Medal...I refused to sign his card.

A tough situation and handled very well imo, I can't honestly say how I'd handle it and hope I never have to find out.

One thing I can't agree with some other posters on though is that he didn't realise he was doing anything wrong. Also that he will have learned his lesson.
The only lesson he will have learned it to make sure he doesn't do it with someone else watching carefully.

I think he will have been doing it for a long time, and will continue to do so.

Even if Tommo had mentioned it when he first noticed it, maybe the guy would do it properly for the rest of that round but next time out it would be back to usual.

And I'm normally the last one to think anything bad of anybody.
 
It has to be commended that you did take a stand and say something. Even more so after the other person in the group refused any part. I'm sure a lot of people, myself probably included, would've thought "Oh well. My word against his if this other lad won't check. I'll just leave it" as soon as the other guy wanted no part.

Fair play to you. Hopefully this'll act as a bit of inspiration if I ever find myself in a similar unfortunate situation. :cheers:
 
Just a thought here, say you end up in a situation like Tommo , you refuse to mark the card , 3rd player doesnt wana know .. others get involved & contact you , you explain exactly what happened or should i say what you saw happen .. so its all gone kinda public & official

What happens if the guy is a stubborn ole dude & takes legal action against you for taking his "good" name ,( think this has happened where clubs diciplined people before) its your word against his , you have no proof , you accused him but you have to prove he did it he doesnt have to prove anything ..

I agree that Tommo did the right thing .................. Just wondering like , would it be worth that ?
 
Last edited:
bladeplayer said:
Just a thought here, say you end up in a situation like Tommo , you refuse to mark the card , 3rd player doesnt wana know .. others get involved & contact you , you explain exactly what happened or should i say what you saw happen .. so its all gone kinda public & official

What happens if the guy is a stubborn ole dude & takes legal action against you for taking his "good" name ,( think this has happened where clubs diciplined people before) its your word against his , you have no proof , you accused him but you have to prove he did it he doesnt have to prove anything ..

I agree that Tommo did the right thing .................. Just wondering like , would it be worth that ?
Click to expand...

Aye, suppose if this was confronted earlier, the whole club would not need to know and save embarrassment. A have a feeling this guy is not gonna let this lie and you'll probably get a lot of pettiness and backlash from him and his close crowd.

A played with someone that grounded the club in bunkers, spotted it 2nd time and mentioned it. The next few times he was bunkered, I watched and no grounding of the club.
I think nipping it in the bud early just saves so much hassle in the future.
 
Ok the guy got caught, but it brings on the question of what is the proper way to mark the ball,
When I first started playing, I had the marker actually touching the bottom of the ball,
This however caused issues when removing the marker as sometimes I would catch the ball with my fingers as I removed the marker.

So now I put the leading edge of the marker directly underneath the edge of the ball, as you look down on it. so there is a gap of about 1 cm between the marker and the base of the ball.

This allows me to move the marker without touching the ball

Is this what everyone else does?
 
I put mine at a comfortable distance behind the ball. Pretty much as you've described. The bottom of the ball is about 10mm or so away from the marker. I then replace the ball exactly the same way. It's not rocket science really is it?
 
PhilTheFragger said:
Ok the guy got caught, but it brings on the question of what is the proper way to mark the ball,
When I first started playing, I had the marker actually touching the bottom of the ball,
This however caused issues when removing the marker as sometimes I would catch the ball with my fingers as I removed the marker.

So now I put the leading edge of the marker directly underneath the edge of the ball, as you look down on it. so there is a gap of about 1 cm between the marker and the base of the ball.

This allows me to move the marker without touching the ball

Is this what everyone else does?
Click to expand...

Didn't Ian Poulter get penalised for the same thing?
 
triple_bogey said:
I think nipping it in the bud early just saves so much hassle in the future.
Click to expand...

Haven't read through all of the replies but I'm with you. Always try and defuse a situation as soon as you can in a non-confrontational way. By doing that he has chance to save face and the situation does not escalate into something that effects you personally.
 
bladeplayer said:
Just a thought here, say you end up in a situation like Tommo , you refuse to mark the card , 3rd player doesnt wana know .. others get involved & contact you , you explain exactly what happened or should i say what you saw happen .. so its all gone kinda public & official

What happens if the guy is a stubborn ole dude & takes legal action against you for taking his "good" name ,( think this has happened where clubs diciplined people before) its your word against his , you have no proof , you accused him but you have to prove he did it he doesnt have to prove anything ..

I agree that Tommo did the right thing .................. Just wondering like , would it be worth that ?
Click to expand...

I think that scenario is possibly taking it a bit far with legal action. But I agree that it is not worth any personal anguish and worry for the sake of someone moving a ball a few mm closer to the hole.
 
Sorry but I have to laugh everytime someone states " a 5 h/capper should know the basic rules " - there is absolutely no basis for a 5 to have any different understanding of the rules to any other handicap. The only practical difference in that people seem to assume that a lower handicap will know them better, and that some lower handicap players can talk the rules better!

Just as an example; I was asked by a 7 for my view on a couple of situations that had occured in a league match last week - in both cases a 4 handicap claimed a hole (and was conceded it) under a completely false premise. Based on the working assumption of most in this thread the player would have known that they were quoting incorrectly from the rules and should therefore be penalised himself! (I'm pretty sure he didn't and it was the normal combination of ignorance and attitude that crops up from time to time...).
 
Very well done! It takes a big, big man to stand up to such behaviour.
As has been said, as no explanation was forthcoming then I fear he knows that he's done wrong.

As Murph says, why do people do this? Is 2mm from 12' really going to matter?
 
The purpose in marking the ball is so that it can be put back in EXACTLY the place it was picked up from, otherwise why bother marking it at all, just guess or just put it back close to where you think it was. Marking and replacing in EXACTLY the same place is the only way to comply with the rule on marking the ball. Everything outside of that is breaking the rules and breaking the rules deliberately and/or repeatedly is cheating.

How much advantage the guy gained isn't the question here. Obviously we are talking millimetres, distance wise so not a lot unless he is avoiding spike marks or non repairable blemishes just in front of the where the ball should have been.

I'm not entirely sure I would have left it as long as the OP did to say something.. In some ways the OP has left himself with only one option and that was the one he took. I think after the 2nd time I might have joked with the guy about lax marking of his ball, not to save his blushes but to save ME having to take the brave step of calling him officially for it. If he doesn't take it on board when mentioned in some form then he deserves all he gets.

Not that the OP did anything wrong, quite the oposite, just raising an alternative way of dealing with it.
 
I'm not convinced this incident was handled in the best way. If I had witnessed this I would have been more inclined to ask this guy if he has always marked his ball with the coin so far behind it, maybe comment that it's an unusual way to mark his ball. That way he would have realised he was being watched then maybe started marking correctly.

Perhaps this way a disqualification and any unnecessary confrontation could have been avoided.
 
if he moves it on the green whats to say he don't do likewise in the rough, divot, bad lie etc. as said at the start he had to make sure before confronting the player.

great read this thread..
 
scratch said:
I'm not convinced this incident was handled in the best way. If I had witnessed this I would have been more inclined to ask this guy if he has always marked his ball with the coin so far behind it, maybe comment that it's an unusual way to mark his ball. That way he would have realised he was being watched then maybe started marking correctly.

Perhaps this way a disqualification and any unnecessary confrontation could have been avoided.
Click to expand...

The thing is, its hard to put this together when you are playing your own game. If you read the other points, I did notice him placing the ball with a gap. Then as the holes past I happen to notice he slid the coin under. No real alarm went off then.

The real point in all this..when I was totally sure, it then came to me he was doing it all the way round and that's the other reason I waited to make sure he was doing it all the time. When I seen him repeat it a few times it settled my mind that he done it from the start.

Pulling him the first time, IMO would not have been any good, because he had defaulted on the previous holes. To call that I had to make sure he was doing it all the time. Remember, there were a few holes where I couldn't stand over him....in these holes I gave him the benefit of the doubt.

This guy was breaking the rules by a fair margin, he was a long time member, I was there only two years, I didn't know him, he was a well known player...........So, It had to be more than the first time I saw it. Not for anyone else's sake, for my sake as I was signing his card. There is no rule or right n wrong way to do this. I could only do what I thought was right......and I feel okay with that. Especially for the guy that actually won it.
 
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