What would you have done?

[dawgstudent]

Is golf the only professional sport that you are responsible for your own play?

</a><a rel="nofollow" href="http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/news/story?id=3712372">http://sports.espn.go.com/golf/news/story?id=3712372

 

[stateskills]

1. Yes - it's the only sport I can think of.

2. I would have done the same thing (a lot easier decision from behind a keyboard though).

Outside of the ethical implications, if anyone ever found out - he'd be pretty much ostracized from the sport.

 

[TheBigDA]

Tough break but too bad more sports aren't like golf.

 

[birdZdawg]

Golf is the only sport like that. Maybe tennis where you call your own lines.

I heard Mike & Mike talking about it a little bit this morning. Golic claimed that a football player wouldn't (and shouldn't)admit to a ref that he trapped the ball, if the ref called it a complete pass. Maybe not a fair comparison, but similar. </p>

 

[benatmsu]

 

[Optimus Prime 4]

why is it OK to lie about making a catch in football, but not lie about something in golf? Intrinsically, both are cheating.

 

[Mjoelner]

I would have turned myself in AFTER I beat the **** out of my caddie. Be honest about the mistake but let the **** flow down hill.</p>

 

[birdZdawg]

nm

 

[patdog]

It's not the player's responsibility to make that call. In golf there's no official responsible for checking your score or ensuring that you're using the proper equipment. It's the golfer's responsibility. So comparing this to a football player trapping the football is an apples to oranges comparison.

 

[ckDOG]

It's not OK, but lying about it in football can be rationalized by most people. The rationalization would easily be "hell, I've been screwed on legit catches before, I'll just get one back". No less of a lie, but an easy rationalization to make yourself sleep better at night. Just like when people steal at work - many of them think "well I got screwed on my bonus this year, I'll only steal this time to even things up". Same concept.

The main thing you have to answer to in golf is yourself. I can't think of an instance where a golfer was ever screwed by the rules comittee at a golf tournament. If you cheat, you either admit it or cover it up - you are the one that's going to have to live with it - and there really isn't anything valid you can rationalize against.

Definitely one of the greatest things about golf.</p>

 

[gtowndawg]

if he was 28 and had never made the tour before. He admitted he wanted to start taking some time off, he's 43 and a multi-millionare. It was the honarbale thing to do no less.

 

[Stansfield]

I think it was a too harsh for the PGA to suspend the guy for a year. It was an honest mistake. Not like he did it on purpose and it changed the outcome of the game. To suspend the guy for an entire year for a mistake that he fessed up to is just idiotic. Like Gtown said, if he didn't have millions of dollars to fall back on he wouldn't have said a word.

 

[FlabLoser]

I'd turn Kevin Fant's *** in.

 

[patdog]

Unfortunately for him, that tournament was the qualifying tournament to get a tour card for next year. He can still play the minor league events and can get sponsorship exemptions to play in full PGA events.

 

[DerHntr]

I would have turned myself in. I got character.

 

[606VanBurenAve]

next year. Read the article, there is nowhere that it says he is suspended for a year.
It's one tournament (albeit a big one), you don't get suspended in golf for honest mistakes
on the golf course. He did the only thing he could do.