There is bad behaviour in golf just like other sports

Did you watch the African Cup of Nations final? In case you missed it, hosts Morocco were awarded a stoppage time penalty with the score 0-0.

The Senegal players didn’t agree with the verdict. But instead of accepting the decision and getting on with it they opted to behave like spoilt children and walked off the pitch. 

When they were finally persuaded to return, Morocco missed the penalty. After all the shenanigans that had gone on, this came as no great surprise.

If justice had been done, Morocco would have gone on to win the cup in extra time. But life is not like that and Senegal ended up winning the trophy. 

No matter how you weigh this up, the scenes we witnessed at what was a showpiece final were nothing short of disgraceful and I trust that FIFA will eventually get around to imposing some sort of penalty on the Senegal team and their management. Stripping them of the trophy might be a good way to start.

Bad Behaviour is Common in Other Sports

Sadly, bad behaviour dominates professional sport these days. If you are a football fan you will have witnessed countless players feigning injury in order to get opponents sent off. We have seen tennis players deliberately tanking matches. 

If you watch any professional sport at some point you will have witnessed an individual or an entire team all but giving up when things are not going their way. Even at the recent World Darts Championship, Ricky Evans was widely criticised by pundits and fellow players alike when he appeared to stop trying when things were going against him.

I can only imagine that the huge rewards on offer and the pressure on top sportsmen and women to succeed have something to do with this. 

I have seen boxers pretend to be hit below the belt when replays show nothing of the sort actually happened. 

Whatever happened to sportsmanship?

But is Golf Really Any Better?

It got me thinking about what might happen if such attitudes found their way into the world of professional golf.

Let’s start with the Ryder Cup. You will not need me to tell you that the behaviour of the American fans at Bethpage Black last year went way beyond the realms of anything that is acceptable. But, for the most part, the American players accepted their lot. They were outplayed, and they knew it. Now imagine if they had woken up on the Sunday morning, looked at the overall match score and decided that enough was enough. 

Can you imagine Keegan Bradley knocking on Luke Donald’s hotel-room door and saying: "Sorry Luke but we really don’t fancy this. We have packed our cases, put our golf bags in the car and are all heading home. You can keep the cup."

Far-fetched? Of course it is.

Our sport prides itself on the behaviour of those who play the game, whether that be at professional or club level. Cheating is not tolerated. 

We are always on our best behaviour when out on the links. You never hear bad language or witness temper tantrums. Yeah, right!

Golf supposedly holds itself to a high standard but we all know that there are transgressions.

Golfers Regularly Break Clubs & Swear

We have all heard top golfers bemoaning their luck, slamming clubs into the ground, taking bad shots out on their caddies. But that is simply the tip of the iceberg.

Tiger Woods, the greatest golfer of his generation, is the most fined golfer in the history of the PGA Tour for his use of the f-word. 

Every time we watch Tyrrell Hatton and Jon Rahm compete we know that at some point the commentators are going to have to apologise for their language. Rory McIlroy and Shane Lowry are also serial offenders. 

We forgive them because we can relate to what they are going through.

Scotland’s Robert MacIntyre got his PGA Tour season off to a flyer at the Sony Open, where he shot the lowest final round of 63 on his way to a fourth-place finish. 

You might think he would be happy with his week’s work. But in his post-tournament press interview he said that his biggest regret was breaking his putter after missing a three-foot putt on the final green on day two. MacIntyre is another who has a temper - and he knows it.

He said: "Doing that cost me a shot. My attitude cost me this golf tournament and I can't be allowing that. You got to be in the right position at the right time to allow a round like today [his 63] to finish off. It is a big, big reminder for me that my attitude has got to be right for 72 holes, not just 36. It has to be spot on. Last year, I felt like I did a great job of that."

We have witnessed many tour professionals breaking clubs in anger. I remember watching McIlroy throw a wedge into a lake - only to have it returned by same brave soul who dived into the water to retrieve it. This is nothing new. Tommy Bolt, Tom Weiskopf and a host of other hot-headed golfers have memorably taken out their temper on the offending clubs. Unlike you and I, of course, they don’t have to pay to replace them. Perhaps if they did then they might think twice.

And there is a comparison to be drawn with Senegal marching off in a huff. At the 2011 Australian Open, John Daly did precisely the same thing after hitting six balls in the water. What made his crime evermore heinous was the fact that he had been paid a massive appearance fee. Unsurprisingly, the Wild Thing never returned to Australia.

So let’s not judge other sports too harshly until we have our own house in order!