Saltman gets ban for cheating.

[USER1999]

He must be the worst cheat in the world.

If you are going to get pinged for cheating, it ought to have been some thing where there was a huge advantage to be gained, one that lead to loads of wonga. Chopping a tree down, using the leather wedge, 'finding' a lost ball, or some such.

Moving a ball a few millimeters on the putting green gives no advantage at all.

Berk.

 

[Bacardibatman]

lets face it there has to be reasons why its only 3 months, and not the same length of other bans handed out.

tbh without me knowing the exact details

from what i've read "it was marking it and then placing the ball fractions of inches closer in front of the marker"

enough to be noticed and pulled up and given a ban for
ok its not the D.R. 15 foot closer
But ,we all know this is wrong to move it even the tiniest bit closer...so surely he does

if he wants to fight it fair enough
if he does and loses will they increase ban? (has he a downside and anything more to lose by doing so?


if he wants it to go away ... "ok i accept the punishment handed out" and make no further comment on whether he agrees with it take the 3 months and get back after that

tbh he's never going to be rid of the stigma completely, ppl will always say "cheat" Even if he disproves it (not right but this is the world we live in)....take the 3 months move on and consider himself lucky

im sure if it was really clear cut surely it would be a lengthy ban like the others

but he did already accept it...this has to go against him

 

[muttleee]

Is this the world's shortest club or what?

 

[Robobum]

Is this the world's shortest club or what?

It's extendable up to 8 ft, helps him with his drops!!!

 

[Bacardibatman]

Is this the world's shortest club or what?

no alegedly it a few fractions of an inch longer .....so when he's in need of a penalty drop ......'ll stop right there lol

 

[Bacardibatman]

see we had the same idea Robobum

nice to know someones as equally twisted as me

 

[USER1999]

That's still longer than JustOnes putter.

 

[19th]

IF, as stated he moved the ball from the side of his marker to the front five times and IF his average putt was, say, 12 feet - his total improvement was 5 cms on a total putt length of 60 feet!!

I do not agree that this 1cm made any difference to the difficulty of the putts and his reason for so doing must be other than that!


I would think that being DQed could have an enormous knock on effect, not just with his fellow players but sponsorship, invites, corporate days etc. I saw David Robertson, after his DQ, at Royal Aberdeen, practice putting and the quality of his golf balls was unbelivable - they looked as if they had been used for ten rounds by ME!!

The freebies had obviously all ran dry!

 

[funkyfred]

It's hard to judge without having the full facts on these things.

But, if he had done it 5 times during the same round why hadn't his playing partners pulled him up on it after the 1st time, the 2nd time, 3rd time????

Why did they leave it till the end then decide to bring it up?? Part of their job is to "look after" the interests of the rest of the field too, seeing him "cheat" a further 4 times before bringing it up doesn't strike me as doing that.

Although not excuseable, wasn't the Monty one a bit different?? Didn't he return after a weather delay and find his markers no longer there??

I agree. I dont know if each pairing have a referee out with them in these smaller events, if they do why wasn't he informed?

Funny enough a couple of months ago I noticed a guy I was playing with marking his ball by placing the marker in front of the ball, now I have never seen that before. I didn't think anything of it at the time and I didn't check where he placed the ball when he replaced it, but later in the round I did noticed that he was marking his ball in the traditional way, from behind.

 

[percy_layer]

I just hope the whole thing doesn't adversely affect the two guys who first reported it. I once played against someone who was seen to drop a ball where we were looking for his (his actual ball was found later by the group behind us), he had made sure i didn't see him do it but 3 of his team mates and 2 of mine saw what happened. I thought it was going to end up in court and i couldn't sleep for the worry. For 3 months i was getting letters and phone calls and even though i wasn't a witness or the one who reported on it, i was there and it was a horrible thing to go through. I just hope these guys can get through it ok.

 

[Tommo21]

If he was pulled up the first time then he could easily argue they were wrong, we would all be in doubt saying they saw something once doesn’t amount to anything substantial. The two other guys would probably question themselves if they pulled him up straight away. At a guess after the second or third time the other two must have thought this guy is actually cheating

The two other players must have conferred to make sure both were seeing the same thing and there is also a good chance one player seen it a couple of times before conferring with the other for back up.

To answer anyone who thinks you can’t get and advantage from this is nothing to do with it. Lots of golf’s rules, when broken, usually mean there is no advantage gained.

Ask yourself, how many times do you actually pay attention to how your playing partners mark and replace their ball.

 

[sawtooth]

I was beginning to think this was something they taught north of the border

Robertson, Monty and now Saltman.

 

[Tommo21]

Saltman is the first professional to be expelled from Europe's premier events since Johan Tumba was banned for 10 years in 1992, after changing his scorecard at tour school.

Johan Tumba....good scottish name, good scottish name.

 

[USER1999]

VJ has probably got his own tartan being designed as I type.

 

[Bacardibatman]

I was beginning to think this was something they taught north of the border

Robertson, Monty and now Saltman.

perhaps they think if they leave a little extra room between the ball and the 5p it might grow into a £1 coin


actually montys i heard, he marked his ball walked off the green the wrong way came back across saw a coin and picked it quickly b4 anyone saw and said it was theirs

he was gutted when he found out what he'd done .....and it was only a 2p coin not a 10p

id better stop b4 they go all braveheart on me

 

[Fyldewhite]

Moving a ball a few millimeters on the putting green gives no advantage at all.

Not in terms of distance or the likely affect on the resulting putt perhaps but there is often a big psychological advantage. Some people cannot function unless they feel like they have "the edge" in any given situation. It's typical in matchplay where a well timed "unlucky" can have a big effect without breaking the rules. Feeling you have the phsycological advantage makes you more confident and we all know how important confidence is. Those few millimetres can make a big difference to certain people and will unfairly increase their confidence.

 

[robbest3offthetee]

Does anybody think though that he has always marked his ball this way ,from coming through as a junior to where he is now,not trying to justify what he has done but it could be the normal way he does it,maybe he has never been caught before ,but has always done it (force of habit) rightly or wrongly....

 

[Tommo21]

Does anybody think though that he has always marked his ball this way ,from coming through as a junior to where he is now,not trying to justify what he has done but it could be the normal way he does it,maybe he has never been caught before ,but has always done it (force of habit) rightly or wrongly....

Dont think so, this guy has got some history. If you mean by normal, being, replacing the ball in a different spot than where he lifted it then he's a plonker.

 

[lobthewedge]

We got DQ'd from a Texas Scramble one year for marking our ball with a beer can, seems it wasnt in keeping with club etiquette?

The comp was sponsored by Tennents, we were only getting into the spirit of things!

 

[Atticus_Finch]

people are getting to caught up in "whether he gained an advantage in moving the ball 5cm closer" In my opinion, the advantage he is gaining from marking the ball in this manner is avoiding spike marks and the like, so essentially improving his lie.
How many times have we went to replace our ball and it topples into a small indentation on the green?
I bet it's been a long time since it's happened to ES.
This is a huge advantage when you consider the margins between success and failure at this level.
He's a cheat and hopefully he'll slide down the rankings and never be heard of again.