Ohio golfer’s scorecard confession earns SI’s sportsmanship award

MOUNT GILEAD (AP) — A scorecard confession five years ago that cost an Ohio high school golfer the state championship has earned him a national sportsmanship of the decade award.

Adam Van Houtenz of Mount Gilead High School in north-central Ohio had finished the 2005 state high school golf championship with a seven stroke lead when he noticed a mistake on his card.

A playing partner had written down a five for the 10th hole instead of six. Van Houten pointed the mistake out to officials and was disqualified because he’d already signed the card.

Five years later Van Houten’s act won him a spot on Sports Illustrated’s sportsmanship of the decade list.

“I don’t ever talk about it. I don’t talk about how I won and then lost,” said Van Houten, now a sophomore member of the golf team at George Mason University near Washington, D.C. “But a couple of my teammates read the Sports Illustrated story online and asked me, ’Is this real?”’

Van Houten got some recognition for his act at the time, including awards from the Ohio High School Athletic Association and a national sportsmanship award from the Citizenship Through Sports Alliance.

Van Houten, a sports management major and scholarship athlete, is not golfing this year while he recovers from knee surgery.

His honesty made an impression on George Mason coach Steve King.

“Anyone who will disqualify himself out of the state championship, knowing that the only person who knew of his mistake was himself, is a person that I want to build my golf team around,” King said.

Despite his latest honor, Van Houten would trade everything for that 2005 state title.

“In a heartbeat,” he said. “That’s what I worked for my whole life. No award around could replace that,” he said.