Honor is prelude to PGA win

Gather the children around.

They should know about Mark Wilson, because he did more than win the Honda Classic in Monday’s playoff at PGA National. In the Machiavellian world of sports, where the ends increasingly justify the means, where it seems as if winning is all that matters, he broke ranks spectacularly.

That was the real story here.

In a time when we routinely worship achievement at the expense of character and integrity, he reminded us why golf’s so admirably different.

He showed a commitment to doing the right thing no matter what the cost.

And a commitment to being relentlessly honest even though it made winning so much harder.

Wilson claimed his first PGA Tour victory despite calling a two-shot penalty on himself Friday, when even in golf, where respect for the rules is so integral to the game, other players might have overlooked this type of violation. It fell in such a gray area that even the rules official Wilson consulted in the second round paused uncertainly.

“If I were sitting here, and had not called it on myself, every time I looked at that trophy, it would be tarnished,” Wilson said after defeating Jose Coceres, Boo Weekley and Camilo Villegas in the four-way playoff.

Wilson, 32, penalized himself two shots in Friday’s second round after his caddie gave advice on club selection to a fellow competitor at the fifth tee.

News of the self-imposed penalty didn’t leak out until the Golf Channel reported it Saturday night, after the third round. Wilson would have shot 64 on Friday, the low round of the tournament, and he would have been one shot behind the leaders instead of three back. But while other players would have been quick to blame a caddie -- it happens all the time -- Wilson kept it to himself. He never raised the issue until pressed by media.

With the win, Wilson got a $990,000 winner’s check, an exemption through the 2009 season and a reprieve from making an 11th consecutive trip to the tour’s qualifying school. He also vaulted 179 spots to No. 86 in the world rankings. And, if he can stay in the top 10 on the money list, he has a chance to play in the Masters for the first time.

At the fifth hole Friday, Wilson hit his tee shot with an 18-degree hybrid. Villegas was up next at the 217-yard par three. Villegas asked his caddie, Matty Bednarski, what club he thought Wilson had hit. Bednarski said he thought it was a two- or three-iron hybrid.

“Oh, it’s an 18-degree [hybrid],” Wilson’s caddie, Chris Jones, told them.

That response violated Rule 8-1 of the Rules of Golf, which prohibits a player or his caddie from giving advice to anyone but each other, or a partner in match play. It’s such a gray area because the rules actually permit competing players or caddies to go up and look in a fellow competitor’s bag to see what club is being used.

“I played out that hole and immediately called an official over to see what he thought,” said Wilson, who grew up in suburban Milwaukee and lives in suburban Chicago. “He wasn’t sure at first if that was necessarily advice, but within 60 seconds, he made the decision.

“It’s an important rule to me. The Rules of Golf are there to be fair to everyone. It’s a tough rule. There’s a lot of camaraderie among caddies and players.”

Jones, 30, who has been Wilson’s caddie since last season, said he was shaken when Wilson pointed out the violation.

“I heard Camilo and his caddie talking, and I just blurted it out,” Jones said. “I was getting too comfortable and too friendly.”

Wilson immediately confronted Jones.

“I felt so low and sick to my stomach,” Jones said.

Two holes later, Wilson could see Jones was suffering, so he put his arm around him to make sure Jones knew he was forgiven.

“After the round, I broke down and couldn’t hold it in,” Jones said. “If we would have lost this tournament, it would have really killed me. I felt so bad about what I had done to him, our team, his wife and family.”

Golf prides itself on being the honorable game, where players routinely police themselves. Bobby Jones, the dominant American golfer in the 1920s and ‘30s, once famously called a penalty on himself at the 1925 U.S. Open after his ball moved slightly in the deep rough when he addressed it. Nobody saw it but Jones. Upon being praised for his integrity, Jones said: “You might as well praise a man for not robbing a bank.”

That’s how different golf is.

Still, the rule against advice on club selection might be violated more than any other rule in golf among friendly caddies and players.

With Wilson’s first victory at stake here, there was plenty of temptation to overlook an inadvertent violation.

“A lot of players wouldn’t have called that on themselves,” Jones said. “I made the biggest mistake of my career, but luckily I have a boss who stuck by my side. I don’t know if there was someone above looking down on us.”

Jones, who grew up in New Jersey and played baseball briefly at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Fla., wept in the arms of Wilson when they embraced after the playoff victory. Wilson rolled in the winning putt, a 10-foot birdie, at No. 17, the third playoff hole. Coceres couldn’t answer with a birdie. Weekley and Villegas had been eliminated a hole earlier.

In the aftermath, Jones excitedly pulled the flag off the pin at the 17th hole to keep as a trophy, as is caddie custom. It was his first PGA Tour victory too. Wilson wouldn’t reveal his financial agreement with Jones, but typically a caddie gets 10% of a victory, which would have been $99,000 on Monday.

“Hopefully, we can be together a long time,” Wilson said.

The Wilson/Jones team won more than a big payday on Monday. They won admiration, respect and plenty of new fans.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.