Last week Englishman Brian Davis called a penalty on himself on the first hole of his sudden death playoff with Jim Furyk, losing the playoff as a result. Davis is still trying to win his first PGA tournament in the United States.Davis contemplated taking a drop out of the junk beside the green in the playoff, but decided his best chance of winning the tournament was if he could pull off the shot out of the sand and weeds beside the green.
After five months without Tiger Woods, due to his time off to regroup from the story of his infidelities, golf needed Brian Davis worse than Davis needed to win his first tournament on the PGA Tour. Brian Davis is a golfer, and golfers don't cheat, at least not on the golf course.
The golf community understood. They patted Davis on the back, and two prominent players on the senior tour called and thanked him for restoring some sense of integrity to the game. But what shocked Davis more was the reaction from people who don't play golf. The e-mails and phone calls came in on Monday from around the country. Said Davis, "It was mostly people wanting to say that we need more people like you in sports."
To be honest, I don't know what the hullabaloo is all about. Maybe that's because I've played golf for over 50 years, and golf teaches honesty and integrity, so I always expect golfers to do the right thing. It has been my policy to never hire an employee without first playing 18 holes with him or her. And a PGA Tour player calling a penalty on himself is nothing new. I happens all the time on tour.
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ReplyDeleteYes. Indeed. Davis revealed what an incredible gentleman he is when he called that penalty on himself at such a key moment in his career. It would have been so easy for him to just not tell anyone. He very well may have won the tournament. Very well may have. His first. Davis must be an incredible human being.
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