Great Display of Sportsmanship

Stories like this one I heard today make me feel good about sports can do for people. Every day I hear about suspensions of NFL players for violating the league's substance abuse policy. It's not every day that you here uplifting positive stories of professional athletes. Well, today I did and it comes from the golfing world. J.P. Hayes, not a well-known golfer, for I've never heard of him before basically disqualified himself from a qualifying tournament. Hayes realized that he played with a non-sanctioned ball a day after he completed his round. He then called the tournament director who disqualified him and now will have to miss out on some of the 2009 season. Hayes did the right thing, even though he could have gotten away with it. We all have been through some similar situation before. Hayes is a great role-model for young golfers and athletes all-around alike. Doing the right thing is more important than winning in my opinion. It's especially difficult to be such a truthful and good sport when you play a individual sport. I salute Hayes and hope he becomes the next Tiger.