One of the benefits of what I do is playing in a number of tournaments. Some are part of charity events and others part of media days, with an occasional pro-am thrown in.

Unlike golfers who put together a team of friends from the home club, I usually wind up playing with strangers or at times with golf writers I know. And sometimes, odd things happen.

On at least two occasions, both outside of Maine, I ran into cheaters.

Now I have played with golfers who are mathematically challenged, but they are as likely to add strokes as subtract them, so we simply correct them as needed. But in these cases it was obviously deliberate. And I present the most egregious to ask, “What would you do?”

In this instance I was being put on the spot. In a best ball of four I pulled my drive into the woods and as we searched my riding partner asked what I was playing. I told him Titleist and continued looking not paying much attention as he went to his bag. Returning to where we were looking he said, “Here it is.”

He showed me a ball at the foot of a tree and I knew it had not been there a moment before. I had to tell him it was not my ball which had a red dot on it. It was a lateral hazard so I dropped and played on although I knew someone else’s score would have to count on that hole.

A few holes later he put me in a worse position. The same golfer hit a very short drive, pulled his second shot and hit his third just short of the green. His chip was within three feet. I was on in three but had a 15 footer for par. The others were all putting for bogey or worse and one of them asked my partner if he was there in three. He replied that he was. If I made my putt it would make no difference, but I missed and he looked to make his for what the others thought would be a par. I knew I would have to correct it but that would not be a very pleasant situation. I got off the hook when he missed the putt and we used my bogey, net par.

Fortunately, he was playing so poorly (which made me wonder about his 15 handicap, too) that we didn’t use his score on any hole and we could turn in our card without any concerns. But how do you handle this situation?

No golfer wants to confront another about his score, but we can’t allow an incorrect card to be turned in for our team, either. I didn’t mention this to my other partners and I probably will never see this individual again.

I was troubled by this experience. I had made up my mind that I would not allow him to post a par on that hole. Would he have argued for the score I knew was wrong? I don’t know.

And I don’t know how anyone could do this in a group of strangers. To me golf is played by the rules. Sure, in our local foursomes we sometimes play the woods as lateral hazards to speed play and drops are perhaps more generous than a strict interpretation of the rules allow, but it’s the same for everyone. But, that’s between four guys. This was a tournament. How would you handle this situation? I would like to hear at [email protected].

Dave Irons is a freelance writer who lives in Westbrook.