Cheating in golf | Page 2 | The Boneyard

Cheating in golf

Fishy said:
Punch him in the throat every time he touches his golf ball anywhere but the tee box. Even if he marks his ball on the green, throat punch.

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WTH is that dude like a vulcan or something?

"... and sleep..."
 
Golf is like spades, cheating is a part of the game.

on a serious note though, everyone golfs for different purposes & reasons. Find someone who’s values align closest to yours
 
NHRich said:
Just,curious, how widespread is cheating in golf? I recently joined a high end private club. I noticed people taking lies in the woods and rough, and sometimes on the fairways. I always played that once on the tee, you don’t touch the ball again until on the green. I also post all my scores. I’m a 10 handicap. I played with a guy today that is a 15 handicap and shot 2 over on the front nine, finished with an 82. He can birdie any hole on the course, This is not an easy course, mid 130’s slope. He was around almost every green in regulation, He’s long off tee and has excellent touch around the green. He also prefers to keep his own score on his cellphone. He wins a lot, although we don’t play for much, it is still very hard to watch. I’ve been around some very solid single digit handicaps, and he plays many holes like a solid single digit player.

I haven’t played in any club tournaments yet, there is some serious money in those. I would hate to have him in my flight. I’ve never seen more blatant handicap management and cheating on the course in my 55 years playing.

He picks his ball up as if to identify it, then places down, always with a good lie. He did this multiple times today.

The problem is he plays in a group that I like playing with every weekend.

Others are aware as well, they drop comments, but this guy always has an answer.

i was a member for many years at another very nice private club. Never saw this. There were a few guys with the opposite problem, handicaps that they could never play to.

I do enjoy playing this course. It’s very nice and challenging. The members are mostly very well off, but most are very friendly.
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big-lebowski-lebowski.gif
 
I think you have to kick this thread out of the woods and into the OT fairway. Some people just don’t observe the rules of the club.
 
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I don’t golf but some of this is surprising to me. I would have figured there are more guys that lie about having low handicaps and brag about it but I’m seeing here that there are more that are better players than their handicap would indicate and use that as a way to win.
 
Edward Sargent said:
In our last member guest we were in a flight with two orthopedic surgeons. The member who I didn’t know was a 36 hcp. We played them first and beat them then proceeded to tie every other pair in our flight. We ended up second in our flight to the ortopods who beat every other pair in our flight. Oh and the 36 hcp? He won longest drive and one of the closest to the pins! Hmmm
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If he wasn’t a member I’d say he sounds like a good friend of mine. Played a lot as a kid but now only 2-3x year so his game isn’t consistent. I’ve seen him hit the ball 300+, hit the green from 250 out and still shoot 100+.
 
NHRich said:
Just,curious, how widespread is cheating in golf? I recently joined a high end private club. I noticed people taking lies in the woods and rough, and sometimes on the fairways. I always played that once on the tee, you don’t touch the ball again until on the green. I also post all my scores. I’m a 10 handicap. I played with a guy today that is a 15 handicap and shot 2 over on the front nine, finished with an 82. He can birdie any hole on the course, This is not an easy course, mid 130’s slope. He was around almost every green in regulation, He’s long off tee and has excellent touch around the green. He also prefers to keep his own score on his cellphone. He wins a lot, although we don’t play for much, it is still very hard to watch. I’ve been around some very solid single digit handicaps, and he plays many holes like a solid single digit player.

I haven’t played in any club tournaments yet, there is some serious money in those. I would hate to have him in my flight. I’ve never seen more blatant handicap management and cheating on the course in my 55 years playing.

He picks his ball up as if to identify it, then places down, always with a good lie. He did this multiple times today.

The problem is he plays in a group that I like playing with every weekend.

Others are aware as well, they drop comments, but this guy always has an answer.

i was a member for many years at another very nice private club. Never saw this. There were a few guys with the opposite problem, handicaps that they could never play to.

I do enjoy playing this course. It’s very nice and challenging. The members are mostly very well off, but most are very friendly.
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Quite frankly ... this is about your own self identity. I know when I am cutting corners and it is all in my head as to true score and handicap. For a 20 handicap, you see an awful lot more little things like improving lies ... and then the championship season, things turn tense. I think you often see clubs turn on this. People don't want to play with those that have the reputation of going beyond the reasonable rulebreaks.
 
pro tip: do not bet on any sport in which you are an active participant to avoid the bell curve of folks that you will encounter if u do. ya know, the margins occupied by either the wholly scrupulous or the wholly unscrupulous, and the vast majority of those in the middle who magically turn into lawyers depending upon the situation, ie 'i don't usually take a mulligan, bbut, bbut...'
 
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Usually played to an agreed upon set of rules, modified or not. As long as we play the same game and a poor shot was not rewarded, I was ok with it so never had much problem. Always asked how you wanted to play it.
 
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Two things bug me..The guy who gets to the green ahead of the foursome and attempts to make his putt.. If he misses-gives himself the "gimme" putt coming back instead of putting out.--even if out of gimme range.

And the guy who tries to get in your head after your first good shot/putt.. Just be quiet and respect the game/your opponent. Bustin' among friends is ok but not in a competitive game/match.
 
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Edward Sargent said:
In our last member guest we were in a flight with two orthopedic surgeons. The member who I didn’t know was a 36 hcp. We played them first and beat them then proceeded to tie every other pair in our flight. We ended up second in our flight to the ortopods who beat every other pair in our flight. Oh and the 36 hcp? He won longest drive and one of the closest to the pins! Hmmm
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Could just be an extremely inconsistent player. I suck. Like I really suck. But I still manage to have one or two really nice shots every round.
 
ZenConn said:
Cheating? Never happens.

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pshaw. i taught that guy everything he knows. deep bunkers? limber up ur pitching arm... 'hey gang! check out that blue heron hiding in the tree!' 'is that elvis standing on the next tee?'
and, should yelling 'winter rules!' in florida, the gulf coast, southern kali, and hawaii be grounds for summary execution?' deep thoughts....
 
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As a casual player, I'm in the who cares category. I don't keep a handicap, and we don't play for money. Speed of play matters more. Close putts are "good". If I pull a ball from the woods and drop it, yes I take the penalty stroke. My drop is likely to be a bit favorable. But remember too, public courses are such that a true drop can be rather unfair given conditions of the course. Playing at a nice private course, I rarely find any cause to improve my lie, because my ball isn't on hard bare dirt, a root or a rock.

The people I'd like to see throat punched are those that spend more than 30 seconds lining up a putt or taking practice swings from the fairway. Hit the ball and get moving. You aren't at The Masters.
 
I once played in our course Match Play Championship.
I was a 14 handicap and drew a guy I knew who was a legitimate 7-8. He could break 80 falling out of bed.
Somehow before the Tournament he balloons up 12-13 . He had to put in a bunch of bad scores to get there. We had a machine that recalculated our handicap and since we played every day it took a significant period of time to move in either direction.
I played him around even for 9 but when you get behind and press its downhill from there. Remember he is out driving me by 30-40 yards on every hole.
and I loose 4-3. He ended up winning the tourney and making a bunch of enemies.
With real handicaps the pressure is on him not me and the outcome is different. I wasn’t going to win it all but it would have been nice to have an even shot.
For you non golfers
If we played legitimate handicaps
I would get one stroke on each of the 7 hardest holes.
Since he is a longer hitter than me the long par 4 usually would be among the hardest. He might be able to par the hole but with a stroke a boggie gives me half .
Im as good as him ,maybe better , as short irons were my strength. on the par 3‘s and all but the longest 5’s again where I’m getting a stroke .
I played in a mulligan event which to everyone’s surprise no one really made a big score improvement.
 
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HuskyHawk said:
As a casual player, I'm in the who cares category. I don't keep a handicap, and we don't play for money. Speed of play matters more. Close putts are "good". If I pull a ball from the woods and drop it, yes I take the penalty stroke. My drop is likely to be a bit favorable. But remember too, public courses are such that a true drop can be rather unfair given conditions of the course. Playing at a nice private course, I rarely find any cause to improve my lie, because my ball isn't on hard bare dirt, a root or a rock.

The people I'd like to see throat punched are those that spend more than 30 seconds lining up a putt or taking practice swings from the fairway. Hit the ball and get moving. You aren't at The Masters.
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Amen . Some guys even argue for 5 minutes on whose out. That’s justification for murder.
I once got behind our local HS playing a practice round . These kids take 100 practice swings before every shot. The last foursomes are always the highest handicap so they take a lot of shots.
 
As long as you play your 18 in 3:30 or less I don't care.
 
About handicaps. I play golf infrequently but played as a kid, don’t belong to a club and don’t have a handicap. I can shoot in the 80’s and I can shoot 110 depending on frequency of play and difficulty of the course. If the rough is cut wider and higher it can destroy your game and the same course can look completely different. There is just a lot of room for shenanigans on handicaps and I think generous numbers are given. So many factors but yes there are a lot of sandbaggers out there. Love the sand trap vid, also Leslie Nielsen has a good one out there.
 
uconnfan68 said:
Check his bio for college golf scholarship.
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I have another golf cheating story involving a college golf scholarship student intern. So I took on an engineering student from NC St. He was also on the NC St golf team, so I added him to our Company Golf League Team. Here we are in the semi's of the championship and playing our Procurement Group (we were Safety and Environmental). Anyway one of the Procurement players (a woman) yanks her drive way off the fairway leaving her in some deep grass with a sideways lie. Our intern is standing on top of the hill watching when she fluffs the ball out of the deep grass. My intern calls her on it saying you can't do that. Do what she asks? Fluff your ball he responds. Do you know who I am she asks? Yes I do you're the VP of procurement and I am a lowly intern, but you still fluffed your ball he responds. She had to take a 2 stroke penalty and we won. I also highly recommended the intern for eventual full time employment!
uconnfan68 said:
Check his bio for college golf scholarship.
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I do not play golf. Nearly all of my golfing experience has been in Boneyard tourneys.

I played one golf game, totally clean, counted every stroke, improved no lies, took no "gimmies", took no drops.

Shot 124, or so.

I am told that that is a high score for golf. I must be a natural to score so many points.
 
AZHuskiePop said:
Amen . Some guys even argue for 5 minutes on whose out. That’s justification for murder.
I once got behind our local HS playing a practice round . These kids take 100 practice swings before every shot. The last foursomes are always the highest handicap so they take a lot of shots.
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Ready golf. If some guy is looking for his ball in the woods beyond the green and you are on the green, putt away. Now, if you are already waiting at every tee, well, then maybe not. Never be the reason play is slow. Maybe I'm unusual, but I only take practice swings on partial swings, to get the feel for just how much I'm swinging. Any full swing I tend to be better if I walk up and hit it. Same off the tee. Thinking too much leads to bad things.
 
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Don't care how bad a player or group is. Don't score on the greens, Don't group to a single lie, Don't drop another ball in the fairway if you hit a poor shot that's what the range is for (unless you are playing single).
 
jibsey said:
I would tell them that you don’t want to play for money as long as lies are being improved because you are not used to playing that way. Bad lies or rough lies could be 10 strokes in a round especially with those 5 foot gimme puts.
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I don’t golf but this feels like good advice.
 
polycom said:
As long as you play your 18 in 3:30 or less I don't care.
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only good thing from Covid was the temporary 1 player per cart. Didn’t have as much time to chat with my buddies but was playing 18 in 2:45 or less Now it takes that long for 9
 
Kenny11 said:
I don’t golf but some of this is surprising to me. I would have figured there are more guys that lie about having low handicaps and brag about it but I’m seeing here that there are more that are better players than their handicap would indicate and use that as a way to win.
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It works both ways. They lie with a high handicap when it comes to actually competing. When talking to strangers at parties, they lie with a low handicap.
 
Two things I think

1. Know your club. I used to play at a club where it was just accepted practice that you roll it over on your fairway. It was a local rule even. Apparently it began when they put in a new watering system years ago so fairways were kind of a mess for a season or two. The members liked it and kept it after the fairways were really good. I guess as long as the rules are the same for everyone, it is fine. I played in a match play thing over the course of the season and lost to a guy who marked his balk with a Kennedy 1/2 dollar. Put it down in front of his ball to mark, then put the ball down in front of the marker. And he kept dropping putts that would just fall. He clearly cheated but he was also a really good putter. But I decided it wasn’t worth getting into a fight about it since I was new. Now I’d call him out.

2. Just like every other sport, guys sometimes play way over their heads or way below their potential. I’m around a 15 nowadays. In my younger days I was 9-12. But I shot 82 a few weeks ago and have put together some other very solid rounds. I also shot 106 one day when nothing went right. I suppose if a guy regularly puts up good rounds in tournaments, and bad at other times it might be different. But sometimes it’s just golf.
 
polycom said:
As long as you play your 18 in 3:30 or less I don't care.
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I haven't played 18 with a foursome in 3:30 all year. And that's 20 rounds at about 8 different courses. Average has been about 4:15.
 
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