Now where did you get that!
I judge competitiveness by the the level at which one is engaged in competition. How else? Willingness to cheat has nothing to do with it. Although being competitive could make one more willing to cheat.
That may be so. It could also be so that those who get what you want get there by cheating. That’s often how it is in the middle and lower levels of the corporate world. I don’t know about the upper echelons because I don’r work there. But I can make educated guesses based upon observation.
I figure in life at the workplace everyone’s trying to get that edge over the next person.
If you’re not doing it you can be sure someone else is doing it to you, and you can’t get upset when you get passed over for a promotion or a bonus. It’s him/her or you, and it can’t be both. Who’s it gonna be? If you ain’t cheatin’, you ain’t tryin’.
I don’t know if this will make sense…
I’m not saying a “Barry Bond” level of cheating as acceptible in life. However, I do believe a “freezing the field” or “sign stealer” amount of scale tipping is essential to be successful at any level.
Hey everybody, I found DB (aka “DustyButt”) Cooper, right here on the SDMB. Alive and well. As you can see, he hasn’t changed his ways. 
Seriously though, I see a very small (moral) difference between the famous cheaters and the run-of-the-mill ones.
If you add grease to a face of a driver ,a drive will travel farther and straighter. Using a chapstick and getting a little on the face can help a lot. Guys have been busted on the junior tours a few times for that infraction. There is not much a golfer can do,. But some will do whatever they can.
There used to be a telvision show called “Soldier of Fortune” starring John Russell and that was the plot of one of the shows. Well that is the last bastion really. I always assumed it was impossible to cheat at chess, but where there is a will (and money) there is a way.
I know several business poeple…
in light of the OP, , two of themn come to mind…
One is not much more than a slum lord… He buys up run down apartment buildings, and rents them out, slum lord style. He cheats the welfare system by placing multiple tenants in one tenant units, never does repairs, and when he does get busted for back taxes or illegal managment practices, happily goes bankrupt and buys the building back at the city austion, using a “new” company to begin the game again… He is worth several million
Another Businessman… He buys up old apartment buildings, and starts fixing them up. He informs tenants that 1) Rent will be going up to cover costs of repairs and upgrades, and 2) Tells them that the builkding will be converted into condo’s in 3-5 yrs. He gives them an option of paying 15% extra rent if they wish to use that towards a condo downpayment when the transition happens. In 3-5 yrs, he sells the condo conversion building to the residents (and investors). He is also worth several millions. (those who have opted for the 15% plan are usually thousands ahead due to a rising realestate market).
Guess which guy I enjoy working with more?
Regards
FML
When I was teaching at a military academy prep school, the athletic department had a big slogan in the locker room: “WHATEVER IT TAKES.”
This slogan always drove me nuts. I always thought it encouraged unethical behavior, i.e.:
“WHATEVER IT TAKES (including cheating on exams to maintain eligibility)”
“WHATEVER IT TAKES (including copying someone else’s term paper or lab report)”
“WHATEVER IT TAKES (including taking illegal performance-enhancing drugs)”
“WHATEVER IT TAKES (including lying to superiors)”
Any unethical behavior could be rationalized under the rubric of “WHATEVER IT TAKES.” It’s far too easy to equate “WHATEVER IT TAKES” with “anything goes, including lying, cheating, and stealing.”
It’s this kind of slogan, IMHO, that encourages the rampant cheating present in NCAA athletics today, both in the classroom on on the field. It then carries on to professional sports.
mangeorge, you still have not adequately dealt with professional golfers. We know that many of them are “very competitive.” Yet almost none of them “cheat.” Indeed, so stigmatic is the label that poor Vijay Singh, who is accused of having intentionally signed an incorrect scorecard in an attempt to make a cut in 1984, still to this day labors under the added scrutiny from this accusation (and if you want someone who really got hammered for “cheating,” see the history of Jane Blalock, who was accused of moving the ball on the green fractionally closer to the hole when marking and replacing it). In a game where cheating would actually be relatively easy to accomplish (not everything you do is televised, or even easily witnessed) it seems that the competitors do not feel a need to “win at all costs, including cheating.”
So, unless you wish to define “win at all costs” to mean “win even if it requires cheating,” in which case your answer is contained in your definition, I think you cannot continue to maintain the truth of the assertion in the OP. Do lots of players “cheat?” Yes. Some sports (soccer comes to mind!) haven’t found an effective way to stop it. But other sports/games seem to have some aspect that limits the need, desire, or ability to accomplish it.
Wow! I didn’t know it was my job! Anyway, I know little of pro golfers.
But I do know quite a few non-professional golfers, some who are pretty serious about winning. And, as I’m sure you know, cheating is practically a joke among them. I suspect the problem with cheating among the pros is, contrary to what you say, heavy policing and, as you say, penalties. So yes, I believe that cheating by pro golfers is at the least very rare. Lack of opportunity, I suspect. Superior character, I doubt.
And the OP is posted as a question. Even the title.
And we’ve posted several examples of golfers who have the chance to cheat and don’t, and ones who have made innocent mistakes but rather then win a tourney after an unrelated minor violation of the rules have turned themselves in. So, therefore, the answer to the OP is “No, not all true competitors cheat.”
Been watching a little Wimbleton (S. Williams v Hantuchova). Not a lot of opportunity for cheating there either. A lot of drama, with Serena’s obvious cramp. Ouch!
Oh pish. You posed it as a question, then have proceded to assert vigorously that all competitors are cheaters, based upon your observation, and have attmepted to minimize or negate every shred of evidence to the contrary. That’s clearly an attempt to put forth and establish a position, which is why this is a “debate” and not a “GQ”.
I have played golf for decades. In that time, I have participated in numerous touranments, everything from serious amateur competitions to more friendly club things. While there have been times that I have witnessed what appeared to be dubious actions, in general I can state for the record that, both as a player and as a marshall, I almost never see golfers in competition cheat, and those who are known to be “cheaters,” fairly or unfairly, whether by violation of the rules or manipulation of handicaps, are ostracized regularly.
Thus, in answer to your question, No, not every true competitor is a cheater. That should END this “question.” 
The only competitive sport I regularly practice (assuming the word “sport” applies; certainly "competitive does) is SCA fighting. Putting on armor, hittin’ guys with sticks. We don’t have referees to decide when somebody’s taken a good hit; it’s entirely on the honor system. Therefore it’s possible for somebody to cheat by just not acknowledging when he’s been hit; this is called “rhinohiding” and occasionally happens. If I ever did that, any “victory” I earned would turn to ashes in my mouth.
Oh no you don’t. I get to squeak by, due to this little out I left myself:
“If they don’t believe they’ll be caught”.
Shudda been a lawyer, huh?
I do hear Judge Judy braying away on the TV in the other room once in a while.
There are cases where golfers have turned themselves in when no one else saw or could have seen the infraction. How far do you want us to go to disprove your assertion?
I’m not a golfer, nor do I know much about the game. I did once, when I was 13 or so, work on a driving range driving the zambone thingie picking up golf balls. Driving anything at 13 in 1958 was considered a real plum job.
But actually I was kinda hoping for a little more semi-challenge to my semi-assertion. So far I’ve only heard from golfers in that regard, and I wonder why only that sport is thought to be above reproach by it’s participants.
And I thought I opened this thread in IMHO. Otherwise I wouldn’t have posted as a question. I’m surprised a mod hasn’t moved it there.
I did state above, I think, that I do know some casual but very competitive golfers at work who “wink wink/nudge nudge” about fudging.
But probably not in a “real” competition. If they are just hitting a round with friends, or even a casual match, they probably wouldn’t care. There is built in fudging (like mulligans and gimme putts) that wouldn’t be considered cheating in a casual game but would be a big problem in a real competition.
The sport of golf isn’t above reproach, but some golfers are. I know there are golfers who are not against cheating if they thought it would benefit them. I suspect that it’s different between a sport like golf which tends to rely on self-reporting and something like baseball, hockey, or football, where there are refs out there looking for infractions. Since calls go for you and against you I can understand not wanting to volunteer calls against yourself; it’s the ref’s job to spot them.
But if honest competitors are present in golf, why wouldn’t you assume they are present elsewhere?
I know it’s not a widespread sport but professional (and amateur) snooker has a reputation for the offending player reporting fouls that only they could possibly know have been committed (double taps and accidental touching mostly). I can’t say that it’s an entirely clean game though - a couple of pros have been done for match fixing, and any reasonably rigorous drug test would have eliminated some top players (most for hash and coke though).
I played some sloppy, coin table 8 ball (talk about cheating) as a young man, and tried to play snooker. I think it might be less than popular here because it’s tougher than pool.