17.12.2008.
It behoves me to make a case against golf cheats. It's time that golf clubs and competition organizers take note of this and spare the game infamy and run them to the ground.
There are many golf cheats in SIGC that I personally know of, having played with them and seen them in action. They have various backgrounds, many of them distinguished ones. There is absolutely no reason why they have to cheat. It's just a character flaw.
Admittedly golf is a hard game to play. Take it from me - I have been at it for more than two decades. And I'm not a bad golfer. Picking up the game at a very late age, I have taught myself over the years until at a relatively ripe age I went down to as low as a 6-handicap and to-day still play at handicap 10. I have done many things on the golf course but I'm proud to say that cheating hasn't been one of them. At least not yet.
Some writers say that golf shows up character. In an 18-hole round one can find out whether someone is hot-tempered, cool, serious, humourous or a cheat. And unfortunately the cheat is the easiest to spot.
Basically the golf cheat reveals his cheating character in real life. But he also cheats because foolishly he thinks he can get away with it. In fact to a seasoned golfer nothing is more obvious than cheating at golf.
As I said the cheats can come from distinguished backgrounds. There is a former top-politician who forgets how to count his score, finds obviously lost balls after the foursome have scoured the area fruitlessly, and even was caught by me once dropping a ball from his pocket ! There is a retired army colonel who routinely "improves" his lie (and that's not a lie !), and goes back to the club-house claiming playing 7 pars over the 9-hole round he'd just completed.(That's a handicap 4, by the way). There's a Datuk who insouciantly throws his ball 20 feet onto the fairway when claiming he's entitled to a drop with penalty, but the rules says "one club length" penalty. And there's the guy with 3 wives who just cannot help but move his ball around whether it's on the fairway, in the rough or even on the green. No wonder he has 3 wives !
The worst part is these people (except for that colonel who never enters competition fortunately) often come out winners with ridiculous scores of 9-under, 10-under ! And here we are, about 90 other golfers, struggling and trying our best to just play to our own handicaps.
This morning about 24 of us played in PD. As I walked up to my buggy I saw the flight in front teeing-off and it included "3-wives". As Md. Zin, the organizer, was just in front of me, I told him somebody should watch out for the feller, but Md. Zin replied "it's OK, Ali is there." I said "Ali also moves his ball !" And sure enough to-day "3-wives" won !
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