Someone asked about cheaters earlier in this thread. I had meant to tell this story, but I’d forgotten until now. This guy is the most blatant cheater I’ve ever heard of.
At a qualifier for the 2007 US Mid-Amateur, a player, we’ll call him Joe XtXson from a town in the Sacramento Valley, returned his card with a score that would have qualified to go to the championship in Milwaukee. The NCGA was posting the scores on the internet. About 30 minutes later, before all the play was complete, our official in charge got a phone call in the pro shop. On the line was a player who said he had been the marker for Joe and that Joe had shot a score 5 shots higher than shown. The card was retrieved and it was noticed that there were erasures on the card. Joe was immediately disqualified and was sent a letter telling him he wasn’t allowed to enter any NCGA or USGA tournaments.
Move forward to 2008. A US Amateur qualifier is being played in the valley. When we receive the list of entrants there is a Joey XtXsen listed amongst the entrants from the same town. One of staff is a little suspicious so he checks a few things. Joey is from a different club than Joe, has a different GHIN number, has a different address and with slight difference in the last names he figures that he is a different person. The last name was a common enough Scandinavian name that it was very possible for it to be two people.
This qualifier was being run by Roger Val, our Director of Rules and Competitions. Because we had so many qualifiers going that day, Roger wasn’t able to take a laptop and do live scoring. Therefore, the scores weren’t posted on the Internet that day. At the end of the day Joey XtXsen was the medalist and Roger gave him the medal.
The next day, Roger was back at the office going through the cards. As he looked at Joey’s second round card, he noticed a few erasures. He also noticed that Joey had made a hole-in-one. He was surprised that there was no big deal made about that. He was very suspicious and called in the staff member who had first checked things. He explained how it didn’t seem like it was the same person.
Roger called the Joey’s marker. As they went through the card, the player said that the scores were wrong on a number of holes. When asked about the ace, he said, “I was suspicious about that. The green is elevated and I thought his shot might have gone over the green. My shot was down the hill where I couldn’t see the green’s surface. While I was getting ready to hit my shot, Joey went up and yelled that his ball was in the hole. I had no way to dispute this, but I wasn’t totally sure about it either.” Roger called Joey who denied all the accusations, including being the same person as the previous year.
The fun thing is that the marker is a police officer in Joey’s home town. He starts checking things out and finds the address he used is for a grocery store. Nobody at the club where he is a member really knows him. Not to unusual for a public course, but still a player that good would get known quickly.
Roger called the USGA to have them take him out of the championship. Meanwhile, Joey sent an e-mail to the USGA saying he would have to withdraw due to the illness of his father. Then a day or two later he sent another e-mail saying that there had been a change for the better and he would be able to play. But, this was his real fatal mistake. He used the same e-mail address that he had used the previous year to register as Joe XtXson.
The USGA quickly sent him a letter telling him he was indefinitely suspended and sent a letter to us that we could take to the US Mid-Amateur qualifier that Joey was entered in. Needless to say, he didn’t show up.
On to 2009. One of our staff gets a phone call from Joseph XdXson saying he has entered the California Amateur qualifier but needs to withdraw and would like his entry just moved to the NCGA Public Links championship. She is immediately suspicious. We pull the GHIN number he registered with.
I type it into GHIN without a club number and am told that he is a member of a club in Oregon and a club in San Luis Obispo which is about as far as you can get from the original town and still be in the NCGA. The address associated with the club in Oregon is in Boise, ID. The address with the club in SLO is in Palm Springs. Additionally, he became a member in November of 2008 and had posted 20 scores in a two week period right after that, but hadn’t posted anymore since. A few of the scores posted were listed as being played at Poppy Hills. So, I called our pro shop and they had no record of his playing.
I went to Google maps and switched to street view. The address in Boise is an open field. The one in Palm Springs is in a gated community so street view doesn’t have a shot, but it appears to be a park.
On top of all that, the dummy still hadn’t gotten a new e-mail address.
We put the word out on him to the SCGA and the OGA. The SCGA catches him trying to enter some tournaments down there.
After another round of letters, it appears he has finally given up or gotten a lot smarter.
So, how was he doing this? It turns out that in both events, one of the players in the group had withdrawn so it was a group of 2. When they finished the round, rather than going to the scoring area, he suggested the check the cards at the 18th green. After they took care of the cards, he found some reason not to go straight to scoring, but waited until the other player had turned in his card and left the area. He then made his changes to the card. He then waited until things were busy and walked up and handed in his card.
Roger is still pissed that he gave him the medal.