A “Gentleman’s Game” Indeed

You may have already heard about golfer J.P. Hayes, whose honesty last week wound up costing him a shot on the PGA tour:

Hayes shot a 74 Wednesday and a 71 on Thursday, putting him in good shape to finish in the top 20 and advance to the final qualifying stage in December.

But on Thursday night in his hotel room, Hayes realized that [an] errant golf ball might not have been on the approved list.

“It was a Titleist prototype, and somehow it had gotten into my bag,” he said, according to the Journal Sentinel. “It had been four weeks since Titleist gave me some prototype balls and I tested them. I have no idea how or why it was still in there.”

Hayes had a choice: He could have said nothing and kept playing, with no one aware of his mistake. Or he could turn himself in and let his mistake cost him a 2009 PGA Tour card.

He chose the latter.

ESPN’s Jason Sobel reminds us , however, that this sort of integrity is not uncommon in the “gentleman’s game”:

J.P. Hayes’ recent decision to disqualify himself from the second stage of the PGA Tour qualifying tournament after inadvertently playing with a nonconforming golf ball has elicited deserved applause from those who respect his honesty. The decision also has sparked debate over why such practice isn’t applied to other sports.

Of course, such glorification for this gesture will appear a bit overblown in golf’s inner circle, where it goes without saying that this was the only proper conclusion. As Bobby Jones said after receiving commendation for issuing himself a 2-stroke penalty during a playoff in the 1925 U.S. Open, “You may as well praise a man for not robbing a bank.”