With the allegations surrounding cricket at the moment, and the hooha regarding snooker, what do we all think about the robustness of golf and its professional players with regard to betting and its obvious pitfalls.

From what I can gather, the cricket situation seems to be centred around the illegal practice of spot betting prevalent in Asia, and the structure of the actual game of cricket (e.g. there's plenty of opportunities during a game for bets to be laid dependent on just one individual).

Now, I'm pretty sure that golf's not a massive draw (at the moment) in Asia, but, like cricket, there are plenty of opportunities where one player can change things (I'm thinking say, a player saying "I'll putt X amount of putts during round Y". 

Am I jumping to conclusions here, or just naive to think it couldn't happen to golf?

(Or am I just suspicious about all the heavy betting on the 3D Cubed Team in this year's YMCA Charity Golf Day????) 

Players as we know in keeping with the self regularity aspect within this great game

respect those 'traditions' that go with it - also at a professional level the rewards

are higher in Golf than playing cricket for Pakistan - however let us not kid ourselves

if an average corrupt professional golfer could pick up £10,000 simply by having a bogey at the last hole then who the hell would know ??l  

Professional Golf is ruled by Professional Golfers. They know what goes on and will act accordingly.

There have been a number of issues in the past which have technically been unprofessional but no-one was deprived of anything.

I don't like the Headline of "Match Fixing" because it isn't. It is not doing things in the correct spirit of the game, but 3 No-Balls sent down at a set time by a set Bowler did not have any effect on the result. It is Fraud though.

TheLyth

I think golf in it's self is a much more difficult sport to fix, ironically simply because it is too easy for a single player to alter the result.  Imagine for a second the scenario that Greg Norman 'threw' the Masters on a couple of occasions (hypothetically).  To all intents and purposes you've got an open and shut case, doing really well and collapses spectacularly on the back nine to be beaten to the title - obviously a fix from a player of that quality.  Where the argument for that falls down, and I imagine it's the same for every single golfer out there, is what financial reward could ever replace a scabby $50 green jacket?  The simple answer is that it can't happen, simply because as social a game as golf is, nobody ever wants to lose.

As far as i am aware Golf is about one's own integrity and if a golfer is dumb enough to bet that he will play a set score on any indivdual hole then he is either very good or just stupid.  I don't know what betting options are availble in Golf at the bookies but if i was a betting man and no matter how good i was i could not guarantee being able to get a set score on any single hole everytime, so any odds would need to reflect on % rates etc.  So it is not something i would be worried about, no lgolfer is going to throw away the chance of winning just to pick up a few grand by deliberately losing.

 As for the cricket, Pakistan will always be connected to corruption or the unprofessional side the the game.  It is unfortunate but there are too many people who see the opportunity to make a living from it, the only way to stop this fraud is to stop the betting shops from providing the betting markets that are open to manipulation.  The betting firms are to blame, they entice people to gamble their lives away, those who are uneducated and seem to have nothing to lose will put their last penny ona bet if they see no way out of their poverty.  You can't really criticise these people as they are only trying to improve their lives, what else can they do.  They are brought up in a different culture/society, and then we who have different ideals and values because we are brought up in a different society to them have an opinion and of course what we as westerners say has to be right?

We all know we have the option to respect  other cultures and religions.  In my opinion, who are we to force our ideals on others when we have so many bankers and those in high office who totally disregard everyone else.  

if the bookies don't want these scams to occur, stop providing the opportunites and leave these people who are only doing what they think best for themselves and their families alone.  

Just thank yourselves we are not in their situation, else you might realise we ourselves would only behave in thesame way

 The main difference between golf and snooker/cricket is the relatively low prize money (granted IPL favours athe chosen few) in cricket/snooker involved. It follows then that if an opportunity aises it could be tempting as no doubt they will see the only victim is the betting company. I cannot see how any top ranking golf pro is interested in money as they're loaded anyway, I'm sure it's all about titles for them.

 What I can't understand is the concept of spot betting set in the context of fair play.  Surely this is a contradiction in terms. Any person would be naive to think that there's not something going on if the outturn of no ball deliveries matches the bet placed. This is possibly the main reason why there's no betting on cricket in Pakistan.

Colin,

"Spot Betting" on a certain occurrence at a certain time shouldn't be taken away from Betting IF groups don't go around making sure it does happen. That is the side of this I don't like.

TheLyth

Cheating has always gone on in every sport and always will. There is absolutely no way to completely wipe it out. All one can do is catch a few careless fools.

What's the point of worrying about anything?  Examine one's own personal challenges and overcome them via action.  There is generally nothing one can do about much broader matters.   

Worrying is a self-destructive process. 

all bookies who have markets involving pakistan cricket team deserve everything they get. 

If i had were the umpire in a match and information was made available to me that a No-ball was going to be bowled at a certain time in the match, i would deliberately refuse to call it, under any circumstance.  I do not have pity for any bookie who gets scammed.

Bookies know pakistan cricket matches are susceptible to scams, yet they still provide easy markets for this to occur.  They do nothing to prevent it from occurring so therefore they accept it and tolerate it. 

easy money for either party where neither have to work for a living like most folk.