Sport: Play It as It Lies

As any golfer knows, a bad lie is not a terrible whopper told at the 19th hole. On a course, it means the bad positioning of a ball—jammed behind a tree in the rough, stuck in a divot on the fairway, or confronted with spike marks on the green. Generally, a golfer must play his ball where it lies or take a penalty of added strokes if he chooses to move it. Among weekend golfers, the temptation is often strong to improve a lie surreptitiously, especially on the greens, where a player is permitted...