Just wondering...

What if you were playing in the club championship tournament finals and the match was halved at the end of 17 holes. You had the honor and hit your ball a modest two hundred fifty yards to the middle of the fairway, leaving a simple six iron to the pin. Your opponent then hits his ball, lofting it deep into the woods to the right of the fairway.

 

Being the golfing gentleman that you are, you help your opponent look for his ball. Just before the permitted five minute search period ends, your opponent says: "Go ahead and hit your second shot and if I don't find it in time, I'll concede the match."

 

You hit your ball, landing it on the green, stopping about ten feet from the pin. About the time your ball comes to rest, you hear your opponent exclaim from deep in the woods:

 

"I found it!". The second sound you hear is a click, the sound of a club striking a ball and the ball comes sailing out of the woods and lands on the green, stopping no more than six inches from the hole.

 

Now the real "what if" in this story......

 

What if you had your opponent's ball in your pocket?

 

Now the real "what if" in this story......

 

What if you had your opponent's ball in your pocket?

 

Not possible. Because I'd quit golf before I ever did that.

 

Not to mention, at least at the club I play at, the finals of the club championship always gets a big crowd, so neither of the players could get away with those shenanigans.

 

But - hypothetically - if I ever DID stoop that low, i'd smile and congratulate him in my mind for being a better cheat than me

Guess you concede the birdie and need to roll in your 10 footer.

Substitute "tournament" for "bet over a gold bar" and you get an early scene from Goldfinger, eh? That crafty James Bond...

obligatory gun reference: Bond carries his Walther PPK in a hollowed-out copy of "The Bible to be Read as Literature."