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Padraig Harrington and Bernhard Langer weigh in on 'bizarre' PGA Tour cheating scandal

Padraig Harrington

Harrington was left in disbelief that any player could try and cheat so blatantly in the modern era, while Langer recalled an incident from his past that highlighted his commitment to fair play.

Golf greats Padraig Harrington and Bernhard Langer have both weighed in on the extraordinary cheating scandal that rocked last week's PGA Tour Canada event.

Accusations of cheating in professional golf are certainly not unheard of but generally involve situations where a player is accused of trying to gain an unfair advantage via a favourable lie or drop.

Rarely is the cheating as blatant as the incident involving Justin Doeden at last week's Commissionaires Ottawa Open.

After making a double-bogey seven on the par-5 18th hole to fall below the cut line, a seemingly desperate Doeden chose to erase the seven and replaced it with a five on his scorecard.

It didn't take long for officials to launch an investigation, at which point Doeden instantly confessed and apologised.

"I am here to confess of the biggest mistake I have made in my life to date," Doeden wrote on Twitter. "I cheated in golf. This is not who I am."
Asked about the incident ahead of The Senior Open, Harrington admitted it left him absolutely gobsmacked.

"It's hard to believe that in the modern era, somebody could still think that they could [cheat]," he said.

"I honestly don't know [if it is] a cry for help. I have no idea. It just seems bizarre that somebody would do that in a fully-fledged organized tour event. And he thought he would get away with it?
"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. 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?"
After expressing his disappointment with the news, Langer recalled an incident from his own past to illustrate what makes golf so special when it comes to abiding by the rules of the game.
"It's obviously very disappointing when anybody cheats because the game of golf was built and founded on honesty and integrity, and that's what we try to teach our younger generations, and that's what we all try to be, role models for that and uphold the rules," he said.
"Golf is very unique where we penalize ourselves. I once had a 3-foot putt; I lined it up, put my putter behind it, looked at the hole, and put it back. The ball moved marginally. 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."
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