GOOD

These Two Men Made The Risky Decision To Prank Their Way Into A North Korean Golf Tournament

‘We were very nervous handing our passports over at the border. There are stories of people not coming home’

 Penn Collins
11.03.16

In what might be one of the greatest pranks ever pulled off in the sporting world, two Australian men, Evan Shay and Morgan Ruig, managed to dupe the organizers of the North Korean Open and get admitted to the field of competitors.

It was the perfect crime. Except, once the tournament started, it became pretty clear that neither one of them really knew how to play golf.

Gaining admission to the field of golfers was almost comically easy for Shay, a builder, and Ruig, a banker. All they had to do was email, saying they were professional golfers. The North Korean officials, with internet access being what it is in their homeland, didn’t have the resources to validate their story, so they were just given the benefit of the doubt.

Though Shay “ didn't think we'd actually be accepted,” when asked if they were on the Australian national team, the men admitted to The Daily Mail they “didn’t say no.”

Doubling down on their prank in a country not especially known for its sense of humor, the duo had fake Australian blazers made. It’s hard to argue they didn’t look the part of seasoned golf veterans:

That said, they knew that their prank was fraught with risks. Said Ruig to The Courier-Mail, “We were very nervous handing our passports over at the border. There are stories of people not coming home.”

The brazen men didn’t let the fact that they were “barely casual” golfers dissuade them from competing. They did so with pride and…not a lot of success. After shanking a shot into the water, Shay was told by his North Korean caddy that he “brought great shame upon [their] families.”

Ouch.

Ruig and Shay finished second-to-last and third-to-last in the event. It’s understandable that you’d wonder who finished worse than two Australian pranksters competing as a goof. It was the Nepalese ambassador’s 15-year-old daughter. What a tournament.

Having clearly enjoyed themselves, the two have already made plans to do it all again next year, this time at the Somali Open in March.

I’m not sure that announcing their prank five months in advance is a sound strategy, but maybe the folks at the Somali Open would like the exposure.

Sports

A former Miss World contestant was disqualified for being a mom. Now she's fighting back.

Some beauty pageants, like the Miss America competition, have done away with the swimsuit portions of the competitions, thus dipping their toes in the 21st century. Other aspects of beauty pageants remain stuck in the 1950s, and we're not even talking about the whole "judging women mostly on their looks" thing. One beauty pageant winner was disqualified for being a mom, as if you can't be beautiful after you've had a kid. Now she's trying to get the Miss World competition to update their rules.

Veronika Didusenko won the Miss Ukraine pageant in 2018. After four days, she was disqualified because pageant officials found out she was a mom to 5-year-old son Alex, and had been married. Didusenko said she had been aware of Miss World's rule barring mother from competing, but was encouraged to compete anyways by pageant organizers.

Keep Reading Show less
sexism beauty contest discrimination veronika didusenko miss world

NASA's solar probe sent back its first findings, and it's more incredible than we thought

upload.wikimedia.org

One mystery in our universe is a step closer to being solved. NASA's Parker Solar Probe launched last year to help scientists understand the sun. Now, it has returned its first findings. Four papers were published in the journal Nature detailing the findings of Parker's first two flybys. It's one small step for a solar probe, one giant leap for mankind.



It is astounding that we've advanced to the point where we've managed to build a probe capable of flying within 15 million miles from the surface of the sun, but here we are. Parker can withstand temperatures of up to 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit and travels at 430,000 miles per hour. It's the fastest human-made vehicle, and no other human-made object has been so close to the sun.

Keep Reading Show less
nasa space parker solar probe sun

The Army's football program ditched a team motto after learning it's used by white supremacists

via Sportstreambest / Flickr

Since the mid '90s the phrase "God Forgives, Brothers Don't" has been part of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point's football team's lexicon.

Over the past few years, the team has taken the field flying a black skull-and-crossbones flag with an acronym for the phrase, "GFBD" on the skull's upper lip. Supporters of the team also use it on social media as #GFBD.

Keep Reading Show less
god forgives brothers don't white supremacists aryan biker gangs brian bosworth west point football anti-defamation league college football espn army motto gfbd
Culture