Honor and Ethics in Competitive Sports

An honorable win is one that many people strive for in a competition. To act in a way that could be considered unethical could cause a win to be considered tarnished. Mill is seen to believe the idea that quality should be more important than quantity. This idea is viewed and supported by many in different competitive settings. The way a player plays a sport can often define the person themselves. A person can be viewed in ways such as humble, competitive, or a liar that can view them in good bad or a neutral view. Honor is a word closely associated with the sport of golf. This is a sport unlike many others where for the most part only you and your opponent can truly call the shots and be the referees. This is a game where you must call penalties

One definition of utilitarianism in general highlights the idea that an action is considered morally right or wrong depending on their results of the action (“Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy”). The idea highlights that the end results are the only factor that truly matter in the decision of whether or not an action is morally right or wrong(“Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy”). Utilitarianism can be split into two more detailed perspectives which are act and rule utilitarianism. Act Utilitarianism focus is on an individual case’s outcome (“Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy”). Rule Utilitarianism looks at the action and its outcome in general (“Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy”). Jeremy Bentham is associated with utilitarianism and his view of hedonism which is in response to the question of what is considered good in the world (“Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy”). Hedonism focuses on pleasure or happiness as being the only good (“Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy”). Pleasure and happiness are considered goods themselves since compared to friends or families that can produce such valuables as pleasure and happiness (“Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy”). This means that the gift of happiness one that cannot produce anything that would be of greater value. The views associated with hedonism have been rejected in cases since they only considered the

So not only is the player responsible to be following the rules, but also the caddie is responsible to follow the rules of only giving advice to their player and the player they are with must be responsible for them(). In the 2006 Honda Classic, Mark Wilson gave himself a two stroke penalty after his caddie gave advice to another player although he still won (ESPN). Even though Wilson didn’t state the hybrid his caddie Chris Jones did and if Wilson did not ask it would have been unlikely for the officials to have noticed (ESPN). This penalty led to a sudden death and although Wilson still won the sudden death would have been unnecessary if only his caddie did not unintentionally try to help others (ESPN). In rule utilitarianism, Wilson action of giving himself the penalty was the ethical thing to do. Since his action is honorable to accredit for the fact that the caddie caused for the conditions to be considered unfair. For act utilitarianism the unintentional individual action of the caddie should have not affected the outcome of Wilson’s game. Especially since the advice was not noticed by anyone other than Wilson. This outcome for the individual case is unethical within the act utilitarian perspective. This specific example, brings up a question that many golfers are faced to answer for many different parts of the game and that is whether or not an action that goes unnoticed by others should be called upon