PurpAnd

Earlier, I posted a brief summary of my weekend. In the post, I mentioned some drama relating to our golf tournament win on Saturday. Let me give you some more detail…

Coming in at the turn (after nine holes), we were 3-under par, a decent score for how the course played with its tiny and fast greens. We subtly inquired with other teams about their score and were pretty confident that we were leading. We had also checked with our playing partner from last year’s event and were ahead of his two-man team by one stroke. (For simplicity, we’ll call him Benji).

We struggled on the second nine, as the darkness wreaked havoc with our ability to make good shots. In fact, by this point, the best shots came from the tray of jello that was being walked around the course. In the first three holes, we made two bogeys and became concerned about our lead. Luckily, we made some clutch shots on holes 4 and 8, leading to some birdies and an even par back nine .

Knowing that many of the teams could not easily avoid bogeys, we felt even par coming in was good enough to keep our overall score of 3-under in the lead. However, when the score cards were handed in and tallied, after some crazy math was dismissed, our 3-under was tied for first… with Benji’s team.

This was odd. On the course, he had said they’d been pulling their shots left all night. We even thought they didn’t finish one of the holes, but could not be certain. But given the admittance of errant shots, birdies would not have come easily for them. And to be tied with us after 18 holes, they would have needed to make at least one birdie and par the reminder of the holes. A feat seemingly impossible given their quality of play. Nevertheless, they came in with a scorecard at 3-under par and the tournament director called a playoff. Although we felt this was ridiculous, we remained somewhat quiet, knowing (or hoping) that good would triumph.

The playoff was to be team captain vs. team captain in a closest to the pin shot on the first hole. Essentially, closest to pin in one shot wins the tournament.

Our captain won the coin toss and elected to go second. Benji strode to the tee, took a few practice swings and then… pppbst, flubbed one into the reeds off the tee. Oooh, how embarrasing… And wait a second, this was the guy that was supposedly tied for the lead? We didn’t make a big deal out of it and our captain just went about his business.

Not needing much to win, he calmly struck his golf ball and watched as it flew a beautiful track toward the hole. It stopped 8 feet from the cup. We won!

Now, I have a hard time with Benji’s ethics. I apologize if my assumptions that his team cheated are incorrect, but for me, the evidence is too damning. At any point during the night, he could have copped to his card being bogus and the embarrasment would have been avoided. But, they pressed that they were legit and all the drama ensued. (To add more fuel to the controversy, his teammate tried the same playoff shot after most people had disbursed and squibbed his off the tee just like Benji).

I’ll have to admit that I am a good boy when it comes to this kind of stuff. Almost too good. Since I haven’t been in much trouble in my life, my tendencies to sit high and mighty often wound the feelings of others who have had their share of infractions. But I like to do things right and to me, this wasn’t right. Let’s say, for example, that Benji had won the playoff. His team would have falsely won the tournament and taken away our chance for a photo with the trophy. Knowing that my actions could have that kind of affect keeps me from doing things like that.

Lastly, I can’t say whether I am surprised or not surprised by Benji’s actions (again, this is assuming his scorecard was not truthful). The guy is a salesman by day so it makes sense he would do what he could in order to get what he wanted. However, the products he sells have direct impact on the well-being of his clients, so it would also be in his interest to be the best representative he can be.

In the end, I can’t call the guy a cheater, because I wasn’t with him during the tournament. I did congratulate him on his play mostly because that is the polite thing to do. And in the absence of he or his playing partner admitting they shaved strokes, no one will ever know if they did or not.

I invite you to comment on this if you have thoughts on how we handled it (i.e. agreeing to a playoff, not being more vocal about his play, etc.) or if you would have done something differently.