God and Golf on Sunday

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God and Golf on Sunday

Here's the BYU NewsNet story on BYU golfer Todd Miller's decision to forfeit the championship match of the Utah State Amateur tournament rather than play on Sunday. Everyone looks bad: the golfer (for entering a tournament he knew had the final on Sunday); his would-be opponent in the finals, another BYU guy (winning by forfeit sucks--he should have declined it); and the Utah Golf Association for being oh-so-proper jerks and reminding us all how prissy golfers can be. The big loser: the guy who lost in the semifinals (yet another BYU golfer) who WOULD have played on Sunday, but now just got his scholarship yanked.

Jul 17, 2004 at 10:55 PM | Permalink

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For a minute there -- from your post -- it sounded like the poor kid lost his scholarship because he was willing to play on Sunday. While the circumstances still seem murky to me, I'm glad to read that's not the case.

Though, can they kick you out of BYU for that?

Posted by: Arwyn | Jul 18, 2004 at 01:48 AM

Good question. There certainly seems to be a BYU policy against any teams competing on Sunday, but I'm not sure how that plays out in individual sports like tennis or golf where the competitors do represent the team but are competing individually.

It would be unfair to spotlight individuals either positively or negatively in any episode like this. On the one hand, I admire those who stand on principle and are willing to make sacrifices in the name of those ideals. On the other hand, I understand those who balance competing duties/demands and their own ideals in a "give and take" sort of way, which is actually more in line with my own temperament. I've never been fond of the "Sunday rules" many Mormons impose on themselves.

Posted by: Dave | Jul 18, 2004 at 01:42 PM

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