Integrity is an important element in any golfer's armoury, which is why some of the gloss was taken off Stewart Cink's remarkable win in the MCI Heritage Classic at Hilton Head on Sunday.
After first staging a comeback from nine shots behind starting the final round to force a play-off with Ted Purdy, Cink then won with a birdie at the fifth tie hole - only for the victory to be put on hold by a string of telephone calls from viewers watching on US television who queried Cink's actions in removing debris from a waste area prior to playing his penultimate shot of the sudden-death.
The shot in question was Cink's approach to the 16th green, the fifth tie hole, where he had put his drive into what is known as "a waste bunker". Under US Tour rules, players may remove impediments other than loose soil or sand from such hazards.
"It looked like what he removed he was legally able to," remarked tournament director Slugger White, who reviewed footage up to a dozen times to determine if anything untoward had occurred.
The question was whether Cink had removed anything he wasn't entitled to move, and whether he had improved his lie in the process.
Cink, who had checked with White before moving any impediments, explained:
"A few people called in about something that happened in the waste bunker. I was moving a few loose impediments . . . which you're allowed to do.
"The whole thing is made of little rocks. I moved rocks out of the way, and I didn't want the rocks to come in between the club and the ball because it's a 74-yard shot, and I needed to make clean contact with it.
"We went to the video and, with the official, we determined that I did everything within the rules.
"When I hit my ball in the waste area, the first thing I did was to go to Slugger White, who was with the play-off.
"I asked him what I could do. Am I allowed to move this or not, or am I not allowed? He told me exactly what I was allowed to move, and I did what I was told I could do. And he was right, I was right, and we looked at it and that's fine.
"Honestly, it was a little stressful because you play and you win and you play great and you're proud and then all of a sudden you've got something you need to address.
"We all play by the same rules. And Ted Purdy, he's an upstanding golfer, and I like to think I'm the same way. He was gracious.
"But then again, I think if it was the same, if the tables were reversed and I was in the same situation he was, I know I'd have been the same way he was. It's a black and white thing."
Cink's nine-shot comeback to force a play-off was the second-best on the US tour, only surpassed by Paul Lawrie's 10-shot comeback to win the 1999 British Open.
It was the third victory of his career, although he is probably best known for missing an 18-inch putt that would have got him into a play-off at the US Open.
"It just means everything for me," insisted Cink. "I've worked really hard on my game. I've been through some really tough stuff. And mentally I've been to the bottom of the barrel and back.
"I honestly never really knew if I'd ever have this chance to win again. I knew I'd have chances to win, but you never really know if you're ever really going to."
Cink finished with a closing 64 for a 10-under-par total of 274, while Purdy, the 54-holes leader, struggled to a fourth-round 74.
It was Cink's second time to win the Heritage Classic: in 2000, he trailed Ernie Els by five shots going into the last round and shot a 65 for victory.
