http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/ssamano/35850 The kicker was an anonymous e-mail. For a couple of years now I had toyed with the idea of doing a story about the honor system in golf and tennis. When I covered my first high school tennis match in 2005 for the North County Times in Escondido, it took me by surprise that there were no officials present. I had no idea that was the norm.&nbsp;I&nbsp;had never been to a tennis match before. As time passed, I thought it might be an intriguing topic to explore -- see how well it works, the problems that arise, etc., etc. I came here to The Californian last month and&nbsp;presented the story to my editor, who liked my&nbsp;idea. I wasn't sure that I'd actually get around to doing it, though -- until my in-box one day a few weeks back contained an e-mail&nbsp;from Love Golf with a subject line that read &quot;(Team) Girls Cheating&quot; (we'll keep the accused school anonymous, too). The author was upset about what he/she felt was going on with this particular school, writing in the e-mail: &quot;A person that cheats in golf isn't a real golfer.&quot; Whether or not someone cheats in these sports isn't the kind of thing I can verify. But when I&nbsp;received that e-mail I knew for sure I had to&nbsp;write this story. I gathered a ton of information from lots of people involved in both sports. The general consensus from those people was this: Cheating happens, but not all the time. Basically&nbsp;there's lots of good, mixed with some&nbsp;bad. Stockdale tennis coach Dave Hillestad told me about a time this season at a tournament in Fresno where it got kind of ugly between two Fresno schools over a disputed call. Apparently, girls were making snooty comments at one another, and coaches and the tournament director had to get involved. One of the issues that came up that I alluded to but&nbsp;didn't elaborate&nbsp;on&nbsp;was whether or not most golfers even&nbsp;know USGA rules. Players and coaches said this was a concern particularly for&nbsp;younger, inexperienced players. Who knows that moving, say, a gum wrapper to improve your putting line is OK, but that moving a leaf is illegal because the rule specifies nature vs. unnatural? Or how many strokes you're supposed to add on for water hazard or out of bounds? I don't.&nbsp;And, apparently, neither does every high school player. Some girls said they carry rule books with them, but even that sometimes doesn't help. Frontier golf coach Tony Bernardin said part of the problem is the girls' fear of confrontation. To help his&nbsp;team,&nbsp;he and his assistant, Tom Aguilar, role play in front of their girls so they&nbsp;can learn how to deal with confrontation. Central Section commissioner Jim Crichlow told me in our interview that nothing ever makes its way to his desk, in terms of complaints or protests. Certainly that's&nbsp;a&nbsp;good sign. All in all, the&nbsp;system is far from perfect. It has its wrinkles. By and large, though, it works. I'm surprised&nbsp;the situation&nbsp;doesn't get out of hand, which says something about the student-athletes and&nbsp;their character. Clearly, most care about their&nbsp;reputations -- not just as athletes, but people. -- You can read the story&nbsp;about the honor system in golf and tennis by&nbsp;clicking here.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; The kicker was an anonymous e-mail. For a couple of years now I had toyed with the idea of doing a story about the honor system in golf and tennis. When I covered my first high school tennis match in 2005 for the North County Times in Escondido, it took me by surprise that there were no officials present. I had no idea that was the norm.&nbsp;I&nbsp;had never been to a tennis match before. As time passed, I thought it might be an intriguing topic to explore -- see how well it works, the problems that arise, etc., etc. I came here to The Californian last month and&nbsp;presented the story to my editor, who liked my&nbsp;idea. I wasn't sure that I'd actually get around to doing it, though -- until my in-box one day a few weeks back contained an e-mail&nbsp;from Love Golf with a subject line that read &quot;(Team) Girls Cheating&quot; (we'll keep the accused school anonymous, too). The author was upset about what he/she felt was going on with this particular school, writing in the e-mail: &quot;A person that cheats in golf isn't a real golfer.&quot; Whether or not someone cheats in these sports isn't the kind of thing I can verify. But when I&nbsp;received that e-mail I knew for sure I had to&nbsp;write this story. I gathered a ton of information from lots of people involved in both sports. The general consensus from those people was this: Cheating happens, but not all the time. Basically&nbsp;there's lots of good, mixed with some&nbsp;bad. Stockdale tennis coach Dave Hillestad told me about a time this season at a tournament in Fresno where it got kind of ugly between two Fresno schools over a disputed call. Apparently, girls were making snooty comments at one another, and coaches and the tournament director had to get involved. One of the issues that came up that I alluded to but&nbsp;didn't elaborate&nbsp;on&nbsp;was whether or not most golfers even&nbsp;know USGA rules. Players and coaches said this was a concern particularly for&nbsp;younger, inexperienced players. Who knows that moving, say, a gum wrapper to improve your putting line is OK, but that moving a leaf is illegal because the rule specifies nature vs. unnatural? Or how many strokes you're supposed to add on for water hazard or out of bounds? I don't.&nbsp;And, apparently, neither does every high school player. Some girls said they carry rule books with them, but even that sometimes doesn't help. Frontier golf coach Tony Bernardin said part of the problem is the girls' fear of confrontation. To help his&nbsp;team,&nbsp;he and his assistant, Tom Aguilar, role play in front of their girls so they&nbsp;can learn how to deal with confrontation. Central Section commissioner Jim Crichlow told me in our interview that nothing ever makes its way to his desk, in terms of complaints or protests. Certainly that's&nbsp;a&nbsp;good sign. All in all, the&nbsp;system is far from perfect. It has its wrinkles. By and large, though, it works. I'm surprised&nbsp;the situation&nbsp;doesn't get out of hand, which says something about the student-athletes and&nbsp;their character. Clearly, most care about their&nbsp;reputations -- not just as athletes, but people. -- You can read the story&nbsp;about the honor system in golf and tennis by&nbsp;clicking here.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; en-us Wed, 22 Oct 2008 23:56:29 PDT <p>I graduated in 2005 and I played golf 3 years while I was there. I too have caught some of the girls shaving strokes off of their score. Golf is a sport of honesty. If you can't be honest, you shouldn't play the game. Not only did I&nbsp;question some of the other high school players, I&nbsp;questioned some of the college students when I played a year at BC. So it doesn't necessarily happen in high school, it happens in the colleges too.</p> http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/ssamano/35850/#c_330410 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/ssamano/35850/#c_330410 <p>I graduated in 2005 and I played golf 3 years while I was there. I too have caught some of the girls shaving strokes off of their score. Golf is a sport of honesty. If you can't be honest, you shouldn't play the game. Not only did I&nbsp;question some of the other high school players, I&nbsp;questioned some of the college students when I played a year at BC. So it doesn't necessarily happen in high school, it happens in the colleges too.</p> <p>One of my children was interested in joining a local high school golf team.&nbsp; One of the requirements other than skill was taking a test on the rules of golf.&nbsp; We printed a copy of the USGA rules from their web site <a href="http://www.usga.org/playing/rules/pdf/2008ROG.pdf">http://www.usga.org/playing/rules/pdf/2008ROG.pdf</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; studied it and my child took the on line practice tests.&nbsp; If you did not know the rules you were not allowed to be on the team until you learned them.</p> http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/ssamano/35850/#c_330435 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/ssamano/35850/#c_330435 <p>One of my children was interested in joining a local high school golf team.&nbsp; One of the requirements other than skill was taking a test on the rules of golf.&nbsp; We printed a copy of the USGA rules from their web site <a href="http://www.usga.org/playing/rules/pdf/2008ROG.pdf">http://www.usga.org/playing/rules/pdf/2008ROG.pdf</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; studied it and my child took the on line practice tests.&nbsp; If you did not know the rules you were not allowed to be on the team until you learned them.</p> <p>Its all about personal integrity.&nbsp; Its not just in golf but its in life in general.&nbsp;That's why I am glad my daughter is involved in golf because one it teaches respect and&nbsp; two it teaches personal integrity.&nbsp; Like Mrs. Steiber says, the girls don't want to be labeled a cheater because that hits right at the core of their integrity.&nbsp; Golf is a game where if you cheat on your score, you will cheat yourself about&nbsp;your true game.&nbsp; Parents too have to instill this in their children.&nbsp; My husband and I made sure that our daughter understood that as soon as she&nbsp;picked up that club at a young age&nbsp;and I am very proud to say she keeps a true score and knows the importance of that.&nbsp; That makes me prouder that she does that rather than bringing me home a trophy.&nbsp; I know that in general that there are many more players that do not cheat and I give it to their parents for teaching them that!&nbsp; That my friends is life....not golf.</p> http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/ssamano/35850/#c_330933 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/ssamano/35850/#c_330933 <p>Its all about personal integrity.&nbsp; Its not just in golf but its in life in general.&nbsp;That's why I am glad my daughter is involved in golf because one it teaches respect and&nbsp; two it teaches personal integrity.&nbsp; Like Mrs. Steiber says, the girls don't want to be labeled a cheater because that hits right at the core of their integrity.&nbsp; Golf is a game where if you cheat on your score, you will cheat yourself about&nbsp;your true game.&nbsp; Parents too have to instill this in their children.&nbsp; My husband and I made sure that our daughter understood that as soon as she&nbsp;picked up that club at a young age&nbsp;and I am very proud to say she keeps a true score and knows the importance of that.&nbsp; That makes me prouder that she does that rather than bringing me home a trophy.&nbsp; I know that in general that there are many more players that do not cheat and I give it to their parents for teaching them that!&nbsp; That my friends is life....not golf.</p> <p></p> <div><span class="586130120-23102008"><font face="Arial" size="2">It is&nbsp;not only the players who are on the honor system, you need to look at some of the coaches who cheat. In fact you quoted one who got caught cheating in your article. </font></span></div> http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/ssamano/35850/#c_331083 http://people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/ssamano/35850/#c_331083 <p></p> <div><span class="586130120-23102008"><font face="Arial" size="2">It is&nbsp;not only the players who are on the honor system, you need to look at some of the coaches who cheat. In fact you quoted one who got caught cheating in your article. </font></span></div>