Etiquette

Last year while golfing I heard the thud of several balls dropping near by. I realized those behind us were teeing off before we were out of distance. We had no warning as these balls came down. There were four us playing, and we were moving along quite fast – the first person to the ball would play it and we don’t take extra shots. We opted to letting the groups behind us play through us. Half seriously, a friend commented that we should let them get ahead of us and tee up five or six balls each and let em rip – of course, we didn’t do that. Another friend says, if the shot wasn’t errant, and there was no warning he will pick up the ball and keep it. There is also the course Marshall to deal with these kinds of people. Does any one have a good, positive way of dealing with the yahoos on the course….

Your best bet is to confront them and mention that the balls were coming pretty close. If they say that they had an a amazing shot, ask them to yell 'fore' next time. If they keep doing it, tell the marshall/clubhouse and if they still keep doing it, pick their balls up.

Yes... just tell them about it, if possible, tell the marshall. I had a guy the other night (it was practically dark.. ) and the guy knew I was in front of him.. I was walking and he had a cart.. It was wayyy past time for him to be out there.. I lived on the next hole and I usually go out there and do some practice.. so I decided to do some putting and the guy starts shooting golf balls onto the green at me! One landed around 3 yards away, and then the guy has the nerve to come up to me and ASK ME WHERE HIS OTHER BALLS WENT... jeez.. I almost lost it.

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Gentlemen thanks for the advice – I think confronting them is a good start. I suppose I haven’t to this point, since I could see things escalating quite quickly, i.e., their indifference. I will keep all of your comments in mind. Since I a new to the game, I wasn’t sure if my experience was a common one, and I did not want to over-react or make my partners feel uncomfortable. If I got hit by someone who deliberately shot prematurely, I would have a need to share my pain.

I don't think it happens too often. Once is a mistake, twice is an attack.

(I must admit, in a moment of weakness, I've hit into the group ahead intentionally - only to find out they were waiting for a slow foursome. I apologized, and bought beers when we were done).

The only other time I hit into a group, I did so unknowingly.

It was dark, a par 3 (~200 yds and elevated tee) and I could only make out the guy who checks for 'closest to the pin' (it was our mens' night). I knew I was the last guy, and waaay behind the last group (or so I thought).

Anyway, I tee up and let 'er fly. Great shot, found the green. All of a sudden, there's yelling like crazy coming from the green. Turns out the guy I could see was one of the foursome. There were 2 guys at the front that I couldn't see (missed one guy by 1'), and another behind the green (hill green). Needless to say, I apologized profusely and bought beers.

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A new highlight: Golfing the home course on Christmas Day.

I say it too often: If it's golf club shaped, you can play with it.

For the record, I'm a club doctor, not a swing doctor.

I try to be friendly and diplomatic with all golfers. It has worked well provided the others in my foursome stay out of it.

95% of the time, I find the group playing behind our group is courteous and waits until we're out of range of even the greatest shot. Those who make up the 5% minority, are in a big rush to get through for some reason.

On one particular course in Boca Raton, Florida, which is often very crowded, the marshal or rangers routinely push everyone to speed up their game. On one outing, we were pushed by the ranger 6 times in 18 holes. Being pushed caused tempers to flare between golfing groups. I experienced balls dropping on or near the green while we were walking off the green to our carts. Fighting words were later exchanged between one golfer in our foursome with one of the golfers in the foursome behind us.

After the round was over, I complained to the starter over the crowded condition of the course, the pushing by the rangers, and the growing lack of courtesy between golfers. All I got was a shrug of the shoulder! What a day that was.

or you could just hit the balls back to them like in the movie "Sideways". If they come at you just start swinging the club like a maniac.
JUST KIDDING.

Only hit to the group in front intentionally once. The group ahead had their power cart on a bridge and I joked to my playing partners that "I am just going to rattle their cart to get them moving". None in my group thought I could do it (not the distance but the accuracy). Well I nailed that 250yd drive perfectly and must have bounced under their cart and rattled around a bit because my ball was on the bridge right about where their cart was.

Needless to say I don't do this anymore. Imagine if I had said "I am just going to knock the one on the right in the back of the head".

You didn't mention if the hole in front of you was clear. I have seen people that fail to keep up with the group in front, then refuse to let anyone play through, this sometimes results in a gentle reminder from behind, to your obligation. Barring that...if it happens once, I ignore it, twice they get a dirty look with the hands in the air..lol..third time I just let them play through, and I usually mention it to the course management. Of course like I said, it all depends on my group being in the right, if the hole is open in front of me, I don't have a leg to stand on, and should have been more worried about my Etiquette. Which ever way it goes, I never use profanity, or lose my temper...probably not a good idea when both sides have multiple iron weapons at thier disposal...you know mutually assured destruction deal..lol...

The bottom line is, as Ron White says. You can't fix Stupid, courtesy is part of the game, some times you just must take the high road and overlook those that are new and/or ignorant.

When someone hits a ball into my group, because we are being held up by those in front of us, I just pick up the their ball, with out saying a word back at them. When I get to the course marshal, I give him/her the ball(s) with an expalnation. That usually does the trick. One time I collected 4 balls hit at us, and when we putted out on the green, I place all the collected balls in the cup for the group behind us to find when they got there. Confusion is sometimes good for idiots....GJS

I was initiated to golf on a public course, this was around 55 years ago. It wasnot uncommon for 2,and sometimes as many as 4 players share one bag of clubs.'Accidents ' were a daily occurence. Yobs, Im afraid, are like the poor, they will always be with us.

While the practice of hitting at a group of players that you know are not out of range is totally unacceptable, I find that the root cause is usually a group ahead somewhere that are not letting the players behind through as they should.

As my mother always taught me, "Two wrongs dont make a right".

That's a fact !

What I usually do is pick the ball up and place it on a TEE at the same spot. That tells the player that something happened, and that we noticed.

It is rarely the intent of the player to hit into a group in front. More often it is lack of confidence in own abilities (I can't hit that far) or not knowing that somebody was up ahead.

I most often get an apology at the first occasion using this technique.

I don't believe in confrontation, and I don't believe in destroying another players round as some form of 'revenge'.

Should it happen again on the same round, however, I might step on the ball instead of using a tee.

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I believe that MOX has the best idea.
We have a regular group of three and four other guys that rotate into our group. Two of the "rotators" are total hot heads and have caused several problems for us by both hitting into other groups and striking up fights over being hit into by others. We three regulars are always attempting to find ways to calm these two knuckleheads down, I do believe MOX has given me the pill.

Hello fellow GTO members,

I understand where your coming from a few times i have seen people te off without the people infront being out of range. I was wondering because i was having a around with a few friends and after the tee off you go up the fairway which in this was was a hill so you couldnt see the green. What they did was after the last person took there 2nd shot from the hill towards the green they about ring the bell which is on a pole onto of the hill to let the following golfer know its safe to tee off. Just wondering if this was gone in other places.