Saint of Golf

[klunderbunker]

As many of you may have heard, a story came out yesterday about a 43 year old golfer who was trying to work his way back onto the PGA Tour through qualifying tournaments, as is the traditional way this is accomplished. However, in a tournament in which he would have been able to make it back onto the tour with, he discovered that he was using an illegal golf ball, completely by mistake. That night at his hotel, he called a tournament official and had himself disqualified.

Since this story broke, I've heard two reactions: either he's the best sportsman that people have seen in a good many years, or this guy is a clueless putz. To me, it would seem that he is an imbecile. He would have advanced back onto the tour which was his ultimate goal, and it wasn't as if the infraction of the rules occured on purpose. He made an honest mistake. If he had done it on purpose, then he should be banned for cheating. What he did was a mistake, and no one would have noticed if he'd kept his mouth shut.

So what do you think, and what would you have done in his situation?

 

[agentmichaelscarn]

I think it depends on your situation financially, me personally I wouldnt say anything. Because Im sitting here with a middle class income in a struggling economy so if I have the chance to play on tour I would especially since the ball didnt help me at all. I wouldnt knowingly cheat before hand though, if that ball gave me 20 yards off the tee or something like that and I knew it was illegal I wouldnt play the whole round with it. But that wasnt the case.

Now onto Hayes, even though it was very admirable what he did he also has made close to 10 million dollars in his career so he can afford to take the hit. Plus he has won on the tour before so he gets exempted to some tournaments, plus he is probably gonna get sponsors exemptions to some too. He said on "Mike and Mike in the Morning" on ESPN 2 he still expects to play in 15 or so tournaments this season so he'll still be alright. But nonetheless not every player would do that so I do respect him for it.