What makes this story especially interesting 
is that Cameron Tringale asked to be DQ’d 6 days after the PGA, and, the move cost him $53,000!
Put yourself in his shoes. It is the final round of the year’s final major – the PGA Championship. You are not in contention to win but you want to finish well. You are on the 11th hole and a little frustrated at not making par. You go to tap in your bogey putt. It is only 3 inches. As you move toward the ball, your not thinking. You just move to tap it and go right over the top of the ball. You move again, reflexively, and tap it in. On to the 12th hole, where you grind out the first of five pars before birding the 18th for a final round 69. You tie for 33rd and earn $53,000. Not bad but you had hoped for more. You were hitting the ball so well all week. The thought even came to your mind that maybe this was your week to win. Just couldn’t get the putts to fall.
Later that day, as you reflect on the round, something starts gnawing at you. Did you actually make a stroke and whiff that putt on 11? You try to remember but it happened so fast. Because you were acting on reflex, you can’t really remember. You dismiss it, “No, if I would have whiffed it outright I would remember that.”
But it won’t go away – this wondering if you actually did make a stroke. “I can’t really ask anyone else. Nobody knows but me,” you think. “Who cares anyway?” you defend, even justifying, “What difference does it make at this point?”
However, as the days go by, the conversation increases, “I think I might have made that stroke, but, I will look like a fool to bring it up now, for waiting so long to say something. Besides, it will just create a hassle for them at this point.”
Now I don’t know Cameron Tringale, so this internal conversation is all my speculation. (If you want more facts on the story, click here.) But I have been there – not at a PGA Champioship but in life and golf wondering what to do when I think I might have or know I have done something wrong.
You have been there too. You know the struggle. You also know the number of times you have yielded to your appeals to just let it go and move on. You may also be more like Cameron and listened to the cries to do the right thing. You know the courage this took.
Having read about this, I want to talk with Cameron. I would like to know what drove him to keep up the conversation. I would like to discuss how he got to the point of actually believing he made that stroke. What it was like to call the PGA and notify them of his desire to be disqualified based on his signing his now incorrect scorecard. I would like to applaud his courage and let him know he is a part of a growing movement of people who are working to redeem sports. I would like to tell him how his example helps others to have such courage and further advance this movement.
I would also like to ask him who gave him the most grief about giving back the $53,000!!!
