Cheaters are everywhere in sports.

Baseball players testifying before congress. Cyclists abusing performance enhancing drugs. NASCAR drives and their well known saying, "if you're not cheating, you're not trying."

But golf is different, even at the amateur level.

Frisco Centennial graduate John Darden provided a good example of that.

He finished third at the Texas High School State Tournament in May, but it could have been second.

"I guess it was a longer shot out of the bunker, and so my first shot, I just kinda flubbed it short," he recalls. "And after that, kinda being irritated, I went and hit the sand again, and because the ball wasn't out of the bunker, and it was still in there, I ended up getting a two stroke penalty and so, it was what ended up costing me, I guess 2nd place."

His honesty cost him two strokes, but his round of 71 was still under par and good enough for the third-place medal.

Had he ignored his penalty no one would have known but him.

"So when he came in on 18 and signed his card, we were thinking he shot 69," says Frisco Centennial golf coach Lisa Sadler. "Because we watched every stroke, we knew what he was shooting, and he said 'no coach, it was a 71,' and I said 'no it wasn't! It was a 69.'"

Recreational golfers go ahead and take some liberties during a round of golf, but the elite golfer plays the game the right way, because that's how the game is supposed to be played

"I want to tell the truth, but it's more of one of those things, more of a conscience thing like when people say good round after it, well, you really didn't shoot that," Darden says.

"All my colleagues, coaches and friends, a bunch of them were calling and e-mailing and saying that what John did was so honorable and so full of integrity," Sadler says, "and it's really hard to see in teenagers these days."

What Darden did at the state tournament is what most of his competitors would have done in the same situation. It says more about his sport than it does about him.

"I guess it is just, everything is more on you, and you know that just from playing the game," he says. "If you hit a bad shot, that's on you. I guess it goes that same way with penalties. It will come back to bite you. Karma's a big thing, people believe in that I guess."

Darden has a scholarship to play at Mississippi State in the fall. Whatever he accomplishes during his time there it will be completely legit.