Honor
I was an undergrad at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, a great four years, a good educational environment - overall, an outstanding experience (for me, at least).
One of the fascinating things I remember about those years was the College's Honor System. It included much more than "I won't cheat." It covered lying, stealing - in short, it was a code of behavior. And the results were better than the process. We didn't lock our bicycles; we left books or tennis rackets or music lying outside the cafeteria doors or library; we left the door to our rooms open 24/7. I'm told it's still that way, and I'm sure it has something to do with the College tradition, something to do with the relatively small (1,000) size of the student body, and a lot to do with a value system handed down from one generation of students and faculty to the next and so on.
Here's what the College catalogue says: "The heart of all academic and social conduct at Hampden-Sydney is the Honor System, and the heart of the Honor System is individual responsibility."
This bit of nostalgia comes as a result of my reading a piece from Ron Sirak in the February 18 GOLF WORLD. "Honest is as honest does" deals with baseball player Jose Canseco and his new book, "Juiced." Sirak compares baseball to the values of golf, focusing primarily on the individual golfer's relationship to the rules and the honor inherent to the game itself.
(Here are three of the most honorable, on the course as well as off: My brother Brad; Mike Harmon, Director of Golf at Secession; and my good friend Jim Crouch. I do well in their company.)
In the pro game, Sirak says, "there have been incidents of creative ball-marking on greens, non-conforming drivers...and [even] whispers of players who used hot golf balls. But there also have been players who disqualified themselves when they discovered they had played a ball yet to be approved by the USGA."
In baseball, cheating is a violation only if it is caught by the umpire. Same in basketball or football with the referee. But not golf. The spine, the backbone of the game is the golfer himself. "I think my ball moved" forces the player to decide for himself if it moved out of its position or not, thus determining if his score should have added to it a 2-shot penalty.
The Honor Code at Hampden-Sydney worked in the 1970's and apparently does still today. The concept of individual responsibility is one of the things I admire about the College, and it's one of the things I love about golf. The individual sets the tone for morality.
One of the fascinating things I remember about those years was the College's Honor System. It included much more than "I won't cheat." It covered lying, stealing - in short, it was a code of behavior. And the results were better than the process. We didn't lock our bicycles; we left books or tennis rackets or music lying outside the cafeteria doors or library; we left the door to our rooms open 24/7. I'm told it's still that way, and I'm sure it has something to do with the College tradition, something to do with the relatively small (1,000) size of the student body, and a lot to do with a value system handed down from one generation of students and faculty to the next and so on.
Here's what the College catalogue says: "The heart of all academic and social conduct at Hampden-Sydney is the Honor System, and the heart of the Honor System is individual responsibility."
This bit of nostalgia comes as a result of my reading a piece from Ron Sirak in the February 18 GOLF WORLD. "Honest is as honest does" deals with baseball player Jose Canseco and his new book, "Juiced." Sirak compares baseball to the values of golf, focusing primarily on the individual golfer's relationship to the rules and the honor inherent to the game itself.
(Here are three of the most honorable, on the course as well as off: My brother Brad; Mike Harmon, Director of Golf at Secession; and my good friend Jim Crouch. I do well in their company.)
In the pro game, Sirak says, "there have been incidents of creative ball-marking on greens, non-conforming drivers...and [even] whispers of players who used hot golf balls. But there also have been players who disqualified themselves when they discovered they had played a ball yet to be approved by the USGA."
In baseball, cheating is a violation only if it is caught by the umpire. Same in basketball or football with the referee. But not golf. The spine, the backbone of the game is the golfer himself. "I think my ball moved" forces the player to decide for himself if it moved out of its position or not, thus determining if his score should have added to it a 2-shot penalty.
The Honor Code at Hampden-Sydney worked in the 1970's and apparently does still today. The concept of individual responsibility is one of the things I admire about the College, and it's one of the things I love about golf. The individual sets the tone for morality.
posted by Mark Burris - BURRIS at 3/04/2005 12:23:00 PM
2 Comments:
Mark,
I especially liked your blog today dealing with "honor". It is so refreshing to know that your alma mater still functions in the same spirit that it did when you were there so many eons ago(just kidding). Thank god for golf is all I can say. The sports arena right now and many of the players involved are enough to make me ill. No honor, who can be bigger, better, make more money, be more of a horses ass than the next athlete. It is sickening, embarrasing and a total turn off.
Today's paper regarding Steve Spurrier's article on "cleaning house" is shocking in that it was front page news.
Oh well, I could go on and on. Again, thank god for golf and thank you for teaching me the ethics, the finer points, the things that are more important than my swing, the "honor" in the game.
Sadly popular culture portrays golfers as somewhat "boring", altho Tiger has done much to change that sterotype...golf is out of step with popular culture because of the quality of the people who play the sport and the self reliance (on the participant themselves)of rules enforcement. We should appreciate our sport all the more.
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