Four Holes in One? Uh, no

I will agree that the reporter could have been more wary about the story, but in reading the piece it sounds like he asked all the right questions. It appears he was misled by someone he considered a trusted news source.

However, if I'm the sports editor, McCormick Woods Golf Club gets zero coverage in the paper without a written and published apology first. This ill-considered stunt just encourages other crackpots to call in their "fish stories" and waste reporter/editor time debunking them.

 

Wouldn't some of the right questions be, "How long was the hole?" "How far was each drive?" "What clubs did you each use?" "How many bounces did the shot take?"

 

I don't put any of it on the newspapers. The industry being what it is, it is more dependent than ever on sources providing information and honoring that implicit trust.
If I had a say, I suspend all golf phoners period and if people want to know why, give them this guy's name and phone number.
For a gm at a golf club to be party to this? Stupid.

 

Every newspaper reports holes-in-one. I've never known a reporter who actually saw it go in. Nor does a reporter see every touchdown scored, every three-poiner or every home run in a high school game. People are on their honor. I don't see anything the reporter did wrong.

How many cop reporters actually saw a car accident or a fire or a holdup? They're relaying on police reports, which are filled out by people who are not perfect.

 

I'm surprised this doesn't happen more often, and it probably happens more often than anyone would like it to happen with individual holes in one.

But if I'm that paper, that course and that director of golf are dead to me. If they call and have a fundraising tournament coming up - they can buy an ad. They had results from a tournament of some kind - buy an ad. They have a hole in one to call in - buy an ad. The "director of golf" being actively involved with something like this is a firing offense, in my mind. It's not a mistake, its a willful misrepresentation of the truth, with himself as one of the "stars".

 

I'm wondering what the heck do you have to do to get a separate at that paper?? That thing had 1A written all over it.

Related note: Once had a stringer whose gamer included a note about the pitcher's first pitch being 107 mph.
I called her, and she confirmed, saying the press box guy said "first pitch, 1-0-7."
I told her that was the time. And, if somebody actually did throw it 107, she'd probably want that in the lead.

 

That actually got into print, didn't it? Spring training game, right?

I don't remember seeing it in the paper, but I do remember seeing someone making fun of it in print, a la Sporting News' "Caught on the Fly" or some other snarky sports/media column. Or maybe I remember my guys talking about it in the newsroom.

(Point is, I can semi-confirm 1HPGrad's story.)

 

Touchdowns, car wrecks and fires aren't all that unusual. Four HOLES-In-ONE in a golf tournament by men in the same foursome??? Do you have any idea the odds of that happening?

This would be like a man who stopped a bank robbery, caught a baby falling out a burning building, and performed CPR on Kate Upton, who was hit by a Cooter,until the ambulance showed up. And it all happened within a one-block radius. And the police desk Sgt. called it in.
It's possible, but REALLY, REALLY, really unlikely.



You're right if the reporter got that from a D.O.G. at the course .. yeah ... but still, I'd prolly ask for some additional documentation, just because of the astronomical odds.

If true, yeah it's a easy a 1A story .. I was surprised it was in a brief's package.

 

Were Heywood Jablome and Dick Sweatt in the foursome?

 

Best policy is that the club's pro has to fill out, sign and fax a form that says what happened.

All witnesses have to be identified and include the hole, yardage, what club was used and weather conditions.

Cover all the details and put it on the pro. The system can still be cheated but it works.

As a PS, I had a buddy who would regularly call in holes-in-one and other amazing golf shots to the paper in Cleveland, Miss. They'd run without question.

He played football at Delta State and one day the golf coach came and found him then asked him to join the golf team. Said a guy that good needed to quit wasting his time at football and get on the course.

The fake call-ins quit after that.

 

Kindred is awesome.

 

Obviously, this reporter doesn't play golf.