HIPS: Be Honest In All Things, Even When No One Is Looking

By Bryan Hyde

COMMENTARY -- Blayne Barber may not be a household name but he deserves to be one.

Barber was an aspiring professional golfer who was in the process of completing the PGA’s qualifying school. 

While in a bunker, Barber had inadvertently moved a leaf with his club and took a penalty stroke. His caddy said that he didn’t see the leaf move, but Barber took the penalty anyway. 

The problem is, the correct penalty in such situations is actually 2 strokes; something Barber didn’t realize until talking with a former teammate following the tournament.

The promising young golfer had a tough decision to make.

Had he simply taken the 2-shot penalty at the time, Barber would still have made the cut and progressed to the second stage of PGA school. 

But by admitting that he had signed an incorrect scorecard, he faced mandatory disqualification.

No one had to know. No one would have been harmed. 

Even his caddy was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

But Blayne Barber knew. 

In his own words, “I knew I needed to do the right thing. I knew it was going to be disqualification.”

By choosing to be true to himself, Blayne Barber sacrificed certain material gains.

His decision cost him the opportunity to advance in the PGA. But his honesty was an example of how those who are consistently true in the seemingly small decisions are more likely to be true when faced with great decisions.

* Hyde In Plain Sight is written by KDXU personality Bryan Hyde. Catch his daily HIPS vignette at 7:50-ish every weekday morning on KDXU and listen to The Bryan Hyde Show weekends at 7 p.m. Saturday and 6 p.m. Sunday nights.