Golf is a sport that has a special code of conduct. It is a game of honour. We trust the people we play with to do so by the rules.
Nobody cheats. Except that they do.
Former Masters champion Patrick Reed has found himself at the centre of cheating claims on more than one occasion.
Swiss pro Cedric Gugler was suspended by the HotelPlanner Tour last year after repeatedly “playing his ball from the wrong place on putting surfaces on multiple occasions”. Johan Tumba was banned for 10 years in 1992, after changing his scorecard at tour school. In 2011 Elliot Saltman was accused of incorrectly marking his ball on the putting green on at least five occasions in the first round of the Russian Challenge Cup in Moscow and was banned for three months, and David Robertson was banned for 20 years after cheating in a qualifying event for the 1985 Open.
These stories make headlines only because they are so rare.
Have You Ever Played With a Golfer Who Cheated?
(Image Credit: Kevin Diss Photography)
So what about the game at club level? By and large, most golfers do play by the rules but there are some serial offenders and I am willing to bet that we have all come across them.
I used to be a member of a course in Suffolk that is now closed. There was a senior who was a cheat. He had been spoken to several times about his behaviour.
He was one of those golfers who when looking for his ball in thick rough would always be the one to “find” it. If you then found the ball he would claim it must have been one he had lost during a previous round. He would ground his club in bunkers. He would improve his lie in the rough as a matter of course. He would tell you he had scored five when you knew he had taken a six. On and on it went. It was like he couldn’t help himself.
I was vice-captain and one of my duties was to pick the teams for our inter-club friendly matches. When I came to do so for one particular encounter I realised that we only had 12 names on the list and he was one of them. So I picked him as my playing partner.
When we got to the course I took him to one side, had a quiet word with him and told him to play the game properly.
So imagine my absolute horror when, playing a par four and looking for his ball behind the green, I witnessed him take a ball from his pocket and place it in a superb lie. What to do? Should I say anything? I had a good idea where his original ball had finished and decided to keep looking for it and found it seconds later under a bush. “I don’t think that is actually your ball John. I think this is it here.” Red-faced, he approached me and I quietly told him I knew what he had just done and that he was a complete disgrace. I was livid.
To cut a long story short, I deliberately missed a short putt on the final green that handed our opponents the win because I knew for certain that he would have cheated elsewhere on the course without me spotting it. I was furious and refused to speak to him in the clubhouse afterwards. This was about bringing our club’s name into disrepute.
We later had a committee meeting and decided that the time had come to ban him from the club. It left a horrible taste in my mouth.
How You Can Spot Cheating on The Golf Course
So how do you spot a cheat?
There are lots of warning signs.
When he steps into a bunker, does he look around to see if you are watching him? Does he bend down to remove an “imaginary” stone? If he does either of those things on a consistent basis the chances are that he is either improving his lie or grounding his club, both of which are illegal.
If he hits the ball into thick rough and you suggest he hits a provisional, he will almost always refuse to do so, telling you he will find the ball. And he always does. When you go looking for his golf ball, he is always going to be the one who finds it. If you should find his ball and he has already claimed to have discovered it, he will tell you it must have been one he lost some other time.
If he hits the ball into the trees he will also choose not to hit a provisional and will race off ahead of his playing partners and, again, will always miraculously find said ball.
Cheats cannot count. They will tell you they scored a five when you know they have taken six. Don’t accept it – challenge them. And encourage other golfers to do the same. Don’t wait for them to give you their score. Tell them: “That was a six.”
Keep an eye on them on the green, especially when they mark their ball. I used to play with somebody who would always put down his marker on the hole-side of the ball and then replace the ball on the other side of his marker. He used one of those roulette-chip size markers so was gaining a couple of inches every time he replaced the ball.
Watch them in the semi-rough. They have a habit of gently kicking their ball into a better lie or moving the ball when they bend down to supposedly remove loose impediments. Follow them into the rough and stand close to them.
Cheats are normally people who will do anything they can to win. A favourite trick is to jangle change in their pocket as you address the ball. Don’t be frightened to look them straight in the eye and ask them to stop.
It is all very well to convince yourself that these people are cheating nobody but themselves. But that is not the case.
Derek Clements is a seasoned sports journalist and regular Golfshake contributor, specialising in tour coverage, opinion pieces, and feature writing. With a long career in national newspapers and golf media, he has reported on the game across Europe, the United States and Australia. A passionate golfer, he has played and reviewed numerous renowned courses, with personal favourites including Pebble Beach, Kingsbarns, Aldeburgh, Old Thorns and the K Club. His love of the game informs his thoughtful commentary on both professional golf and the wider golfing community.