Tag: Sportsmanship

Golfer does the RIGHT thing!

Golfer does the RIGHT thing!

This Golfer has more character than ANYONE in the political world at this time.

The true test of a man’s character is what he does when no one is watching. John Wooden said that, or maybe it was Spider-Man. Whatever, it still holds true; being noble and upstanding is easy enough when you’ve got people watching, but when you’re alone with yourself, when you could do the wrong thing (or avoid the right thing) and get away with it, well — that’s when you find out what kind of person you are.

By that standard, then, J.P. Hayes is among the best that sports has to offer. He played a nonconforming ball for a single hole of the second stage of Q School last weekend. He realized it more than a day after the “violation,” called it on himself, and thus disqualified himself from Q School … with some severe, career-altering effects down the line.

So how did this go down? So easily, you’ll cringe:

On his 12th hole of the first round at Deerwood Country Club last Wednesday, Hayes’ caddie reached into his golf bag, pulled out a ball and flipped it to Hayes, who missed the green with his tee shot. He then chipped on and marked his ball. It was then that Hayes realized the ball was not the same model Titleist with which he had started his round. That was in violation of the one-ball rule, which stipulates that a player must play the same model throughout a round.

Okay, so, two-stroke penalty, no big deal. He recovered well enough to put himself in position to finish in the top 20 and advance to the third and final round of Q School. The top 25 finishers in that round, plus ties, earn exempt status for the entire 2009 PGA season. So, breathe deep, think about how close you came to disaster, then tee it up for the next round.

Only, while Hayes was breathing deep, he realized something else — not only did he play the wrong ball, he might have played a ball that wasn’t even approved for play at all.

“It was a Titleist prototype, and somehow it had gotten into my bag,” he said. “It had been four weeks since Titleist gave me some prototype balls and I tested them. I have no idea how or why it was still in there … I called an official in Houston that night and said, ‘I think I may have a problem. He said they’d call Titleist the next day. I pretty much knew at that point I was going to be disqualified.”

So tell me if YOU would have done that.. With a wife and kid at home, your dream of a pro career on the line, would you have made that call? I can honestly say I would have, and I HAVE made those decisions on the golf course, and in my work life.

I played in SEVERAL amateur golf tournaments, some very big tournaments with very good prizes like the opportunity to PLAY IN THE US OPEN, and I have seen more character on the golf course than I have EVER SEEN in politics.

IF you play golf, and you think you know the rules of golf, chances are you only know the basics. There are thousands of rules that most weekend golfers don’t know, or don’t use, or don’t penalize themselves for breaking. BUT in tournament play, YOU are accountable for YOUR actions, YOU are expected to protect the field (Players) from cheating, and they are TRUSTING you to have the moral character to penalize yourself in the event that the marshal is not looking. YOU are expected to play by the rules and if you have questions to CALL the Marshal for clarity. The rule committee person in the tournament will clarify any issues.

This particular golfer showed more moral fiber, and character than any in the political realm, but I say, MOST Golfers have that same moral fiber and character. The unfortunate part of all of this is; We are treating this as heroic, where this should be normal..

Kudos to J.P. Hayes for doing what is right.

SHAME on US for not rewarding this behavior more, so that this type of thing doesn’t garner the “Surprise factor” when it happens.

Carolina-26 San Diego-24

Carolina-26 San Diego-24

Absolutely AWSOME! The game was incredible, I am absolutely stoked about this season.

IF you are a football fan this is for you, if you are a sportsman, this post is for you, if you are one of those gang-banger wannabe pieces of shit that cant take a loss, or a win without being a douchebag, this post is also for you.

On 9-7-08, 4 Panther fans, dressed in Carolina Blue and Black visited San Diego Charger land.  (Both my sons, a fellow Panther fan and myself)

San Diego (Qualcom) stadium is one of the WORST stadiums to get into as far as parking, once we got in, we were greeted with the usual boos, the usual Charger rah rah, whatever. That was actually kind of cool, the charger fans in the parking lot were a lot of fun, most of the ones I talked to were very knowledgeable about FOOTBALL and that is always common ground. We had a few other Panther fans in our parking area along with SEVERAL Charger fans, the cops came up to check on us, hell we were sharing beer, brats and watching the game in progress on someone’s TV. All was good. We are football fans.

We parked about a mile from the stadium entrance and we began our death march around 11:00, I say death march because we had to walk the parking lot in a line, in front of the DIE HARD Charger fans partying on the side. They wait for opposing team fans showing their colors (Wearing Jersey’s) and hurl the usual insults and what not..
We were 30 strong on our way to the Stadium, and we didn’t get into the tit for tat insult thing. WE wanted to see football. That effort was met with a HUGE roar from the crowd as we approached the end of the walkway. We heard cheers of “Good Job, Panther fans.” One Charger faithful ran under the barrier and gave my son a beer and a pat on the back, I thought that was awesome. Most of the insults were just the “Panthers suck variety” and you really can’t expect much else in an opponents house.

Finally, we got into the stadium:

I have got to send out HUGE KUDOS to those military members in our seating area, five Marines and 2 Navy guys shared our 14×14 area, and needless to say, those guys got the few beers from the Bushwack family, we had a great time. (A special note to Kevin who is serving in the Navy and headed to the gulf: The Jersey in route first thing this morning).
It was surely not football weather, it was HOT on the field, the breeze was missing most of the day, but the game was WELL worth the 3rd degree sunburns we got.
We had a good mix of Charger and Panther fans in our section so the rhetoric was very civil, until we started our trek out of the stadium.

Watch the video if you want to see a TERRIFIC Highlight reel of the game. AWESOME!!! THE Cardiac Cats are BACK BABY!

On the way out we were met with SEVERAL real football fans, both Carolina and San Diego offering high fives, and hand shakes for a great game, and that was very cool.
We were also introduced to the biggest idiots known to man, and again they were both Carolina and Sand Diego Fans.
I will start with the Carolina fan that was running in the hallway at field level section “A” talking all that shit about “We F*** y’all up” and screaming like a 12 year old.
You deserved that wall kiss, Dumb ass. You are in an OPPONENTS house, the game could have gone either way, and you made an ass out of yourself! You don’t deserve to wear that jersey. You are the type of idiot that gives football fans a bad name and YOU are the type of MORON that causes stadiums to have to quit selling alcohol.
YOU, Mr brand new Carolina “Peppers” Jersey wearing idiot that can’t just say “Great game” when a SD fan says “Good game”, You have to say “YEAH, WE FUCKED YOU GUYS UP!” If he wouldn’t have planted your face in the wall I would have. I was the one that picked you up, and sat you by the wall… You are damn lucky I had a moment of compassion, or I would have left you there ass up face down.

Then there were the San Diego versions of the Raider fans, Yep, Short, Shaved head, Hispanic, five deep and all of them look alike, except for one girl with them who looks like she had her face painted by Earl Sheib (Car body painters in So Cal.) They had to walk by us, and the shortest one walks up to me not quite in right hook range, but close enough, and says “FUCK CAROLINA” I started laughing, loudly, you know the Eddie Murphy type sarcastic laugh? that pissed them off. One guy asked “What U laughing at homey” I said something to the effect of “I thought we were at Football game and they let the circus out” That was met by laughter in the hall, that didn’t make them happy..

Anyway they decided they would follow us out to the parking lot, not a very wise move, and once we got out of the stadium they found out that intimidation shit don’t play well with a redneck with some anger issues…They were dispatched rather abruptly by a few SD and Car folks that enjoy football.

There were a lot more of the “Gangbanger wannabe’s” in the Charger seats than usual, but as it was, the SD fans were very well represented, I am glad Carolina won, but I am even more glad that I met some good folks wearing the best jersey’s of all… THE AMERICAN JERSEY! The Marine’s the Navy, the AF and Army were all around us and represented well.

I go to a few Charger games during the year, and I root for SD. (Unless they are playing a team that impacts my team.) For the most part SD fans are some of the best in the country, I hope they don’t become like the Raider nation, we don’t need anymore teams in the NFL that have that kind of reputation.
BTW-No offense to my friends that are Raider fans, but you know as well as I do that the reputation is earned.