Golf is a sport that is renowned for its emphasis on integrity but it has still seen its fair share of cheating scandals and wild allegations over the years.
Former Masters champion Patrick Reed is a player that is routinely brought up in conversations given what transpired during the 2019 Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas.
Even another green jacket winner, Vijay Singh, has struggled to shake off accusations he improved his score when he was a young pro at the 1985 Indonesian Open.
Ryan French, aka MondayQInfo, has also seen his fair share of skulduggery whilst reporting on PGA Tour hopefuls.
He joined this week’s Sliced podcast to discuss his career so far and touched on the subject of cheating.
French has seen and heard a lot and one of the most notable stories he broke involved a player named Matt Moroz.
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Moroz came under scrutiny during a pre-qualifier for the Korn Ferry Tour Q-School in Nebraska in 2022.
Throughout the round, Moroz was observed hitting balls into areas where they were unlikely to be found, only for the golfer to be repeatedly on the receiving end of fortuitous breaks.
Moroz was ultimately disqualified after tournament officials found his ball in a penalty area despite protestations that he found it in play.
As far a French sees it, cheating in the sport is “pretty regular” across all major tours but there are several reasons why we don’t hear about it more often.
“It’s hard to tell the truth,” French said, claiming he’s been pressured in the past to “kill stories”.
He added: “My phone rings with a cheating story probably an average of once a week, and that’s on all tours across the world.
“And cheating is – rampant is way too strong of a word – [but it’s] pretty regular, and tours aren’t doing much to stop it.
“In fact, they’re probably doing the opposite of that. They’re discouraging people from reporting it, they’re not working it, and I don’t know where that comes from. And it’s really unfortunate because it just creates more.”
There’s also another problem. Players are too reluctant to stick their necks above the parapet.
“My rule is if you’re going to accuse someone of cheating, you got to put your name on it,” he said.
“So 98 per cent of the stories I don’t get, but I think that culture speaks to the cheating incident: players are afraid to put their name on it.
“And I’m talking to players that at least a large majority of are like 100 per cent true.
“They’re being corroborated by other people, but everyone is afraid to ruffle the feathers of other players or tours or whatever. It’s pretty alarming.”
French said players just don’t want to deal with the fallout.
“There’s a whole culture underneath of calling out someone,” he said.
Is there a solution?
French, who claimed one player on a major tour told him he “looks the other way” now when playing with known cheaters because it affects his game, believes there is.
“If a player is accused of cheating and it’s proven to be true, you put out a statement, suspend that guy,” he said.
“The OWGR comes up with an agreement that they will all adhere to that suspension. And this is going to significantly cut down on cheating. That’s it.
“Like, it’s so simple, and no one is for cheating. Every non-cheater is against cheating. So why are the tours discouraging this? I don’t get it. It’s crazy, isn’t it?
You can listen to the full episode here.
