy Lyle's win I think in 1985. I think it was in final qualifying.

As I remember he was taking the mickey a bit and moving the thing about 15 feet at a time and had previously been caught fudging - hence the harsh punishment presumably. His technique was to dash up to the green ahead of his playing partners and pick up his ball before hiding the coin in the back of his Ping Anser so he could plonk it down a bit nearer without being caught bang to rights.

Sadly, his playing partners weren't completely stupid and he got hammered.

Mat. you ever thought about doing mastermind?

'And your chosen specialist subject?'

'Ridiculously obscure bits of trivia - 1984 to present day.'

great topic.

i, too, remember this. as i recall, the video evidence seemed pretty 'conclusive'. i'd be interested to know if anybody can recall the details. i remember thinking that it was a 'minor' mistake and while penalty worthy, not cheating. who's gonna cheat to move a ball like 1/2 an inch? but, i remember a comentator or someone suggesting it didn't make sense, because all the pros just put the back of the ball on the edge of the coin, period. here's o'meara missing by 1/2 an inch, the comentator had doubts. (maybe o'meara just needed a ball marker rounded like the ball like that circle t ball marker instead of that tricky rounded the other way coin...)

what about palmer at the '58 masters? as venturi tells it in his book it sounds pretty convincing. i've not read (apparently he addressed the issue in a couple of his books) arnie's response, but i'd love to. here's something i found as it's a better description than i'd give...

"Venturi, who finished two shots behind him, is suggesting in his book that Palmer breached the rules because he did not decide to play the second ball until after he had made the five with the first. “You have to declare a second ball before you hit you first one,” Venturi writes. “Suppose you had chipped in with the first ball, would you still be playing a second?” he asks. According to the Venturi account, he confronted Palmer with his doubts about the legitimacy of accepting the free drop both during the round and again in the scorer’s tent at the end of the round. “You’re signing an incorrect card,” he claims he told Palmer. “No I’m not,” he says Palmer replied. “The ruling was made.” In digging up the mid-20th century controversy, Venturi claims he had the support of the great Bobby Jones and Clifford Roberts, the Augusta National co-founders who have been dead for more than a quarter of a century. “I firmly believe that Arnold did wrong,” said Venturi. “And that he knows that I know he did wrong.” Palmer, through a spokesman, has declined to comment."

The O'Meara incident was at the '97 (?) Lancome Trophy and was raised by Jarmo Sandelin (he of the comedy golfing wardrobe and 7 foot long driver).

As I remember, it was a bit of a storm in a teacup and basically involved O'Meara not replacing his ball flush with the edge of his marker - albeit it was never shown that he had in fact placed the marker flush against the ball in the first place.

The genial American always denied any wrongdoing or gaining any advantage and, in all honesty, Sandelin was probably the only person in the world who thought anything of it.

just did some research... (it was the '97 lancome)

in golf digest, o'meara admits that it looks like he did put it closer to the hole, saying that he didn't mean to.

apparently, the 'infraction' didn't come to light until months after the tournament. apparently the european tour referee said if it had come to light during the tournament, action would have likely been taken. as it didn't, retroactive action was deemed not necessary as o'meara says that he did it accidenlty and everybody believes him.

fair enough. and i certainly believe o'meara and therefore don't think he cheated. he did apparently benefit (to win the tournament no less) from a breach of the rules. but given how it went down, not much he could do, but be more careful next time.

Be careful, thee is a huge difference in accusing one of something like an improper drop, or moving a boulder with a rules official overseeing, than accusing someone of cheating.

Kevin

I wasn't aware of O'Meara's subsequent comments, albeit I remember it was a bit of an 'after the fact' job by Sandelin. I agree with you that I'd be inclined to take O'Meara's word and call it a day with no advantage having been gained. I can remember seeing the close-ups and it was a pretty minor thing in anyone's language.

It seems that common sense in the area of the rules isn't confined to the Bobby Locke incident at the Open Championship at St Andrews.

Wasn't there something with a Euro player named Tumba in the early 90's ?

Might just be a communication issue...

Kevin

Indeed there was. I'd forgotten about that one.

Johann (sp?) Tumba got collared for doing a Vijay whilst trying to get his tour card. Apparently he allegedly altered a couple of scores to hit the required qualifying score. It was a really messy affair with the card being forensically analysed and allsorts in the aftermath. If I remember rightly, some sort of allegation was made that the marker of the card may have been involved in changing the scores too.

Edit: Just added 'allegedly' in case any lawyers are contemplating their next Porsche purchase and read my post.

On the opposite side, davis love III called a penalty stroke on himself when he couldn't remember if he had replaced his marker in the original spot after moving it out of another player's line on the green. It caused him to miss the cut. It's well documented in Feinstein's "A Good Walk Spoiled." Even the cameras may not catch everything.

Toski (Early Days of Senior tour)

Cink (Heritage Victory) (using finger to remove loose impediments (sand) from directly behind his ball in waste area)

Pernice (Some Tourney in Texas, was asked to look at vid of self and denied)

i like the idea that the results are finalized after the competition and that they're only gonna be altered for 'cheating' or deliberately doing something illegal. if an oversight or honest mistake becomes known after the fact, the result stands.

that being said, mr. locke is mighty fortunate in my estimation as an oversight like that will cost you more times than not. even though, of course, no advantage was gained, and he'd moved in the first place out of courtesy. i just can't believe that nobody present noticed...

anybody have any thoughts on the palmer in the '58 masters issue?

Each month, Golf magazine has an item about a pro's encounter with the rules. The most recent one is Tom Watson putting the wrong putter in his bag during a rain delay then finishing his round the next day with the wrong putter. I think he was DQ'd.

Woosnam took a two-stroke penalty for having 15 clubs at the 2001 British Open: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/golf/2001...ish_woosnam_ap/. He called it on himself, though, so that doesn't fit the original poster's exact query, but he was leading in the final round, so it was significant.

I remember seeing Woosie's situation happen live. I felt sick to my stomach for him.

I was out on the course that Sunday and amongst a few people who started making their way back towards the opening holes to see the leaders tee off. Word came back that Woosie had stiffed one at the first and a few of us quickened our strides a bit - in time to see him walking off the second green with a face like thunder and his caddie looking like he was due to meet the hangman that afternoon. He was still chuntering away as he walked towards the third tee with language that would outdo the average pubload of sailors. We only found out what had happened via some very quiet whispering of people who'd made their way down from the 2nd tee.

As well as Duval played, I honestly think that cock-up may well have cost Woosie an Open title as it knocked him for six and he never settled all day in the aftermath of it.

From
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/toptens/sto...rticle_continue

David Robertson
Transgressing golf's code of self-regulation

Golf prides itself on its culture of honesty and self-regulation, which makes the case of David Robertson, a former Scottish boys champion, all the more remarkable. Robertson was playing in final qualifying for the 1985 Open in Deal, Kent, and after 14 holes, his playing partners summoned an official and (according to a newspaper), 'after a long discussion Simmers [the official, Graeme] disqualified Robertson for not replacing his ball in the correct position on the green'. It was reckoned that, at times, he had moved his ball up to 20 feet. He did this by arriving at the green first, appearing to mark his ball, but merely picking it up and then carrying his marker on his putter around the green and dropping it much nearer the hole. He was fined £20,000 and banned for 20 years from playing as a pro by the PGA European Tour. The fine was never called in. Seven years later Robertson applied for and obtained his amateur status back and played in some amateur events in the Lothian region.

And some others from ESPN

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/cheat/colum...&id=2964423

What about Tiger moving the giant boulder (it certainly was embedded), or looking for his ball on top of the clubhouse for 20 minutes!?!?!

After googling for "golf cheating" found this little gem:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvQYiGpS0DY

Found this on internet.

I'm not sure if you can use this at all, but I was standing outside the ropes on the 5th hole at Augusta one year, had to be 1998 or before, because it looks like the last time this guy played The Masters was 1998. Anyway, standing on the rope on the right side of the 5th fairway, Phil Blackmar had hit his drive in the right rough, and he wasn't playing with anyone great, so there was no gallery to speak of, but since he's so close to the ropes, I stand there to watch him hit. There's one other guy standing there and nobody else within 100 feet. So, Blackmar walks up, talks to caddie, yada yada...goes to swat a fly off of his ball and HITS THE BALL! Calls the rules guy over and I hear the rules guy tell him, if you're sure it oscillated back to the same position, there's no penalty. The other guy standing next to me and I shoot a quick look to each other, then look back to Blackmar and watch him. He plays the ball, calls no penalty on himself. THE BALL MOVED AT LEAST TWO INCHES!!!!!!!!!!!! Oscillated my eye. Anyway, kinda disappointing to see it at a place like that...but also kinda cool to be one of only three people one earth that saw him cheat....anyway, my only cool such story...

that was a great story. and when positive comments were made about his honesty and integrity he is supposed to have replied with (just off the top of my head)... "well, you'd hardly applaud a man for not robbing a bank would you".

Jane Blalock was probably the worst example I remember of being accused of cheating

I can not remember but she was either suspended or banned and then there was a lawsuit if I remember right

If you need this info for a paper, try googling it. Google will should lead you to some reputable websites or sources that you cna site to in the paper.