WTF ? Lance Armstrong Speaks of Honor

As I have said before I am still a fan of print media. Grabbing a magazine and heading off to the “library” seems more natural than sliding through apps on my cell phone.

But recently I’ve been disappointed by one of my “Go To” Mags…Golf Digest. Their December issue had that self-promoting, entitled, douche bag Johnny Manziel on the cover. Really? King Douche on the cover? Bad…really bad choice if you ask me. 

Now the January issue has Rickie Fowler on the cover and of course I’ve no problem with Rickie. It seems that Rickie, Rory McIlroy and Jordan Spieth have been very popular cover choices recently and deservedly so.

The boys at Golf Digest know they can’t go wrong with Rickie. He’s one of the most popular golfers in the world and one of the few that can reach people that don’t know green fees from Greensleeves.  

But, and you knew there was a but coming the boys at Golf Digest give us Lance Armstrong in their monthly My Shot piece.

Normally I wouldn’t have an issue with Lance “Cheater” Armstrong. After all he’s a celebrity and My Shot usually gives us celebrities and their relationship with golf and this one is no different.

But the cover still got to me. Guy Yocum and his brethren announce Armstrong’s article with this heading on the cover, “Lance Armstrong on Golf’s Code of Honor.” Armstrong and honor in the same sentence? Isn’t that a stretch? WTF?

Armstrong tell us he plays 250 rounds a year, he’s a ten handicap, loves the game and has ADD. OK, big whoop but then he addresses what he calls “golf’s code of honor.”

Golf is different from the culture of cycling when I was competing, and that’s putting it mildly. Cycling, it was the Wild West. Nobody considered doping cheating. It was an arms race where absolutely anything went, and it was every man for himself.  

You might consider me the last guy to have anything to say about cheating, but golf is different. I love adhering to a code of honor that we in cycling didn’t have. 

If I moved my ball in the rough and got caught, I wouldn’t just regret it. I’d be heartbroken forever. 

When I think about reform in cycling, I think about golf. 

I don’t know where to begin…but I’ll start with Lance’s history. Armstrong won the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times…all the while he was cheating.

After years of denying doping allegations, after losing sponsors and lawsuits and being stripped of his titles he admitted to cheating.

He’s the most accomplished cheater in the history of sport. But he loves that golf has a code of honor.

He says that cycling had no such code but it did and it does. It’s called the rules. Adhering to the rules is a basic in any sport. But Armstrong never saw it that way.

Now, he loves the honor code. It’s called the rules Lance and we all are expected to follow them.

He still doesn’t get it. Case in point is this quote, “If I moved my ball in the rough and got caught, I wouldn’t just regret it. I’d be heartbroken forever.”

“And got caught” is the telling part of Armstrong’s words.

Would he regret it if he wasn’t caught? Would he not be heartbroken if he wasn’t found out?  Would he call a penalty on himself?

The point is Lance, it’s not about getting caught it’s about policing yourself and playing by the rules. Something you’re not even remotely familiar with.

Playing with a cheater isn’t fun. But I’d play with Lance if I had the chance. I’d love to see what he considers the rules of golf. But I’d have to have 24 cameras and a rules official following Lance around.

I’d pick John Paramor of the European as the rules official. He’s the toughest and fairest official in the world.

I bet Lance wouldn’t get past the first hole without Paramor nailing him.