Reply To: How do you get DQ'd playing within your handicap

[chad wiggin]

Hi all, I would like to put in my 2 cents. I am Erik’s cousin & have been participating in this tournament for the last 3 years. I started going because Erik told me how much fun it was & he was right. I LOVE IT! The golf, the friends you make, the 19th hole, the whole package. Erik & I are weekend golfers who play in the North East. I play AT LEAST 10 rounds of golf with Erik per year. I know exactly what kind of golfer Erik is & what kind of a person Erik is. Every round he plays with me is accurately put into his GHIN. What hurts about his DQ is that basically the World Am is saying that he is a cheater, which I can assure you he is not. He went down there early & played a great practice round. He then carried it into the tournament where he gained some confidence & played well. They adjusted him & he considered it a badge of honor. When they DQ’d him after day 3 he was crushed. He was robbed of the chance to see his name at the top of the leader board. He was robbed of the chance to brag to his friends & robbed of the chance to be in the 1st group going into the last day. If he would have been adjusted again I think he could have handled that. But to be kicked out of the tournament & labeled as a cheater wasn’t fair. Yes, they told him he could still show up & golf the last day, but who the heck wants to play in the last group when you earned the right to play with the leaders. It’s just unfortunate that this was all ruined for him after spending all the money he did to go down there. It wasn’t about winning a gift card. It was about him having his moment in the sun. He went out there & just played his game. He didn’t worry about differentials & handicaps. He just let the pieces fall where they may & was disqualified for it. I think that sucks. I played rounds in previous years where I suspected that some one missed a putt on purpose or shanked one into the water on purpose so they didn’t get adjusted. I guess that’s not cheating? It seems that this is what the World Am is pushing people into doing. Cheat by purposely missing shots so your differential isn’t out of wack or we will call your integrity into question by disqualifying you for being a sandbagger. I guess my point is this, adjust people all you want to keep things fair if you have to, but don’t disqualify & embarrass people unless you know that something more nefarious is going on than someone shooting a few strokes better than you think they should.