Golf: No place for cheating in golf

By Vincent Musco Sports Central Columnist

"I favor testing every [player's driver] every day."

- Tiger Woods

Maybe he's upset because the same writers and fans that revered him at his heights are crying "Slump!" while he's down. Maybe it's because he ranks behind 29 other players in driving distance this season. Or maybe his knee is just bothering him. Whatever the reason, Tiger Woods has made the charge that players on the PGA Tour are using illegal drivers. The clubfaces exceed USGA regulations because the ball springs off the face too fast, causing the ball to go a lot farther. In other words, Tiger thinks some guys are "corking."

Cheating in golf? The sport of the honest gentleman?

Perhaps. Sammy Sosa's bat-corking incident showed us that even the most respected of athletes will try to gain an edge if they feel the reward outweighs the risk. Sosa claims he used his one special, and illegal, "batting practice bat" to wow the fans who have come to see him play. Skeptics say that Sammy's recent struggles at the plate may have prompted his decision to cheat. What we do know is that Sosa's actions disappointed a nation of baseball fans who truly believed that Sammy Sosa was one of baseball's "good guys."

But baseball has had many incidents of cheating through its history. From Jim Palmer's "soap-ball" to Joe Torre's signs for a spitball, some of the most respected players in the game have been involved in breaking the rules, even though they may not have been caught, as in Palmer and Torre's case. In fact, in the aftermath of the Sosa incident, many pundits, including Bobby Valentine, questioned the benefits of corking, and others were ready to exonerate Sosa because of baseball's history of cheating. (Valentine, by the way, had no use for rules, either, especially the one that says once a player or manager is ejected from the game, he must remain off the playing field and out of the dugout. Valentine once wore a disguise in the dugout after being ejected from a game.)

But golf is different. Golf does not have a history of cheaters. In fact, golf is the one sport where penalties are called by the golfer himself. Take, for example, the famous story of Bobby Jones, who assessed himself a penalty stroke after accidentally moving his golf ball less than an inch as he grounded his club to address the shot. At the time, he was deep in the woods where neither his competitors nor anyone else could see him.

Then there is the story of Greg Norman, who disqualified himself from the 1996 Greater Hartford Open for playing with a non-conforming golf ball, even though he was the defending champion. Actually, the ball itself conformed to USGA specifications, but the side stamp on the golf ball had not been approved. He brought it up with tournament officials, and they confirmed his error, and just like that, he was out.

Such stories of personal integrity thrive in golf lore, and one of the first thing young golfers are taught is to play the ball as it lies. In other words, golfers don't cheat.

The USGA and the PGA Tour seem to adhere to this naive way of thought. Sure, there are rules officials all over the golf course, but they are only used when they are invited by the player to assist in certain situations. No one, as Tiger implies, checks the specifications of each golfer's driver before a round. There are no drug tests to make sure that golfers aren't using illegal performance-enhancing drugs. (Don't laugh. Guys cut like Tiger and Ricky Barnes are the new breed of long-hitting golfers. Other players feel the pressure to keep up.) No one even counts the number of clubs in each player's bag. Just ask Ian Woosnam, who disqualified himself from the 2001 British Open when he discovered on the second hole on Sunday that he had an extra club.

But as the purses on the PGA Tour become larger, the incentive to break the rules to gain an edge on the rest of the field becomes greater. So great, for some, that it may even outweigh the risk of being caught. Even though no one has been proven to have used illegal clubs knowingly to gain an advantage, perhaps now is the best time to create a method to enforce the specifications of the USGA, before something goes wrong. Remember that baseball's drug testing policy is a brand new creation that was designed after baseball had been marred by steroid abuse and allegations.

For it's entire existence, the tour has relied on the players to police themselves. This cannot last, and the tour should take a lesson from America's pastime and implement preventive measures to keep cheating out of golf.

Article courtesy of Sports Central.