The great amateur Bobby Jones was once praised for calling a penalty on himself when he felt his ball may have moved slightly in the rough after he had addressed it. “You might as well praise me for not robbing a bank,” he said to reporters afterwards.
Golf is a sport of integrity and individual honesty is assumed and expected. It’s incumbent on all golfers to play according to the Rules and not to gain advantage by breaking them wilfully in any way at all. Incidents of cheating that have been reported, investigated and disciplined over the years are extremely rare at both professional and amateur level. In fact, a search on the internet demonstrates just how few cases have ever made it to a point where action has been taken. With some 70 million golfers on the planet and so few cases of cheating that have resulted in disciplinary action, the logical conclusion would be that cheating is not a problem in amateur golf.
But anecdotal evidence would suggest the contrary. Golf Monthly conducted a poll asking three questions on the subject of cheating. Of 1,144 people who responded to the question – “Do you think cheating is a problem in amateur golf?” 57% said “Yes.” A majority, but not an overwhelming one. However, to the question, “Have you witnessed cheating at your club?” 85% of respondents said “Yes.” And to the question “Have you ever cheated?” A worrying 39% were prepared to confess, “Yes.”
We also asked our followers on Facebook – “Have you ever witnessed cheating in golf?” There were 264 responses and almost every single one of them was to confirm that, yes – they most certainly had. Within the responses there were examples of players seen taking favourable drops, stories of the “Old leather wedge” being used and even one tale of a chap in a club match playing a white ball into a bush and then coming out onto the putting surface playing a green one!
There seems then to be a disconnect with what people are experiencing in amateur golf and the actual cases of cheating that are reported and followed up on. Perhaps a reason for that is that it's a big thing to accuse someone and it would often be one person's word against another's. Or perhaps another reason is demonstrated by a selection of the replies to our question on Facebook suggesting roughly, “I think it often comes from a misunderstanding of the rules.”
I would be inclined to agree with that. I spent four years on the committee at my golf club, two of those as captain. We have 650 playing members and during my tenure, not a single accusation of cheating was brought to the committee’s attention. There would have been 10s of thousands of competitive rounds played over those four years and nobody reported a “cheat.” However, there were certainly plenty of instances of players misunderstanding the Rules – taking a line of sight drop when it was one club length, taking relief from a flooded bunker… Those sorts of things. But in those instances, it’s simply a case of a lack of knowledge, not of wilfully trying to gain advantage. That’s not a problem with cheating, it’s a problem with education.
Others I’ve spoken to who are involved in the administration of golf agree.
“I think that almost all golfers want to get it right. People don’t want to break the Rules,” says Neil Hampton, General Manager at Royal Dornoch Golf Club. “But they are complicated and it’s up to both the golfer and the club to make sure they are properly educated. At Dornoch we hold regular Rules nights, and they are well attended. Also, with the Rules app available on your phone, it’s now far easier to confirm a ruling when you’re out on the course.”
Another club manager I spoke to from the South of England had a similar view.
“In 20 years working at golf clubs, I have never had to deal with an instance of cheating,” he said. “People make mistakes with the Rules but then they learn, and they won’t do the same thing next time. It’s not cheating it’s a lack of understanding and it’s our job to help people understand the Rules so they do the right thing.”
A number of the comments from the internet point to a form of “cheating” which is tougher to spot – handicap manipulation. Players purposefully trying to either protect or inflate their handicap to give them an advantage.
It has been suggested that the World Handicap System (WHS) makes it easier for players to manipulate their handicap, either up or down.
“I think it’s more prevalent than under the old system,” says Neil Hampton. “For getting a handicap down to qualify for events, General Play scores can certainly skew things. That’s why many of the more significant amateur events require players to have a minimum number of competitive rounds counting towards their handicap. In terms of inflating handicap, that’s more difficult to look at. Here at Dornoch we require players to have three competitive counting rounds towards their WHS if they are to enter the matchplay competitions.”
Handicap manipulation is a grey area and, again, it’s one where a misunderstanding of the system could lead to mistakes being made.
“I think there’s a paranoia about people breaking the Rules and trying to gain an advantage,” said the club manager I spoke to. “But I think it’s blown out of proportion.”
Neil Hampton agrees – “Do people cheat? Well, with so many people around the world playing then I would have to say yes,” he said. “But the instances of it are extremely rare when you think of the number of rounds being played. So, is cheating a problem in amateur golf? – No, I think not.”
Go into most clubhouses around the country and you will hear stories of “cheating,” if you ask the question. Some might be first-hand experience, others might be Chinese whispers. Some of those stories might be of examples of wilful cheating and others will be examples of people getting the Rules wrong.
In almost every aspect of life you will find historic, and probably current, examples of people cheating the system. There will always be a few bad eggs. In golf, it’s inevitable that of the 70 million who play, there will be some who are prepared to cheat. But it would seem from the number of reported cases the numbers in golf are relatively small. Are there cheats in amateur golf? Yes. Is cheating a problem? No.
