Some Sports in Gutter but Golf Looks Up : Scandals Have Eroded the Public’s Confidence in Other Sports

Golf has a conscience and a trust that is indomitable. It stands as a bastion of decency in sport, worthy of awareness and emulation by an otherwise troubled sports world that is in danger of caving-in and bringing about its own destruction.

The Baltimore Evening Sun, in a series of interviews with some of golf’s most renowned players, found them proud of their individual accomplishments but, more importantly, concerned with upholding what they inherited from the founders of an ancient game, which historians tell us dates back to the reign of King James II of Scotland in 1440.

King Jack of America, last name Nicklaus, winner of more major championships than any golfer since time began, is aware of the scandals that have eroded public confidence in other sports. But golf has been able to hold its head high. There’s nothing suspect.

“I hope it’s a precious keepsake,” he said. “Golfers make and enforce their own rules. We enjoy and appreciate that right. It’s a shame some unfortunate things have happened in other sports.”

Golf is a game in which the country club crowd and public course players have been known to bet a dollar or two on the outcome of a match between a foursome involving 20-handicappers who can’t hit the ball out of their shadows.

So it might be expected that an insidious gambling influence could infiltrate the sport at the professional level. Odious fixes have happened in baseball, football and basketball, after all.

But not in golf. “A couple of times players have been caught cheating, but we participants on the tour handled it quietly and it was taken care of that way,” Nicklaus explained.

Lee Trevino, who hustled his way from retrieving balls at a driving range to the heights of international acclaim, has earned a reputation for fun, frolic and rarely taking himself too seriously. But he’s not trying to draw laughs when he boldly and assuredly predicts, in a voice that rings with strong conviction, that “golf will never have a scandal.”

That statement circles the globe because golf is played on every continent. “Golfers are raised differently,” he insists. “We want to be golfers and realize what the game means. If golfers came out here gambling or had drug problems they wouldn’t last long. These players are wise.”

Then he took to personalizing a story about a letter he received from a child wanting an autograph and a cap. “I thought and wondered about that kid and how he would feel if a week later I got busted. That wouldn’t happen in golf. We police each other.”

As for dealing with gambling, Nicklaus says the most he ever played for in a match was a $20 Nassau with a special friend named Arnold Palmer. “Usually, it’s a $10 bet in a practice round but not any more than that,” he explained.

Yet, when a tournament is underway, the purses are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“In the old days, the players might have bet each other more than what they were playing for in championship prize money,” adds Nicklaus as he recollects how far golf has progressed.

Yes, but no flaws have been found in how the game is contested. The strength of golf’s true character is to play by the rules and not dare to bend or break them.

Ben Crenshaw, a player who could shoot par in a blindfold, points to golf as “one of the few games where you call penalties on yourself.”

What about the potential of cheating, such as improperly marking a ball or improving a lie or conveniently failing to remember a penalty stroke for being out-of- bounds?

“If that happened,” answered Crenshaw, “the guilty player would be ostracized. We have a strict code we all understand must be recognized. We are deeply proud of our profession.”

Mark O’Meara, another world class player, was asked if there was much locker room discussion about the respect golf enjoys? “No, not really, but it shouldn’t be since this is a game of integrity and this, again, is what it’s all about. It just goes without saying.

“We players are aware, without talking about it, that so many major corporations and sponsors, investing millions of dollars in backing tournaments, would not be interested if there was any type of a scandal,” O’Meara said.

“If anyone bent the rules out here we would know about it and not stand for it. That would be jeopardizing the credibility that is absolutely vital to all of us.”

Scott Simpson, another golfer of championship distinction, is fully aware of golf’s reputation. It’s honest and fair. “This is all wrapped up in the nature of the game,” he recounts. “If a player was messed up on drugs, for one thing, it would immediately show. Golf, historically, has men you can look up to and respect. And it’s such a tough game. There would be no point in betting on yourself or each other.”

It all evolves into what has been nurtured so deeply into the roots of a game that has never been under suspicion during the long centuries of its gallant and gentlemanly traditions.

This has been mainly fostered through the guidance and care of the supervising Royal and Ancient Golf Club, the USGA and PGA, but the players have readily accepted an equally important role.

They have set an impeccable standard of ethical behavior. Golf shall never fall from grace.