Cheating in competition: your stories

[tuq]

Cliff's Notes at bottom.

Golfing competitively for >25 years now, I have a couple, but the most interesting one occurred a couple of years ago in what was supposed to be a fun get-together.

We put together a 24-man event at Stoneridge Golf Course, a well-maintained course about 90 minutes up the hill in Prescott. Definitely a weird course in that the elevation change was extreme, and from one tee up and a bit of courage a good golfer could drive a good number of their par 4s. This made for a fun scramble course.

I was a captain of one of the teams and was heavily responsible for establishing the format. Everyone threw in $50 on top of the costs for the bus and booze. We drafted teams a couple of nights in advance, two twelve-man teams, most of us knew each other well except for a couple of friends-of-friends. The team with the most points at the end of the day would win $50. In the morning it would be twelve individual matches, with a value of one point per match, 1/2 for ties, handicapped.

The afternoon round is where I was responsible for most of the setup. We ranged in handicap from ~1 to a ~24. That round was to be a four man scramble vs. a group from the other team, no handicaps. If you beat your opponent on a hole (unless you were watching them play in front of or behind you, you really wouldn't know until the round was over) you got a point on that hole. To keep things close, if you took a par or worse you moved UP one teebox, if you got a birdie or better you moved BACK one teebox. There are like five sets of markers on that course and it ensured that until you tipped out you would be moving to a different box every hole. It was a self-handicapper of sorts.

Finally, I convinced the other organizers to put all the "A" players together, and all the "C" players together, with the ones in the middle playing together as well. This meant that the better players weren't counted on to carry their team all round, and that the worst players would be more valued participants as their shots would be used more.

So far, so good. We were a point or two down after the morning round but there were more points available in the afternoon. Everyone finishes and it's revealed that our team had lost by a single point. Wow, close. But then a couple of guys from our "C" group came up hissing that their competitors had SKIPPED a hole, and we checked the card and they gave themselves a BIRDIE on that hole, in big black two-box-tall Sharpie. As our team had only parred we had credited the other team with a point. We consulted the members of that group and they all "suddenly" remembered that they had skipped a hole and somehow forgot to mention it to anybody, and somehow gave themselves a birdie. This resulted in a loss for them on that hole, so instead of a one point lost, we got a one point win. It was super weird and I would have been happy with a chop, which is probably what they would have gotten had they simply played the hole.

It's worth mentioning that two of the guys in that group are notoriously untrustworthy, and one of the other two was an outsider who was likely to just play along. Also, I called out one of them at dinner that night and he has since tried to blackball me from our regular group and makes a big scene about not inviting me to his house parties, LOL.

Wondering if anyone else has come across such collusion or has a story of cheating against them in competition.

Cliff's Notes: opposing team skips a hole, gives themselves a birdie, seemingly a one point win. Their opponents on our team flip out, the birdie becomes a lost hole and we win by a single point.

[Poker CPA]

Sure, but its never worth it to bring up or confront the cheaters. You just can't win, leave it to someone else. Just have FUN and always remember "PAYBACK IS A BITCH". There are many ways to make them look silly, while being a gentleman. You just need the right moment and a firm knowledge of the rules, especially penalty drops and free drops. Anger works against you.

The greatest fear of a cheater is playing an opponent who knows he is a cheater, and this oppenont is known to be gentleman, with a high respect for the game. Be that GENTLEMAN.

[Hey_Porter]

Nothing too exciting, but the one blatant cheater I played with was during my freshman year of high school. I was playing JV, and we were playing against some podunk varsity team with one player who could shoot below 90. One of the kids I was matched with CONSISTENTLY gave himself one stroke less than he actually got. Thing was, he was shooting 9s and 10s on par 4s, so it wasn't really worth a confrontation to correct him every hole, although I did do it once or twice.

[Doug Funnie II]

Varsity golf match junior year. Private school so team medal is all that matters. One kid in my group had been playing well but wasn't a douche about it. I think he was like 2 under through 16 and the rest of us were maybe 5 over. 17th hole, ~220 yards DIRECTLY into the sun, OB right and a river running all the way down the left. He hits first and hooks into water. The other 3 of us hit tee shots that guarantee double at least. We get to the drop zone and he takes a ball out of his bag and pauses for a second and turns to look at us.

"3s all around?"

He "shot" 70 that day.

[ghostface]

At my PAT the guy from my group that passed played and holed a wrong ball on a hole on the back nine during the 2nd round. I would rather have him pass knowing he cheated than have DQed him because he was easily good enough to pass with the penalty for wrong ball if he had called himself on it. On the hole in question, all 3 of us hit perfect drives but for some reason he pulled off to the right of where his ball was laying and apparently dropped a ball. I couldnt figure out why as all three of our balls were dead center in the fairway.

[LimitGod]

Was playing in walk-ons for my college (I won...yay) and one of my competitors was struggling to make the cut down to the final 4 for the 6th round. We were on the 14th hole, a straight away par 4 but tree-lined. Anyways, he blocks his tee shot into the trees and we cannot find it.

All of a sudden I look at him and he's taking a ball out of his pocket. I don't say anything and he cannot see me b/c Im shielded by a tree.

This is the funny part...

Next thing I know he is sticking his arm shoulder deep into a gopher hole and guess what....he FOUND his ball. I didn't say anything to him at the time but when he made the cut by 1 over someone else I told him he either needed to withdraw or I would have to report what he had done. He withdrew and kept some sort of dignity.

[tuq]

Heh, there are some "good" stories in this thread. Thanks for sharing.

Best next story I have to offer is a "friend" who never loses a ball in the desert, or the father of a friend 20+ years ago who cut a hole in his shorts to slip balls through when his son lost one in competition...

[TripleH68]

[ QUOTE ]
Varsity golf match junior year. Private school so team medal is all that matters. One kid in my group had been playing well but wasn't a douche about it. I think he was like 2 under through 16 and the rest of us were maybe 5 over. 17th hole, ~220 yards DIRECTLY into the sun, OB right and a river running all the way down the left. He hits first and hooks into water. The other 3 of us hit tee shots that guarantee double at least. We get to the drop zone and he takes a ball out of his bag and pauses for a second and turns to look at us.

"3s all around?"

He "shot" 70 that day.

[/ QUOTE ]

Pathetic.

[Butcho22]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Varsity golf match junior year. Private school so team medal is all that matters. One kid in my group had been playing well but wasn't a douche about it. I think he was like 2 under through 16 and the rest of us were maybe 5 over. 17th hole, ~220 yards DIRECTLY into the sun, OB right and a river running all the way down the left. He hits first and hooks into water. The other 3 of us hit tee shots that guarantee double at least. We get to the drop zone and he takes a ball out of his bag and pauses for a second and turns to look at us.

"3s all around?"

He "shot" 70 that day.

[/ QUOTE ]

standard

[/ QUOTE ]

fyp

[Butcho22]

I've got a couple funny stories myself...

I was 16-17 and I'll admit right now that I am the villian in this story.

1st-

Two man scramble tournament with every high school in my district there. Drivable par 4, and my partner is putting for birdie from ~18 ft. I've already missed my putt, so he HAS to make his. The other two guys in our group are getting ready to hit their putts, but they're off the green by their bags and not really paying much attention.
I'm right there holding the flag near the cup watching my partners putt track towards the cup. Only problem is there is no way it's going in.
I then attempt to nudge it in with my foot, but fail. Next thing I know I'm picking up the ball, screaming, "Yah! Birdie", and walking off the green. lol. The other two we were playing with were very suspicious, but they were freshmen, and we were juniors so they could only question us so much.
We hacked our way to a -3 under score, so I guess we got what we deserved. haha

2nd-

It was raining buckets and the greens were collecting water. One hole has a nice pool building directly in my line.
When the other team was looking away I moved my mark about 35% closer to the hole. My partner saw this, (he happened to be the one guy who was competing with me for a varsity spot), and he couldn't wait to run off and tell our coach.
I denied it..coach didn't know what to do, (nor did he care, he was just in it for the free golf), so he just let it go.

I was always doing to old "wipe my line but really move my marker up a bit" trick.

a)mark your ball
b)pick up your ball, and your marker
c)make a few swipes 6-9 inches in front of where your mark was, (ball and marker both in hand)
d)place marker close to hole!

You would think someone would notice, but I did this a ton in my high school matches and never got caught once.

Flame away, this was 7 years ago and I'm a lot more mature so I'm not afraid to admit my wrongdoings, lol.