Catching someone ‘cheating’ during a round

[timd77]

another example of ‘cheating’ would be when I played the Brabazon.

4 ball stableford - I was invited along by someone I’ve known for a while and he’s played golf for many years. He went off 28 due to ‘not playing regularly’ even tho he’s been playing for a long time and is more than good.

Needless to say he scored about 50+ points and won.

is this classed as cheating? It really didn’t matter in hindsight because it was more about enjoying the course and having a laugh but I couldn’t help but think something didn’t quite add up when they did the scores at the end.

I’d class that as cheating yeh, especially if there was money/prizes up for grabs. A group of 4 of us play for a trophy every year, 4 rounds with points in a league type format. The one lad, on his day, is better than all of us, but always gives it the old ‘I don’t play as often as you lot so I should be off 20 really’, swiftly responded to with a ‘you can eff off’! A good way to deal with casual players who are off high handicaps, is to get very formal, make them play provisionals, mark a club length for drops etc.

As for dropping shots off the score on a hole, if it’s a friendly knock with nothing up for grabs then I always view at as ‘you’re only cheating yourself’ by making you think you’re better than you are. However, in comps/serious games, I’ll always keep an eye on the other player’s shots and when they’ve putted out ‘5 for you John?’, which lets them know I know but also prevents any cases of knocking a shot off and hoping you just go along with it.

 

[Bamberdele21]

Some people have no shame

The night before I was ringing him sat in a & e explaining that I may have to cancel due to getting my finger dislocated. I just about made it juiced up on painkillers whilst playing the whole round with cast on it.

He put me off 22..

I’d class that as cheating yeh, especially if there was money/prizes up for grabs. A group of 4 of us play for a trophy every year, 4 rounds with points in a league type format. The one lad, on his day, is better than all of us, but always gives it the old ‘I don’t play as often as you lot so I should be off 20 really’, swiftly responded to with a ‘you can eff off’! A good way to deal with casual players who are off high handicaps, is to get very formal, make them play provisionals, mark a club length for drops etc.

As for dropping shots off the score on a hole, if it’s a friendly knock with nothing up for grabs then I always view at as ‘you’re only cheating yourself’ by making you think you’re better than you are. However, in comps/serious games, I’ll always keep an eye on the other player’s shots and when they’ve putted out ‘5 for you John?’, which lets them know I know but also prevents any cases of knocking a shot off and hoping you just go along with it.

Nice one. Prizes sound a great way of making it interesting.

Also if you are a 4 ball how on earth do you keep track of more than 1 player?

 

[PJ87]

Nice one. Prizes sound a great way of making it interesting.

Also if you are a 4 ball how on earth do you keep track of more than 1 player?

watch everyone like a hawk

trust nobody

and really let it affect your own game

 

[Beezerk]

another example of ‘cheating’ would be when I played the Brabazon.

4 ball stableford - I was invited along by someone I’ve known for a while and he’s played golf for many years. He went off 28 due to ‘not playing regularly’ even tho he’s been playing for a long time and is more than good.

Needless to say he scored about 50+ points and won.

is this classed as cheating? It really didn’t matter in hindsight because it was more about enjoying the course and having a laugh but I couldn’t help but think something didn’t quite add up when they did the scores at the end.

Sounds like a bit of a dickheed more than anything.

 

[Orikoru]

It's a fine line sometimes. We used to play as a four-ball, one of the lads (we'll call him 'A') barely plays now as he's been working on his house on Saturdays for the last year or so. Another one of my mates ('B') swears that 'A' is a cheat. He whispered it to the other two of us for years, about how he always finds his ball, but he suspects it's often a different ball. He plays any make of ball he finds anyway, so we were never sure if it was the same ball he came out with. Then one time 'B' swears he saw 'A' playing the wrong ball and is now convinced he's a cheat. But the thing is, all of these were friendly rounds with absolutely nothing riding on them. I never saw 'A' cheat in a competition, and I have no doubt in my mind that he would never dream of doing so - in fact he was my partner in a Betterball matchplay comp a few years ago, and I would never partner up with someone I believe would cheat. I think it's just the fact that he treats our friendly rounds as practise, isn't bothered about the score or whether it's legit or not, so if he finds a ball he just hits it and doesn't bother checking. 'B' never outright accused him or said anything to him I don't think, he would just moan about it to me and the other mate in the group, and my response was as I said here - I think he just doesn't care, and if you called him on it, he'd just say ok no problem, put me down for a blob on that one. It's just different standards I guess, and how you were brought up playing.

 

[Deleted member 23270]

watch everyone like a hawk

trust nobody

and really let it affect your own game

Do you play for fun?

 

[timd77]

The night before I was ringing him sat in a & e explaining that I may have to cancel due to getting my finger dislocated. I just about made it juiced up on painkillers whilst playing the whole round with cast on it.

He put me off 22..



Nice one. Prizes sound a great way of making it interesting.

Also if you are a 4 ball how on earth do you keep track of more than 1 player?

In comps you tend to play in a 3 ball and each player marks for 1 other player. In a 4 ball you could do the same, each have a card and swap it around. Really depends how serious the game is for me. Like I say, if it’s just a friendly then they can put whatever score they like down, live in their own little bubble and claim to play off 12 when it should be 18…comes back to haunt them when you do play more seriously to handicaps! (I’m assuming these people don’t have official handicaps by the way!)

 

[Swango1980]

The night before I was ringing him sat in a & e explaining that I may have to cancel due to getting my finger dislocated. I just about made it juiced up on painkillers whilst playing the whole round with cast on it.

He put me off 22..



Nice one. Prizes sound a great way of making it interesting.

Also if you are a 4 ball how on earth do you keep track of more than 1 player?

Did you not say: "The same guy is always the one marking the cards."

Surely that implies that he is keeping track of more than one player. Putting aside the fact he may be fiddling his own score, does he keep track of your scores and the other 2 guys?

If so, just ask him how he does it. I often mark all the social in a social 4 ball. It is not usually hard to know how many shots everyone has had, but if I'm not sure I'll ask them at the end. If they say something that doesn't make sense, or that another player in the group doesn't think makes sense, we'll just try and think back and count the shots up.

 

[Bamberdele21]

It's a fine line sometimes. We used to play as a four-ball, one of the lads (we'll call him 'A') barely plays now as he's been working on his house on Saturdays for the last year or so. Another one of my mates ('B') swears that 'A' is a cheat. He whispered it to the other two of us for years, about how he always finds his ball, but he suspects it's often a different ball. He plays any make of ball he finds anyway, so we were never sure if it was the same ball he came out with. Then one time 'B' swears he saw 'A' playing the wrong ball and is now convinced he's a cheat. But the thing is, all of these were friendly rounds with absolutely nothing riding on them. I never saw 'A' cheat in a competition, and I have no doubt in my mind that he would never dream of doing so - in fact he was my partner in a Betterball matchplay comp a few years ago, and I would never partner up with someone I believe would cheat. I think it's just the fact that he treats our friendly rounds as practise, isn't bothered about the score or whether it's legit or not, so if he finds a ball he just hits it and doesn't bother checking. 'B' never outright accused him or said anything to him I don't think, he would just moan about it to me and the other mate in the group, and my response was as I said here - I think he just doesn't care, and if you called him on it, he'd just say ok no problem, put me down for a blob on that one. It's just different standards I guess, and how you were brought up playing.

makes total sense and would sum up exactly our approach to it ?

In comps you tend to play in a 3 ball and each player marks for 1 other player. In a 4 ball you could do the same, each have a card and swap it around. Really depends how serious the game is for me. Like I say, if it’s just a friendly then they can put whatever score they like down, live in their own little bubble and claim to play off 12 when it should be 18…comes back to haunt them when you do play more seriously to handicaps! (I’m assuming these people don’t have official handicaps by the way!)

I’ve put my name for about 5 comps this week and noticed a lot of them were 3 balls. Would this make it more complicated by adding myself on as 4?

Did you not say: "The same guy is always the one marking the cards."

Surely that implies that he is keeping track of more than one player. Putting aside the fact he may be fiddling his own score, does he keep track of your scores and the other 2 guys?

If so, just ask him how he does it. I often mark all the social in a social 4 ball. It is not usually hard to know how many shots everyone has had, but if I'm not sure I'll ask them at the end. If they say something that doesn't make sense, or that another player in the group doesn't think makes sense, we'll just try and think back and count the shots up.

Yeah he scores everyone’s. Although the scoring has been dubious i think it’s just easy for me to just let someone take charge of it if all, which is pretty much echoed with the rest of the group.

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

The same guy is always the one marking the cards. He’s competitive and pretty sure he knew what he was doing. Which was confirmed by the rest of us. It’s amusing because he’s quite a clued up bloke and for him not to remember his shot count is pretty far fetched.

Except we have all done it…some of us more often than others. Best to simply ask as you got a different number, and then be accepting rather than judgemental.

Separately but for me a reason why some do, or try to, cheat - the money that they might win if their cheating was to win - or get a payout place. The amounts that I hear some swindles/rollups playing for is for me, frankly, inconsistent with why we play friendly competitive golf.

Win my Saturday rollup and I might win £15…two weeks ago I was equal 2nd and won the fabulous amount of £4. And that is fine. I don’t play for the winnings, I play for the winning (if I can) and the camaraderie of a group of likeminded lads. Too much money at stake encourages cheating for the greedy and avaricious.

 

[PJ87]

It's a fine line sometimes. We used to play as a four-ball, one of the lads (we'll call him 'A') barely plays now as he's been working on his house on Saturdays for the last year or so. Another one of my mates ('B') swears that 'A' is a cheat. He whispered it to the other two of us for years, about how he always finds his ball, but he suspects it's often a different ball. He plays any make of ball he finds anyway, so we were never sure if it was the same ball he came out with. Then one time 'B' swears he saw 'A' playing the wrong ball and is now convinced he's a cheat. But the thing is, all of these were friendly rounds with absolutely nothing riding on them. I never saw 'A' cheat in a competition, and I have no doubt in my mind that he would never dream of doing so - in fact he was my partner in a Betterball matchplay comp a few years ago, and I would never partner up with someone I believe would cheat. I think it's just the fact that he treats our friendly rounds as practise, isn't bothered about the score or whether it's legit or not, so if he finds a ball he just hits it and doesn't bother checking. 'B' never outright accused him or said anything to him I don't think, he would just moan about it to me and the other mate in the group, and my response was as I said here - I think he just doesn't care, and if you called him on it, he'd just say ok no problem, put me down for a blob on that one. It's just different standards I guess, and how you were brought up playing.

Guy I work with has this theory with his game that he tries to mentally block out bad shots... so he has been called up on a hole because say the first one went OOB and hes then put second on green and 1 putt.. hes like birdie, no 3 off tee.. he goes yes sorry , because he his head to focus his mind he tries to block out mistakes and not let them build into something worse ..

can see the logic. wish I could mentally block out my shots lol

I had one myself that still makes our 4 ball laugh.. I hit a rubbish shot .. found it.. played it (srixon ad333 with my initials printed on) 50 yards up found another ball ad333 my initials on .. turns out the ball I had played was a ball I had lost a few weeks previous. Gave myself a pen for wrong ball played

now its always when I hit a wayward one "how early were you planting balls this week"

I played the next hole last time out and was helping find a mate ball .. went into a bush found about 10 balls one of them sure enough srixon ad333 with my initials .. I was like defo didnt plant this one id put it in a much better place

 

[Bamberdele21]

Guy I work with has this theory with his game that he tries to mentally block out bad shots... so he has been called up on a hole because say the first one went OOB and hes then put second on green and 1 putt.. hes like birdie, no 3 off tee.. he goes yes sorry , because he his head to focus his mind he tries to block out mistakes and not let them build into something worse ..

can see the logic. wish I could mentally block out my shots lol

I had one myself that still makes our 4 ball laugh.. I hit a rubbish shot .. found it.. played it (srixon ad333 with my initials printed on) 50 yards up found another ball ad333 my initials on .. turns out the ball I had played was a ball I had lost a few weeks previous. Gave myself a pen for wrong ball played

now its always when I hit a wayward one "how early were you planting balls this week"

I played the next hole last time out and was helping find a mate ball .. went into a bush found about 10 balls one of them sure enough srixon ad333 with my initials .. I was like defo didnt plant this one id put it in a much better place

Great read that ?

 

[Swango1980]

Guy I work with has this theory with his game that he tries to mentally block out bad shots... so he has been called up on a hole because say the first one went OOB and hes then put second on green and 1 putt.. hes like birdie, no 3 off tee.. he goes yes sorry , because he his head to focus his mind he tries to block out mistakes and not let them build into something worse ..

can see the logic. wish I could mentally block out my shots lol

I had one myself that still makes our 4 ball laugh.. I hit a rubbish shot .. found it.. played it (srixon ad333 with my initials printed on) 50 yards up found another ball ad333 my initials on .. turns out the ball I had played was a ball I had lost a few weeks previous. Gave myself a pen for wrong ball played

now its always when I hit a wayward one "how early were you planting balls this week"

I played the next hole last time out and was helping find a mate ball .. went into a bush found about 10 balls one of them sure enough srixon ad333 with my initials .. I was like defo didnt plant this one id put it in a much better place

Unless he is some sort of mind control guru, that sounds like he has simply come up with some dodgy reason to excuse his cheating in advance. So that, in future, when he tries it on, he is either not caught and gets away with it, or if he is caught he can just say "ahh, sorry, innocent mistake, it is that mind thing I do and completely forget the bad shots". I don't think I could completely forget about hitting a ball out of bounds.

If he hits a good drive, fats his 2nd a yard, puts 3rd on the green and 2 putts, does he always claim a 4 instead of a 5? If I could truly block out the bad shots in my head, my scores would probably be 10-20 shots lower than reality.

 

[Orikoru]

Unless he is some sort of mind control guru, that sounds like he has simply come up with some dodgy reason to excuse his cheating in advance. So that, in future, when he tries it on, he is either not caught and gets away with it, or if he is caught he can just say "ahh, sorry, innocent mistake, it is that mind thing I do and completely forget the bad shots". I don't think I could completely forget about hitting a ball out of bounds.

If he hits a good drive, fats his 2nd a yard, puts 3rd on the green and 2 putts, does he always claim a 4 instead of a 5? If I could truly block out the bad shots in my head, my scores would probably be 10-20 shots lower than reality.

It sounds pretty good to me. If we're only counting the good shots then I shot about 13 last time out.

 

[Neilds]

I’ve put my name for about 5 comps this week and noticed a lot of them were 3 balls. Would this make it more complicated by adding myself on as 4?

If the comp is 3 balls, it is 3 balls, you can't add yourself as a 4th. Most comps are 3 balls to try and make it a bit quicker - or at least as slow as a normal social 4 ball
Did you not get allocated a tee time and playing partners when you entered the comp?

 

[Swango1980]

It sounds pretty good to me. If we're only counting the good shots then I shot about 13 last time out.

I'd love to finish a round one day and be able to say I had at least 13 good shots.

 

[Orikoru]

I'd love to finish a round one day and be able to say I had at least 13 good shots.

I am including the 18 inch putts that actually went in the hole.

 

[RichA]

Guy I work with has this theory with his game that he tries to mentally block out bad shots... so he has been called up on a hole because say the first one went OOB and hes then put second on green and 1 putt.. hes like birdie, no 3 off tee.. he goes yes sorry , because he his head to focus his mind he tries to block out mistakes and not let them build into something worse ..

can see the logic. wish I could mentally block out my shots lol

I had one myself that still makes our 4 ball laugh.. I hit a rubbish shot .. found it.. played it (srixon ad333 with my initials printed on) 50 yards up found another ball ad333 my initials on .. turns out the ball I had played was a ball I had lost a few weeks previous. Gave myself a pen for wrong ball played

now its always when I hit a wayward one "how early were you planting balls this week"

I played the next hole last time out and was helping find a mate ball .. went into a bush found about 10 balls one of them sure enough srixon ad333 with my initials .. I was like defo didnt plant this one id put it in a much better place

I stopped initialling my golf balls when they started appearing with humiliating regularity in the the "Found Balls £1 each" basket in the clubhouse.

 

[Bamberdele21]

If the comp is 3 balls, it is 3 balls, you can't add yourself as a 4th. Most comps are 3 balls to try and make it a bit quicker - or at least as slow as a normal social 4 ball
Did you not get allocated a tee time and playing partners when you entered the comp?

I haven’t been into the club since I gained my handicap and all I’ve got in front of me is the app where all the next comps are listed which has let me add myself on to any tee time available with a click of a button.

I did subconsciously notice that there were numerous time slots taken that were 3 balls but have just added myself as a fourth without speaking to anyone.

 

[Rlburnside]

Guy I work with has this theory with his game that he tries to mentally block out bad shots... so he has been called up on a hole because say the first one went OOB and hes then put second on green and 1 putt.. hes like birdie, no 3 off tee.. he goes yes sorry , because he his head to focus his mind he tries to block out mistakes and not let them build into something worse ..

can see the logic. wish I could mentally block out my shots lol

I had one myself that still makes our 4 ball laugh.. I hit a rubbish shot .. found it.. played it (srixon ad333 with my initials printed on) 50 yards up found another ball ad333 my initials on .. turns out the ball I had played was a ball I had lost a few weeks previous. Gave myself a pen for wrong ball played

now its always when I hit a wayward one "how early were you planting balls this week"

I played the next hole last time out and was helping find a mate ball .. went into a bush found about 10 balls one of them sure enough srixon ad333 with my initials .. I was like defo didnt plant this one id put it in a much better place

Is it not a 2 shot penalty for playing the wrong ball?
I expect many of us have played a wrong ball sometime.