Have you caught anyone cheating? If so, what did you do about it?

The appearance of cheating made headlines this week at the Amelia Invitational. A competitor was accused of improving his lie (“improving” is an understatement; he allegedly kicked it 10 feet) by two other competitors and it was such as big deal that it consumed 11 paragraphs of a 12-paragraph tournament report in the newspaper, even though everyone involved was far out of contention.

The history ina paragraph: the two accusers were playing in a group ahead and happened to see whatever happened as they looked back. They went back and confronted the fellow, then a comedy of rules errors that ensued that caused the alleged cheater to be disqualified.

The future in a paragraph: the local PGA chapter will investigate and further action up the ladder may take place, though we certainly have a he-said, she-said situation that will give the namby-pamby PGA of America a way to dodge the matter.

The purpose of this in a paragraph: if you see what you thought was a rules violation, would you do anything about it?

I’ve seen three and my answer: I did nothing in two cases, and very little in the third.

The two were, I thought, beyond my purview: one was a PGA Tour player, one an LPGA player. This was before people saw violations on TV and called them in, and it didn’t occur to me that I could have turned either in even though I was a spectator.

The PGA Tour player hit his approach about a foot off the green, and I clearly saw him flip his marker far enough to get on the green and allow him to clean the ball.

The LPGA player pulled a slick one. She had a sidehill 4-footer and her marker was in another player’s putting line. She moved her marker a putterhead downhill. When it came time to move the marker, she continued downhill, rather than going back up to where it originally sat. It gave her a straight putt, rather than the bender.

No one (except me) noticed. I just tut-tutted and moved on.

The other was in a club match play tournament. I was in a cart with my opponent and we clearly saw a player in the other match pull a sneaky — he had hit his ball into a hazard and no one could find it. He “found” it. He slipped another ball from his pocket and dropped it. His opponent was looking elsewhere. My opponent and i weren’t.

We discussed it and chickened out. Instead of confronting the guy, we went to his opponent and quietly told him what had happened, and asked him what he thought we should do.

I suppose he went with the perspective; what the heck did a Third Flight match matter?

Forget it, he said. Let him cheat. I’ll beat his butt, anyway.

And he did, with no thanks to our calling out his opponent.

How about you?

(Footnote: the two Tour players apparently were serial cheaters and this brought both down. If I told you their names, and you’re under 40 years old, you wouldn’t know them; the Tours have a way of getting rid of cheaters without a big flap. The guy at my club has left town and I’ve yet to hear anyone ask about him.)

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Not many around here cared to watch The Junior Players and that's understandable as the local boys were few and far behind. However, it's a top international event that brings a lot of money and attention to the community, and good for Billy Detleff and the workers at the TPC for continuing to boost the club's overall tournament schedule.

Yes, they need the business, but they're going as big time as possible to get it. Getting a hundred or so top juniors means a lot of moms, dads and hotel rooms. What's good for the TPC is good for all.

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Ranking golf courses is an imperfect and suspect art. Imperfect because it's so difficult to compare things that look so much alike and yet aren't, and suspect because the motivations of the judges often isn't as pristine as the courses they're rating.

Golf magazine is out with their top 100 and it's about what you'd expect at the top. Pine Valley is No. 1 followed by Cypress Point, Augusta National, Shinnecock Hills, Pebble Beach and Oakmont. (Quibble: A purist likes Augusta in those high clouds, a realist will tell you it's maybe top 50 at best.)

The Stadium is 29th, which is about right. My favorite, Hilton Head's Harbour Town, is only 44th, but its beauty is high in the eye (mine) of the beholder and maybe others will say it's just a short course with a lot of houses.

Wade Hampton, the North Carolina mountain course that's has numerous members in this area, probably is about right at 62nd but Sea Island's Ocean Forest is way over its head at 91st.

Remember, now, that it's all in the judging, and Golf is a very traditional magazine with very traditional people doing their work. The mag's top 100 is heavy on the golden oldies, and there's nothing wrong with that.

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A guy who toils hard for golf in St. Johns County is ailing. Jay Jennison has some plumbing problems and wish him well. A card to The First Tee of St. Johns will get to him. He's the main man behind that effort and the terrific St. Augustine Amateur is a labor of his love.

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The Jacksonville Area GA's annual scholarship tournament is October 5 at Ponte Vedra. A good deal at $380 per foursome that includes golf, lunch and prizes for all. Info is at ww.jaxareagolfassn.com.

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The PGA Tour's playoff system seems a lot better, doesn't it? It's still hard to figure out what's going on, but somehow it's creeping a bit closer to its model, the NASCAR Race for the Chase.

More tweaking is coming, we hear.

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Florida's second best-known course may be Arnold Palmer's Bay Hill and they've done a big renovation job there. A bit more length, we understand, but some tees have been moved and hazards embellished to bring more strategy into play. It's a wonderful course, one that meets the criteria that should get it high ranking: the Tour guys face a challenge, but people like us can have fun playing it.

I’ll be down that way soon and I’ll let you know more.

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Phil Mushnik covers sports TV for the New York Post and frequently jabs at the pomposity in golf announcing. A recent column note: “… I've been playing golf for 23 years and not once have I heard anyone say that a ball is ‘safely on the putting surface’ -- except on TV, where that's heard all the time.”

To add: do any of your fellow players ever say the ball “feeds” toward the hole? Or “chases” down the fairway?