Yahoo! Sports: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/highschool-prep-rally/mississippi-teen-falls-final-hole-prestigious-u-junior-095716326.html
Nothing was unusual about Scottie Scheffler's win at the 2013 U.S. Junior Amateur Golf Championship. He was after all, a rising star in the sport and a clear favorite to win the competition. What was surprising was the nature of his victory. His second place contender, Davis Riley, actually called a one-stroke penalty on himself at the 16th, and last, hole of the game. Scheffler, a 17 year-old high school senior, and Riley, a 16 year-old Miss. native, were nearly tied coming into the final hole. Apparently, Riley noted a discrepancy between his ball's position and where it should have originally been. "After consulting with a rules official and re-positioning his ball, [Riley's] now-par putt fell just short, and he conceded to Scheffler's tap-in par putt..." Few, if any, onlookers spotted the change and it is likely that the mistake would have gone unnoticed.
Had Riley now given himself that one-stroke penalty, it is likely that he could have tied with or beaten Scheffler. However, his integrity and sportsmanship compelled him to report the discrepancy and take second place in the prestigious competition. Scheffler was also impressed with Riley's honesty. "It took a lot of heart to do that," Scheffler told the Gazette-Journal.
Admittedly when I read the article, I found it almost foolish for Riley to penalize himself for such a seemingly small and innocuous blunder. I realized though that it is this way of thinking that separates me from great athlete's like Davis Riley. I, who lack any real sportsmanship or integrity, would have lost no sleep over simply ignoring the discrepancy. But Riley clearly understood that to do so would have been to forfeit not only his own integrity, but the integrity of the sport. The decision can hardly have been easy for Riley to make, and must have obviously struggled to accept his loss, but ultimately knew that it was the right thing to do. While his commitment to sportsmanship may have cost him one of the most prestigious golf titles outside of the PGA tour, it definitely earned him the respect of not only his opponents, but everyone who hears of his honest deed.
On this post, I think you could add more analysis and less summary. (You have two paragraphs of summary to one paragraph of analysis.) The analysis that you do have, however, is good. I like how you used a personal example to emphasize your stance on the issue. You could expand on that even more to make this better.
ReplyDeleteThe article you chose was very interesting. Riley certainly deserves a lot of respect for self-reporting his penalty, especially in a world where there is not much integrity. You did a good job mentioning your personal thoughts on the article. However, I agree with Joanne that your commentary had a lot of summary. One way you can expand your analysis is by commenting on the structure of the article. Otherwise, your commentary was well-written.
ReplyDeleteI really like the article you chose and had almost same response you had according to your commentary on this article. I, too, would have just ignored the mistake and aimed for the championship. For the structure of this commentary, the first paragraph was a good summary that had the whole content of the article. The second paragraph, though, seemed like an attempt at analysis, but it is just repeating the first paragraph.
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