Honor, a basic instinct

Richard Dunn

As major league baseball players prepare to strike, golfers in the

Southern California Golf Association Mid-Amateur Championship this

week at Big Canyon Country Club proved why their game is so

honorable.

Murrieta’s Ed Cuff, the last amateur to defeat Tiger Woods in

match play, was leading the SCGA Mid-Amateur in the final round

through 15 holes, but then after preparing to hit a 20-foot birdie

attempt on the par-3 No. 16, Cuff backed away and called a one-shot

penalty on himself after the ball moved. He two-putted for what

became a bogey.

Former SCGA Amateur champion Scott McGihon of Bermuda Dunes

rallied from 10 shots off the pace to capture the 19th SCGA Mid-Am title by one shot, firing a 2-under-par 70 in the final round Tuesday

to finish the 54-hole championship at 3-over 219, a testament to how

tough Big Canyon played in the two days of competition.

Cuff, the leader after two rounds by six shots, concluded his

nightmarish final round of 80 with three bogeys to finish in a tie

for second with Huntington Beach’s Bill Coleman, whose 1-under 71 was

the only other subpar score in the final round.

McGihon, a former UC Irvine golfer, won the 2000 SCGA Amateur

Championship at Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club. McGihon made three birdies

in the final round of the SCGA Mid-Am, but bogeyed the par-4 No. 17

and feared it might have been costly.

“I thought I had blown it,” said McGihon, 34. “But I knew the last

three holes were playing really hard, so I just focused on making a

good swing on the next tee.”

Only after he hit his tee shot at 18, where he eventually made

par, did McGihon ask how he stood in the tournament.

Cuff, the 1998 California Amateur champion and two-time SCGA

Four-Ball winner, was not as fortunate at 18, a 518-yard dogleg right

par-5 with a creek in front of the green. Cuff’s drive at 18 bounced

out of bounds, but ricocheted back inbounds, only to land on the side

of a hill. Cuff was forced to punch out into the fairway.

McGihon joined Craig Steinberg, John Pate and Mark Johnson as the

only players to win both the SCGA Amateur and SCGA Mid-Amateur.

* According to Big Canyon’s Dennis Harwood, a longtime SCGA board

member, Cuff’s ball at 16 moved “perhaps 1/8 of an inch on the

putting green, which only he saw. That honorable action, which cost

him a stroke, may have cost him the win since he eventually lost by

one.”

Golf is an honorable game, with the overwhelming majority of

players being honorable people who don’t need referees. The pros are

compensated in direct proportion to how well they play and they don’t

get per diem and two seats on a charter flight when they travel

between tournaments.

Golfers don’t hold out for more money, or demand new contracts

because of another player’s deal. In golf, you cannot fail 70% of the

time and make $9 million a season. Golf doesn’t change its rules to

attract fans and doesn’t have free agency.

Golfers do not go on strike; instead, they call their own

penalties.

* Big Canyon’s golf course was a winner this week in the SCGA

Mid-Am with averaging scoring of 78.82 (for a first-round field of 87

out of over 800 attempted qualifiers), 79.64 in the second round and

76.74 in the final round. No player broke 70 and only eight rounds

were under par in the event.

* Local finishers included Jim Fuchs of Costa Mesa at 230, Steve

Rhorer of Costa Mesa at 234 and Gary Singer of Newport Beach at 236.

Richard Dunn’s golf column appears every Thursday.