Time was when cricketers walked, snooker champs owned up and, yes, golfers retired when they broke a rule. The gentlemen’s code, as far as I know, never extended to tennis or any of the foootball or hockey variants – in which hoodwinking the ref has become de rigueur, nay a practised skill. Remember Bloodgate and the iconic Dean Richards? But luckily hawkeyed gadgetry is slowly replacing the human eye and on Friday a telly viewer caught Tiger woods cheating – not on his latest blonde this time but on the fringes of the 15th green during the US Masters. He later stated he’d chosen to ‘drop’ a couple of yards back to get a better lie. No behavioural change there then.
Do I care? Should you? Not really, except to bewail the loss of honesty among our heroes. But, hey! All’s fair in love, sport and war and you can’t trust a superpower to play nicely with his drones anymore .
Boadicea's Chariot 
But Tiger Woods has never come across – to me at least – as a warm and wonderful human being.
When so much money is involved with winning in Sport, why should anyone be surprised if the “Stars” cheat.
Dear Editor
Standards are falling everywhere these days. You can’t trust a politician not to fiddle their expenses. You can’t trust a footballist not to take a dive. You can’t trust a banker not to sell you down the street. You can’t trust a cricketer not to take a bung. You can’t trust the media not to have an separate agenda. You can’t trust a c-list celeb to keep her knickers on, nor he his shreddies. You can’t even expect respect for the dead.
Harrumph!
Brig. (rtd) Angry Amber Eyes
Tunbridgeo Wellsio
OZ, I blame the decline in standards on the lack of organised religion in society. When people went to church, they tended to be better behaved, more respectful, harder working, less inclined to lie, cheat, steal, commit adultery. They possessed honour and integrity, attributes that are sadly lacking in modern society. It may be coincidence, but I doubt it.
You may well be right, Sipu. Personally I put it down to a lack of moral spine, a drop in acceptable social standards and the idea, for example, that you can drive at stupid mph, at night, in fog, on ice and if anything nasty happens then it is someone else’s fault and somebody else’s financial responsibility.
OZ
I am inclined to agree with sipu, bur must add the rider that I don’t think Mrs Thatcher helped! (In the UK)
All that ‘no such thing as society’ seemed to open the flood gates to some very antisocial behaviour in all levels of society. I am quite sure all those things were there previously but there were sufficient inhibitions to keep them in a much lower key. Now its let it all hang out! Interestingly people are far more shocked still in the USA by bad behaviour, which I attribute to the strength of religion here still.
Tiger Woods always was a rather low character, no more than one would expect. Most of these ‘celebrities’, ‘stars’ and other riff raff are of low moral character. I reckon you are into the ‘count the spoons territory’!
I never understood why people are impressed by other people’s money, specially when acquired in some pretty dubious ways.
OZ, we can agree that there is a lack of moral spine, but we need to establish the cause before said spine can be replaced.
CO, I truly believe that a great deal of nonsense has been attached to that single remark about there being no such thing as society. It was clearly not a position that she campaigned on or advocated at any point before or or after that infamous occasion on which she said it. Her words were taken out of context and misinterpreted, very deliberately, just as Enoch Powell’s words have been misconstrued. It is what the left does. What Thatcher said was meant to imply that there was no office building that housed society where people could go and ask for assistance or express your discontent. Society is an abstract construct, not a physical one. You cannot just say society should fix things. That is what the whingeing miners and their ilk were saying. ‘Society owes us a living’. I will tell you this, I owe nobody a living, I do not care what anybody says or thinks.
Of course society exists. Whatever she was, she was not stupid. But society is not something that you can define with written rules. I am a member of society as are you, OZ and Ferret. I suspect we all have very different ways of fulfilling our perceived goals and obligations.The government and its various departments on the other hand all have to adhere to defined rules.
It is dishonest not to try and understand what she meant. Had she repeated the statement and concurred with the inference that the left drew from her remarks, then there might be case to answer. But she did not. She always claimed that they were taken out of context and deliberately misconstrued. It is is disingenuous to keep referring to them in a way that supposes that they defined who she was. The did not and do not.
Sipu I agree that is probably the way of it, however, it wasn’t just the left that chose to misinterpret the comment. MT’s own actions thereafter actually reinforced the comment. The selling off of council houses and not making the funds available for building more had a ‘devil take the hindmost’ feel to it. The dearth of social housing in the UK today has put the rents to an unrealistic level compared to wages. Even grotty council accomodation get £100/week. Not everyone can earn a fortune I gather the min wage is only in the $5 + an hour area, try living on that and paying £100 /week rent!!! A lot of her actions hit those at the bottom of the heap disproportionally far harder than others further up. Just because she had made it up the ladder she expected everyone else to do the same. It is not possible in society, it is totally unrealistic.
Chickens and eggs, I reckon. People don’t go to church because there is no longer any interest in moral learning, not vice versa. The result is the same.
Nick Faldo (while eating humble pie during last night’s commentary but not quite issuing an apology for his remarks) said “what used to be black and white is now grey”
As I see it, Tiger made a rules interpretation error, a tournament committee reviewed the infringement and issued the punishment, case closed.
Soutie, I beg to differ. Tiger knew full well that he was not allowed to seek an easier lie two yards from the ‘edge’; he was not ‘interpreting or misinterpreting anything. He cheated, got caught and got a light slap, probably for ‘diplomatic’ reasons. I noticed btw that yesterday there was alot of messing about but no time faults awarded. More diplomacy.
I didn’t see the incident but respectfully disagree. There’s a drop zone for balls entering the hazard on that hole, what I saw last night golfers quite comfortably got “up and in” from it. Tiger, with his ability could similarly quite comfortably (in my opinion) done the same.
For you to suggest that he deliberately cheated just doesn’t cut it with me.
I’ll be with a retired golf pro later today (now an instructor) I’ll get a clearer interpretation of the rules then.
Soutie, here’s an interesting take: http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/golf/lucky-seven-remarkable-run-of-events-required-to-save-tiger-8572684.html
Thanks Janus, an interesting read.
“That the committee was mistaken in finding no wrongdoing by Woods saved him, because the mistake became the committee’s, not the player’s, that he signed for a wrong score.”
I see now what Faldo meant by “now Grey” 😉
I’m still gonna ask my mate later today.
Janus – it’s a question of honour. He was at it so much he didn’t know whether he was on ‘er or off ‘er!
Seriously the winner of the US Masters, Adam Scott, seemed to be using a putting device (and action) totally at odds with what most other golfers use. The putting blade was not so much blade but some kind of heavy paper-weight with gyroscopes attached. (I exaggerate.) Seeing as he won in low light, didn’t that give him an advantage on that final putt?
Môre Janus
I spoke to my golfing pal and after an explanation of the various rules regards ball dropping after entry to different hazards we came to the same conclusion as Faldo “what used to be black and white is now grey”
… 😕 …
So Tiger is the new grey, eh? 🙂