Saturday, September 4, 2010

Honesty v. Victory

Jay Busbee writes a Yahoo online column about golf--he sometimes features unusual or heartwarming stories.  He once said in an article--and I have this quote on my desktop--"in golf, honesty is more important than victory."


The gist of the story he profiled today is about a kid who won a junior tournament in Wisconsin.  The kid signs the scorecard to make it official, collects the trophy, and goes home.  While celebrating later, he notices an extra club in his bag.  Golf has some wacky rules.  Carrying an extra club costs two penalty strokes every hole.  He calls the tournament director and sends the trophy back.  Honest kid.

Some of you know my novel is a YA contemporary about a girl who plays golf.  So I read Jay's story about an honest fourteen-year-old boy with interest. If there's ever a sequel to my first novel, it might have a character like this kid.  Read the full story here.

 These are my clubs.  If there are more than 14, I'd be penalized. :)

What would you do?

5 comments:

Jess said...

My husband loves golf (and I'm learning, by default). I shared this story with him, and he wholeheartedly agreed with the "honesty is more important than victory" quote. His exact response was, "If you're not honest in golf, you get shunned. It's about integrity, and that kid has it." Thanks for the link!

Talli Roland said...

Wow! What an honest kid! I think I'd do the same - mostly because my conscience is out of control and I know I'd be tormented FOREVER!

Kristine Asselin said...

Thanks Jess--I love that this kid took the honest route.

Talli -- I know! Me too! And it says so much more about his integrity AND his golf game.

Laura Pauling said...

The news is such a great place to get ideas!

Ansha Kotyk said...

That's the type of stuff we need to see in MG/YA fiction!! Character. Golf is a great way to showcase it.