Woods and the story of Blayne Barber

Most golfers will go the extra mile to be scrupulously fair.

Others will go to extraordinary lengths. Here’s one painful yet admirable example of the latter. His name is Blayne Barber. An exceptional amateur player — he’s been a member of the US Walker Cup team, and is therefore considered on the fast-track to a glittering career — he advanced easily out of Q School first stage last November. But something continued to trouble him about his play in the tournament’s second round at Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, Georgia.

Barber wasn’t sure if he had brushed a leaf in the sand trap of the course’s 13th hole. His caddy, who happens to also be his brother, insisted that he hadn’t touched it. But just to be on the safe side, he penalised himself a stroke.

Brushing a leaf clearly offers the player no benefit, but the rules of golf are clear: if you accidentally clip a ‘loose impediment’ in a bunker — that could mean a leaf, twig or anything similarly natural — it is deemed a penalty because it is an action that might shift the sand to make your shot a little easier. It is immaterial whether the sand does shift or not.

So to make certain he was completely within the rules, Barber decided to penalise himself by a shot.

Problem is, the penalty for such an infraction is two strokes, not one.

Barber only realised that when talking to a friend later that evening. Having signed his card for a one-shot penalty that should have been two, he knew he had therefore signed for an incorrect score. The penalty for signing for a score lower than the one you have actually achieved is disqualification.

At first, he tried to play on: his caddy kept insisting there was no movement of the leaf, and Barber kept on playing the tournament’s next two rounds, rationalising that it was an unnecessary penalty and he tried to tell himself that his mind had just been playing tricks on him. But his conscience wouldn’t rest.

“I continued to pray about it and think about it, and I just did not have any peace about it,” Barber told Golfweek. “I knew I needed to do the right thing. I knew it was going to be disqualification.”

He called the Tour six days after the tournament’s end, and submitted to disqualification because he had signed an incorrect scorecard.

His disqualification moved a full six players into the next stage. Barber was five strokes ahead of the cut line, so even the added penalty would not have hurt him. Still, Barber is content with his decision, even though it means he will have to qualify tournament-by-tournament throughout 2013.

“I just feel peace about it,” Barber said. “Doing the right thing and doing what I know is right in my heart and in my conscience is more important than short-term success.”