Let me be clear that I love soccer, and have for a long time. It was the 1966 World Cup final, England's overtime victory over Germany, that turned a serious flirtation into a committed relationship. I didn't miss World Cup finals after that, even when it meant buying a ticket to a smoky auditorium for a blurry closed-circuit broadcast.

With the World Cup final approaching this weekend, I should be at the heights of ecstasy. But right now I'm feeling a bit broken-hearted. Instead of succumbing to the allure of David Villa and Wesley Sneijder as I watch this year's tournament, I find myself thinking more and more about J. P. Hayes.

As far as I know, Mr. Hayes never kicked a soccer ball in anger. He hits golf balls for a living. But he is still intruding on my soccer enjoyment.

Let me explain. For years, there have been complaints about players taking "dives" in soccer matches, basically falling over whether they are fouled or not in hopes of drawing a call. The corollary is writhing on the ground in pain as if your opponent has just broken your ankle and not just given it a small brush as he made a legitimate play for the ball.

I thought I was used to that, but somehow in this tournament, it's gotten to me. The overacting, whether of innocence or injury, is atrocious. And it happens on virtually every call. Add to that the number of times players taking the ball into the penalty area end up flat on their faces without being touched and, well, you get the idea.

The problem is that there is really no other name for this than cheating. The players want to win the game by having the referee either call a foul when none occurred or ignore one that did happen.

What really sent me around the bend was Luis Suarez batting a sure goal away with his hands, a foul that denied Ghana a trip to the semi-finals. The call was properly made, but Ghana missed the ensuing free kick. Uruguay won because their player cheated. That was bad enough, but Mr. Suarez then bragged about it. (And, of course, Uruguay can point to the fact that a Ghanaian took a dive to get the free kick that set up what should have been the winning goal.)

That brings me back to J. P. Hayes. In November 2008, Mr. Hayes was on the verge of punching his full time ticket for the 2009 PGA Tour in the grueling qualifying tournament when he realized that a ball his caddie had tossed him, a ball he played on one stroke of one hole, was not approved for play by the PGA. No one else knew about this. It had no effect on his score. What did Mr. Hayes do? He 'fessed up and disqualified himself.

These types of things actually happen all the time in golf — players admitting to rules violations no one else saw, such as a tiny movement of a ball when taking a stance in the rough. It's what golfers do. Mr. Hayes knew that's how you play this game.

I understand each sport develops its own culture. For instance, in cricket, when the equivalent of the pitcher gets a batter out, it is fine for that pitcher to virtually ridicule that batter. But questioning an official's call is verboten. The opposite is true in baseball. (By the way, I have seen a top cricket player tell the official that he did not catch a ball after the ruling was that he had.)

So I don't think soccer is going to become golf. But it needs to head in that direction. A player knows when he has handled the ball. Imagine if the culture called for you to put your hand up and stop play when that happens, if Diego Maradona had done that when he used his hand to score against England in the 1986 World Cup; or Theiry Henry had done that when he used his hands to set up the goal that put France into this year's tournament.

So here's a suggestion. Don't use video replay during a match (except to determine whether a goal is scored), but meticulously review it afterward. If a player got a yellow card because his opponent took a dive, take it away from that player and give it to the guy taking the dive. Indeed, allow yellow cards and other penalties to be handed out based on the video review, for fouls or for dives.

And anyone seen to have handled the ball in the penalty area who didn't immediately stop play gets an automatic five-game suspension.

You are not going to turn soccer players into J. P. Hayes, but you might push the sport's culture in the right direction, so that the lessons its players teach are ones you want your children to learn.

Michael Hill, a former Sun reporter, writes from Baltimore. His e-mail is hillforg@aol.com.