In all honesty....

Yesterday as I played golf with my buddy (and former boss) Ron, we were tied neck and neck at the turn with a pair of 43's. He was psyched that he tied me on the front nine because I have had his number for a couple of years now. Then came the back nine.

I pulled ahead by three after parring the first three holes on the back nine. Then came #13. I hit my drive down the right side of the fairway and from experience know the it was either under, behind, or right in front of one of several pine trees. Ron hit his drive in perfect position right in the middle of the fairway.

Of course, my drive ended up on the green side of the last pine tree in question and I had a limited (no) backswing. I did not panic, however, and while waiting for the green to clear I weighed my options.....chip out with a 7 iron (smart play) , try to hit a screaming chop shot with a 4 iron (less smart play) or try to actually reach the green from just about 100 yards by running a 5 wood along the ground (really risky play). Well. after several practice swings with all three clubs, I chose the dumbest one. "Let's try flatten our swing with a 5 wood and run one onto the green from under a tree, off a down hill lie, off dirt. Yeah, that ought to work", I said to myself.

It didn't.

In fact, I actually whiffed. Not once, oh no, I had to try that high percentage shot twice. So, not only did I whiff the first time, I actually ran the count to 0-2 and I had to call time out. I ended up switching to the 4 iron and chopping it out. I managed to card a smooth 7 on the very short par four. Damn.

There went my lead as my buddy made par. Back to all even.

Here is where the honesty part kicks in.....Ron did not know that I had whiffed, he thought that I was just making a practice swing. I informed him on the green that I had in fact whiffed twice and had seven not five as he thought I had. Now I could have kept those two special swings all to myself and carded a bogey. But my honesty and the integrity of this great game shone through and I posted a solid triple bogey on my card.

I went on to par the rest of the holes for a pretty good 39 with a two-whiff triple bogey and kept my winning streak over Ron in tact. More importantly, I kept my integrity in tact as well.