Was I in the wrong?

[saevel25]

So here is the scenario I ran into today.

13th hole, short par 4, slightly down hill. Runs about 275 to 280 yards to the green. The next hole tee boxes are about 70 yards to the right and behind the green. So something like 2 o'clock.

So I wait for the group to clear. I actually wait till they are all on their tee box getting ready to hit. The wind is slightly out of the left. So I pull a 3 wood, I was going to try to put the ball near the front of the green, maybe front right bunker. So I hit a shot and slightly push it. Its heading towards the front right bunker, the wind drifts it further right. Now the cart path sits about 10-15 yards to the right of the green. I watch it go down, and I was hoping it wouldn't hit the cart path. I didn't hear the classic CLANK, or see the giant hop of the golf ball. The ball looked like it was heading towards the inside of the cart path. So something like 7-10 yards right of the green. As I turn to walk off the tee, one of the guys on the tee box from 14 yell "HEY!!!". So my guess is, it hit the cart path and it bothered them.

So I walk up, and my ball is about 50 yards behind the green down the cart path. Which makes sense if it hit it. The guy looks at me all pissed off like I should have yelled "FORE". I mean would you yell "FORE" if the ball was 7-10 yards just off the edge of the green, from a tee shot. If the ball was actually heading towards their tee box, I would have yelled it. I just thought the ball actually landed inside the cart path. I can understand if the ball kicked towards them, but it actually kicked a little left because the trajectory was fading right a bit due to the wind, but the ball ended up inside the cart path. So I apologize to the guy anyways just to cool things down. I don't like hitting into people.

I guess next time I should just yell "FORE", just in case. I thought it was a good tee shot till it hit that cart path.

[14ledo81]

His close to them was it?

[saevel25]

Red dots are where it hit and then where it ended up. The purple area is where they were at. As you can see the cart path encroaches pretty close to the green there. You really can't tell from the tee box, due to the trees on the right, that the cart path cuts that close. I honestly thought it was further away from the green. From my point of view, from the tee box, the ball was traveling towards that bunker and slightly faded towards the cart path. I thought it would have landed a few yards to the left of it. If my ball was slicing towards them I would have yelled "FORE", but it wasn't going near them at all from where I was standing.

[flopster]

So here is the scenario I ran into today.

13th hole, short par 4, slightly down hill. Runs about 275 to 280 yards to the green. The next hole tee boxes are about 70 yards to the right and behind the green. So something like 2 o'clock.

So I wait for the group to clear. I actually wait till they are all on their tee box getting ready to hit. The wind is slightly out of the left. So I pull a 3 wood, I was going to try to put the ball near the front of the green, maybe front right bunker. So I hit a shot and slightly push it. Its heading towards the front right bunker, the wind drifts it further right. Now the cart path sits about 10-15 yards to the right of the green. I watch it go down, and I was hoping it wouldn't hit the cart path. I didn't hear the classic CLANK, or see the giant hop of the golf ball. The ball looked like it was heading towards the inside of the cart path. So something like 7-10 yards right of the green. As I turn to walk off the tee, one of the guys on the tee box from 14 yell "HEY!!!". So my guess is, it hit the cart path and it bothered them.

So I walk up, and my ball is about 50 yards behind the green down the cart path. Which makes sense if it hit it. The guy looks at me all pissed off like I should have yelled "FORE". I mean would you yell "FORE" if the ball was 7-10 yards just off the edge of the green, from a tee shot. If the ball was actually heading towards their tee box, I would have yelled it. I just thought the ball actually landed inside the cart path. I can understand if the ball kicked towards them, but it actually kicked a little left because the trajectory was fading right a bit due to the wind, but the ball ended up inside the cart path. So I apologize to the guy anyways just to cool things down. I don't like hitting into people.

I guess next time I should just yell "FORE", just in case. I thought it was a good tee shot till it hit that cart path.

You didn't hear the ball hit the path or see it shoot up in the air so no you didn't do anything wrong and secondly most of the velocity was gone from the ball by the time it reached them so I would think that guy has got a case of the over sensitized a-hole syndrome affecting him a bit. So many people just want something to bitch about it seems, I don't care if a ball rolls up on me as long as it's not screaming through us or landing on the green I'm putting on, there's a distinct difference between a ball coming to a stop 10 yards away versus 10 yards past us IMO and it's just a matter of common sense to know what should or should not bother someone on the golf course.

[14ledo81]

I could see how they would get excited with the ball bouncing by that close. But if you could see it wasn't going to hit them, I think you were in the right.

[flopster]

Red dots are where it hit and then where it ended up. The purple area is where they were at. As you can see the cart path encroaches pretty close to the green there. You really can't tell from the tee box, due to the trees on the right, that the cart path cuts that close. I honestly thought it was further away from the green. From my point of view, from the tee box, the ball was traveling towards that bunker and slightly faded towards the cart path. I thought it would have landed a few yards to the left of it. If my ball was slicing towards them I would have yelled "FORE", but it wasn't going near them at all from where I was standing.

That cart path looks barely 10' away from the edge of that green, that is a poor design, it's just as much in play as the sand trap in front in fact even more so since it's closer to the landing distance.

[saevel25]

Yea its about 5-6 yards from the green. It had to hit the cart path, because it ended up a pretty good ways from the green. I think they heard it hit the cart path and got annoyed by it. Like I said, I apologized to him anyways. Might was well, instead of getting into confrontation.

[RandallT]

That cart path looks barely 10' away from the edge of that green, that is a poor design, it's just as much in play as the sand trap in front in fact even more so since it's closer to the landing distance.

Seems bad design too to have a driveable par 4 with a green so close to the next tee box. Gee, who could predict an errant shot slightly to the right?!

[Fourputt]

Quote:

Originally Posted by saevel25

Red dots are where it hit and then where it ended up. The purple area is where they were at. As you can see the cart path encroaches pretty close to the green there. You really can't tell from the tee box, due to the trees on the right, that the cart path cuts that close. I honestly thought it was further away from the green. From my point of view, from the tee box, the ball was traveling towards that bunker and slightly faded towards the cart path. I thought it would have landed a few yards to the left of it. If my ball was slicing towards them I would have yelled "FORE", but it wasn't going near them at all from where I was standing.

That cart path looks barely 10' away from the edge of that green, that is a poor design, it's just as much in play as the sand trap in front in fact even more so since it's closer to the landing distance.

It's a particularly poor design for such a short par 4 (in fact I've never seen a par 4 that short in my life).  There are going to be a lot of players trying to drive the green (not me, but that's another story) and as a result, that little curve in the cart path is going to be in play far too often - even the next tee box is in play for that kind of a hole.  Really bad layout.

[BuckeyeNut]

An extremely short 4par with a cart path and tee box virtually right next to the green........a recipe for the above occurrence.  Definitely a horrible design!  I wouldn't worry about it though, but looking at how close that path is to the edge of the green, I'd definitely yell FORE next time....

[LuciusWooding]

You were clearly in the wrong; you're supposed to hit the green.

[David in FL]

It's never wrong to yell fore.....

[jamo]

Bad design, certainly, with the cart path and the tee box so close to the green. Even planting a few trees there could help the situation. That said, yelling "fore" never hurts. Some people are a bit more sensitive about balls being hit even vaguely near them (which is a virtual certainty standing on that tee box), and it's possible they fall into that category, but it's not like the course charges you by the "fore."

[PA Golf Info]

Yea that is a P&*% poor layout of the cart path. It clearly did not hit them or even land what looks to be with in 20 yards of them. If that happened to me I would have just apologized to them and let them know you lost site of it at the last min. If they wanted to make a bigger issue of it after that then they are out of line. Things like that happen from time to time. I play a lot of golf in the early am. and sometime if teeing off with the low sun angle if I loose sight of the ball I just yell fore just to be safe most of the time if the course is busy.

[Hammer 4]

It's never wrong to yell fore.....

I agree with David, better safe than sorry. Although I think the dude on the tee box over reacted a tad..

[joekelly]

@flopster " it's just a matter of common sense to know what should or should not bother someone on the golf course. "  Unfortunately, common sense left the building years ago in so far as what will or will not bother other people on the golf course.  I've known good golfers who are bothered by my ball ID marks, are bothered by my using an orange ball not white, are bothered by my yelling 'FORE' too loudly...you name and someone may be annoyed.

In the present scenerio, yeah say 'sorry could not see you'. And move away.  No harm no foul.

[bkuehn1952]

I always yell "fore" when there is even a remote chance of hitting someone.  The presence of a cart path made the possibility of a bad richochet fairly high.  That being said, the ball did not hit anyone or even come close so the group in front were being overly sensitive.

[iacas]

I will admit that I don't yell fore when a golf ball is close but clearly going to miss someone.

If it's not close and thus going to miss, I usually yell it, depending on how close (you don't yell if they're 60 yards away, probably).

But when they're close and it's not going to hit them, I don't yell. I don't remember the last time I hit it near anyone, but a few years ago a guy in my group did just this - hit close to someone but in a way that we could see the ball would miss them by a few yards.

When we approached them, I explained to them (they were pissed) that we didn't yell FORE because we could see it would miss them, and we didn't want them to stop or change direction as then it could hit them. They were reasonable and understood that was good logic.