Morality on the Links

The setting was the 2nd round of the 1925 US Open played at Worcester, Massachusetts. One of golf's greatest players, Bobby Jones found himself in the rough at the side of the green. He grounded his club to play a little lob shot. The ball moved. Jones stepped back. No one saw the ball move, not the caddies, not the officials, not his playing partner, Walter Hagen. Jones immediately called a penalty on himself. His double bogey 6 and his round of 77 put him in danger of missing the cut and with it, any hope of winning the Open. However, a 70 the following day put him back in contention and he went on to tie for the championship. He lost to Willie Macfarland in a playoff by a single stroke.

Later, an Associated Press interviewer commended Jones for his honesty. Jones however, saw nothing particularly commendable in what he had done replying "You might as well praise me for not robbing banks" (Sommers, 1995, p. 82). Such is the measure of the man.

Just how honorable are those of us who play the grand old game? Is it a relatively rare event when golfers cave in to the pressures to score well and resort to cheating? Perhaps the temptations are greatest when playing alone or in a twosome where the chances of rule violations are less likely to be detected by others? Maybe instead, when we are part of a larger group, i.e., a foursome, it somehow brings out the worst in us?

Researchers sought answers to these and other questions by observing 150 golfers as they played the first hole of a public golf course. Observations were made from a hidden vantage point on a second-storey balcony above the first fairway. Observations made at different times of the day over a five-day period revealed that fully 75/150 (50%) of the golfers violated at least one United States Golf Association (USGA) rule. Of these, 14 violated two rules while 2 players violated 3 rules in the course of playing the first hole.

Easily the most common violation was players conceding putts to themselves, a total of 50 players rewarding themselves in this way. A further 22 golfers found it necessary to improve their lie while 6 played two balls simultaneously. Finally, five who were apparently unhappy with their shots simply replayed them.

Those breaking the rules tended to be the less skilled golfers. Moreover, the size of the playing group was also related to rule violations. That is, the larger the group the more rule violations were in evidence. By way of explanation, it is suggested that group norms stressing improved performance act as a source of pressure to violate the constitutive rules of the game. These pressures to improve their play would presumably be stronger and more in evidence as the size of the playing group increased.

Incidentally, it is noteworthy that agreements among players to establish normative rules that conflict with the USGA constitutive rules is itself a violation. Finally bear in mind that rule violations were tallied only for the first hole—another 17 holes remained to be played! By a rough calculation using the first hole as typical of those remaining in the round, the sample of golfers committed a total of approximately 1, 581 (93 x 17) additional rule violations before they reached the clubhouse.

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