High School Golfers Acting Knuckleheadedly

(Yes, I just made that word up.)

Among our area's smallest schools, I've found HS golf meets are basically an excuse for getting out of school. I can beat most of them, and to be frank, that's a pretty serious condemnation. Last week, I took a picture of a kid jumping two feet in the air over a missed putt (to be fair, I know the kid, he's high-strung but remarkably polite). Today, I watch a kid whose ball hits a willow tree and lands in at least three inches of casual water (ironically this course is called the "High"land) try to play his ball from said casual water. (Even better, the photo turned out great and probably will front our section tomorrow).

The question is: even though pictures of kids jumping up and down on greens and slashing through puddles and spongy ground make good photos (the jump photo would have been even better had there not been the roof of a cart in the way), does it give you pause (like me) to think printing these photos encourages bad etiquette?

 

Nope ... all the high school kids cheat with their scores, anyway.

 

No such problem with etiquette here, no matter the school's size. Many high school golf coaches around here stress playing the game like ladies and gentlemen to their players, but then it sounds like the standard is a bit higher here than some of the schools you cover.

In my four years here, there have been three individual state champions and one team champion. One golfer wrapped up his first season at Arizona State and is playing in a U.S. Open qualifier next week and one is bound for Zach Johnson's Drake University.

But I will run a photo of a kid acting like an idiot only if it is a stunning image, the kind I am not able to take. I believe there is some merit to your fear that it encourages bad etiquette. Those photos to those kind of kids, no matter the sport, are like badges of honor. I believe if they see a camera pointed in their direction, the tantrums may follow from time to time.

Besides, IMO, I think a photo of some 16- or 17-year-old kid whining dumbs down the page.

 

Don't know if this is the place to share this, but it's a classic. Few years ago, the inner-city schools here added girls golf to their list of sports. None of the girls had ever played before. They didn't realize you couldn't trash talk. So the first couple tournaments, opponents would get ready to putt and the inner-city girls would start saying stuff like "Miss it, you bitch! Miss it!" They had to have a long talk with them when the state tournament began because the No. 1-ranked team in the state was a suburban school in the same district.

 

Didn't Happy Gilmore do the same stuff?

 

I would pay to see this. It would actually make girls' prep golf interesting.

 

That's the funniest thing I've ever heard. You can't make that up.

A couple of years ago here, there was a small-school girl that put 18 balls in the water on a single hole and had to withdraw because that was all the balls she had. It was the second hole!

 

Yeah, and he was nearly kicked off the tour.

 

That's exactly what I tell people. You can't make that shit up.

 

I think Happy Gilmore may be the Caddyshack of my generation. Instead of "Wahnanananana!" I've seen a kid (and I think he was being serious-putt with the low hand just above the putter head, like the movie, and another did the full swing (then topped the ball and hit it about 100 feet).

 

No, it wouldn't. They could play in bikinis and it wouldn't.