'You're Actually Stupid:' Senior Golfers Baffled By PGA Tour Canada Cheating Scandal

A cheating scandal rocked the PGA Tour Canada this week, and Padraig Harrington and Bernhard Langer are as stunned and confused as anyone.

PORTHCAWL, Wales – In case you missed it, this week there was a cheating scandal that came to light on the PGA Tour Canada. Here at the Senior Open, players can’t quite comprehend it.

“I honestly don't know, was it a cry for help, I have no idea,” Harrington said before this week’s major at Royal Porthcawal. “It just seems bizarre that somebody would do that in a – what event was it? So, like a fully-fledged organized tour event. And he thought he would get away with it?”

Bernhard Langer also wondered in disbelief how a pro golfer could get away with cheating.

“Golf is very unique where we penalize ourselves, I've done it to myself, I had a 3-foot putt, I lined it up, I put my putter behind it, looked at the hole, I put it back, the ball moved marginally.,” Langer said. “Nobody saw it, not even a TV camera could pick it up, but I knew the line wasn't where I had put it. I called for a ruling, and well, the rule is, you address it, you get a one-shot penalty, and that cost me $330,000, and I called it on myself. You don't see that in any other sport.”

The incident involved a journeyman pro named Justin Doeden, who missed cuts in his first two events of the Canadian season, and was recently close to missing a third cut in his second round in Ottawa.

When Doeden double-bogeyed the par-5 18th, a hole he had birdied the day before, he was clearly doomed to miss another cut, but instead of reporting the seven he erased the number and wrote a five, putting him safely above the cut line.

According to the website MondayQ, two players were having lunch and noticed the 3-under on the leaderboard for Doeden.

One had played with Doeden and knew he took a seven at the last and finished 1-under. He thought it was a scoring glitch and reported it to the rules official as exactly that—a glitch— but the official pulled the card and saw the erasure of a five written on the card.

As an investigation was on-going between officials, the scorer, and players, Doeden withdrew from the event.

The PGA Tour Canada issued a statement: “A violation of the Rules of Golf is handled in accordance with the PGA TOUR Canada Player Handbook and Tournament Regulations. Per TOUR policy, the matter – and any related disciplinary action – will be handled internally.”

Doeden did not respond to Sports Illustrated’s request for comment. A PGA Tour spokesman later said that Doeden is not currently doing interviews.

Doeden confessed his actions Monday on Twitter.

“I am here to confess of the biggest mistake I have made in my life to date. I cheated in golf. This is not who I am. I let my sponsors down. I let my competitors down. I let my family down. I let myself down. I pray for your forgiveness. John 1:9."

At the Senior British Open on Wednesday, Langer went on to discuss the tremendous stress and pressure that exists on all tours.

“Some of these people, they have family, they have young kids, and they live from this paycheck to the next one, so it can be very tempting,” Langer said of cheating. “But to me it's foolish, especially changing a scorecard is ridiculous, really. I mean, how can you think you're going to get way with changing a scorecard? You're not just breaking a rule. You're actually stupid.”

Harrington said players cheat on tour regularly and how difficult it is to stop, since you must be 100% sure and have all the evidence needed to prove it or potentially face legal ramifications.

“Is this a serial offender? And is that wrong, I suppose that's why we have in real life, why we have a court system and a judge because you know, I'm sitting here thinking, it makes no sense,” Harrington said while trying to resolve in his head how to approach the incident. “There must be a reason why this has happened. Is this poor person under some outside pressure or something, or why would they do this?”