I always hate it when we have a little hypocrisy in our democracy.
A lot of maturity on young shoulders has been exhibited by teenaged golfer Amber-Rose Thompson-Newth in the wake of the earth moving under her feet at the Wanganui Golf Club this season, when some individuals decided there were apparently valid reasons why the senior women's champion could not attempt to claim her fourth-straight title in 2014.
I applaud club manager Keith Stewart and the senior executive for applying common sense and overruling the baffling decision by the women's committee whereby only club members who use Belmont Links as their primary course could contest the championship.
I'm aware this matter has been hotly debated within the club about what were the merits of the rule change, which came down to a casting vote by the chairperson in an unusual case of not retaining status quo.
Moreover, there is all the nasty talk over who would benefit directly from Thompson-Newth's absence from the title picture and how much of their influence was exerted across the committee table.
Despite the overturning, Thompson-Newth's choice to still not compete in the interests of club harmony guarantees a massive footnote for whomever does win the women's title in 2014.
This is akin to the dreaded asterisk (*) which has accompanied many sporting records to infer that although an achievement has been made, there are extenuating circumstances.
Through sheer determination, Wanganui jetsprint 400s driver Hayden Wilson was able to avoid a similar curveball during the 2014 national series.
The powers-that-be, perhaps listening to voices similar to those which pervaded the golf club's women's committee, amended the rules midseason with all competition points scored in Round 2 at ASB Baypark Stadium being declared null and void.
That vote dropped Wilson from comfortable series leader to second spot and as a hard racing individual, the driver did not use the same diplomacy which Thompson-Newth preferred to exercise. "They just bent me over and shafted me. Me and probably two or three others, depending on how you look at it," Wilson fumed.
What followed also made a mockery of the prevailing belief the points needed to be discounted because the final placings in Round 2 were lopsided after a digger had to change the tight course rotations at Baypark. How lopsided could they be given the miffed Wilson, who won the event, still went out and finished first or second in the remaining four rounds to clinch the title?
Speaking of curveballs, one of the most famous and disrespectful uses of the * came in 1961 when the New York Yankees' Roger Maris was rapidly approaching the record for most home runs in a season, owned for 33 years by the legendary Babe Ruth.
Already fighting a hostile New York media pack, who wanted his more charismatic teammate Mickey Mantle to break the record, Maris was further stung when baseball commissioner Ford Frick announced Maris had to beat 60 home runs by the 154th game the same as Ruth's 1927 season despite the league now having 162 matches.
Never mind that Ruth played in a time where the mounds were higher and the outfields shorter, Maris had to match him or the old record would stand, Frick claimed.
As well as being Ruth's close friend, it was later revealed Frick had also been the official ghost writer for The Babe earlier in his career before becoming an administrator.
Maris was still one hit behind Ruth when the 154th game was finished and although he duly scored his 61st home run in the final game of the season, both men's names stood in the books until 1991, when the * was rightfully struck from Maris after it was decided Frick had no real authority over how records were presented.
In later years Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, and Barry Bonds would all surpass 61 home runs, but because of their alleged illegal doping, the aura of Maris' amazing feat still remains, and therefore so does the stink of Frick's bias.
Interestingly enough, on September 8, 1998, when McGwire finally beat the record, among the first people to hug and congratulate him were the children of the late Maris, showing nothing but joy for the man who surpassed their father's achievement.
It's a little thing called class the Maris family had it, Thompson-Newth has it, but a few other individuals need to take a good look in the mirror.