Aniseed Balls

When a friend of mine told me that the Ryder Cup was about to begin, she was outraged when I casually enquired if the American cheating had started. Golf is supposed to be an oasis of honesty, etiquette, fair play and self-regulation in a sporting desert of deceit and over-enthusiastic gamesmanship. The Ryder Cup is the pinnacle of international competition in the sport, played by professionals in a temporary state of Corinthian amateurism: there is no prize money, only glory. Surely not even Americans would cheat at that? The 1991 Ryder Cup is notorious for the continued spat between Paul Azinger and Seve Ballesteros. Azinger insisted that he had not been trying to cheat, and Ballesteros retorted, "Oh no. Breaking the rules and cheating are two different things." He thought he was being sarcastic, but actually hit the nail very much on the head. For many Americans breaking the rules and getting away with it is not cheating. For these people the proprieties of a sport are f