Almost got smoked by a ball... TWICE

So yesterday, me and 3 friends are golfing on a public course. Having a good time, playing good golf! The group in front of us was a tad slow, but nothing we really were concerned about. It never got to the point where we wanted to play through or anything. The marshall was frequently in the area chatting with us, and he had no problem with the pace of play.

Onto the last hole of the day.....
I hit a beautiful drive, 310yds down the middle of the fairway, I begin walking up to my ball and notice that the group behind was on already on the tee box. I hit a pretty good drive, so I was looking back at the tee box to see exactly how far I hit the ball, when I see one of the dickheads swing from the tee box. The ball rolled within 10 feet of me!! I wasn't too angry.... yet. About 15seconds later, I hear a ball bounce off a tree on the right side of the fairway, right where one of my friends was setting up for their second shot. My buddy was probably less than 5 feet from the tree that the ball struck!! The group behind us didn't even yell FORE or anything. After the first guy nearly hit me, you would think that they would wait a minute or two before teeing off AGAIN!

At this point, I was pretty pissed off. I finish off the hole, and me and my friends decide to politely let the group behind us know that they almost hit us, TWICE! We allow them to finish their hole, and then proceed up to the guy who hit the first tee shot and said, "you almost hit us! if you think you can hit us with your tee shot, then don't tee off". He shrugged it off and pretty much said, "sorry" as sarcastically as possible. We then go up to the second guy and tell him that he almost hit us, and it's proper etiquette to at least yell FORE if your golf ball is potentially going to hit us! He then says, "Don't get me started!!" and complains how we were playing too slow etc... But we weren't even playing that slow, our pace is probably a bit slower than I would have liked, but we were well within the range of acceptable time to complete course. If he had a big problem with our pace, he could have asked to play through, talked to the marshall, etc... He basically made it seem like he purposely tried to hit us to "send" a message. The odd thing is, they never really caught up close to us until the last hole... Once he said, "don't get me started", me and a buddy pretty much lost it on him, I mean, is it really worth it to potentially injure someone?? I understand the frustrations of playing behind a slow group, but we weren't that slow, hell, even if we WERE slow, I would never consider hitting a ball until the people in front were well out of range.

All the guy needed to say was "ok". I didn't even care for an apology. I just don't want it to happen again, to anyone! But he had to make a smarta$$ comment...

One last point, these guys were late 30s, mid-40s...

ps; Some idiot also hit my ball today on the 5th hole! I hit a wild tee shot onto another fairway, and while running to my ball, I see some guy hit my ball! It had my name "JON" on it in BIG LETTERS! He then says sorry and tosses a ball from his bag to me... I catch it and it is a frikkin RAM ball, when he just hit my Titleist Pro V1. I just tossed him back the ball and said no thanks... lol


Sorry for the rant!!

I can't imagine what could possibly justify hitting into a group. I couldn't disagree more about "letting it go". The next group they do it to may not be so lucky. I think Jon did the right thing by politely confronting them. Even though they didn't give the response he wanted, I bet they will think twice about doing it again to someone else.

If you've ever been drilled in the back by the group behind you, you tend to have a bit lower tolerance for this kind of behavior. There's really no excuse for it.

You're right in that you don't know both sides of the story. I just don't feel that there is any justifiable reason for them to hit a ball at us.

Although I don't know if I could let it go, I think I would have not confronted them about it. Instead I am sure I would have talked with someone in the club house first.

I can't think of a single reason to hit if there is ANY potential to reach the group in front. Does not matter if they are slow. If you are concerned about pace of play, then complain to the marshall. Hitting and potentially seriously injuring someone is not the way to do it. A friend of mine was hit in the side of the face once and required several surgeries due to fractures in his sinus, orbit and zygoma.

I once unexpectedly hit longer than I had ever hit a drive before and ended up closer than I wanted to the group in front. I immediately got in the cart and drove up to them and apologized.They went from somewhat angry to understanding to pretty nice and actually congratulated me on the perfect drive

Yea i agree with iacas

its best to just let it go. although it can be frustrating sometimes

If someone hits a ball up to me on the fairway i usually tee up their ball and leave it there, just so they know they hit too soon. I wont hit it back, well I havent yet anyways.

Same story here, was playing my home course today, being a tad slow on the front 9 but fast on the back and these two kids/teens (couldn't be more than 16 yrs) hit into us about 2 times and 2 times coming very close to myself. One of them that really pissed me off and could've knocked my leg cold dead (and something worse in between ). I was getting ready to tee off on the 14th, which runs parallel with the 13th with about 80 yards of water in between. This kid is about 150-170 from the hole (estimate) and he slices it onto our tee box and goes right through my two legs at big speed. A miracle that it didn't hit me.

We once had a similar issue, with the first ball landing on the green while we were putting, the second missing the green because it hit a green-side bunker on the same hole and the third a drive landing within 10 feet of us on the next hole. My buddy turned around and chipped the ball right into the woods.

When we got to with the green (the group in front of us was slowing us down, but it was a par 5 and the green isn't visible from the tee box), behind us come the two guys who had been hitting into us. One of them is noticably drunk and yelling at us that we owe him $5 for a Pro V1. After arguing over the cost of Pro V1s and the fact that they hit into us three times, he proclaims, "I didn't ****ing hit into you, I hit the cartpath, do you think I can drive that far?" ("We drove that far.")

Fed up with him, I reached in my bag, grabbed a sleeve of Pro V1s, pulled out one of them, scuffed it on the cart path a couple times, and bounced it to him. "Cart pathed Pro V1." Then we left for the 18th tee box.

A story to top them all.

Me and a buddy were at a local muni and play was slow. We tee up on the 5th hole par four after the group in front of us finished and there was a group behind us. I am about to hit my second shot and all of a sudden a ball flies past me, nearly hits my buddy and goes about 20ft pass. My buddy jumps in the cart to go confront the guy. The guy is obviously drunk and dosent even say hes sorry but says "Hurry the F**k up" my buddy shrugs it off knowing hes drunk we continue the hole. We begin to put and all of a sudden, Wham a ball lands on the green, from the same guy. We get pretty mad and confront him and asks if he just wants to play through. the guy surprisingly says no, goes to his cart, makes a phone call and opens a beer. We start the next hole with him right behind us blabbing on his phone. My buddy hits a pretty bad, short drive on this hole so I stop and wait for him to hit his second shot, then Wham another one flies by prob 2ft from our cart. I then get out of the cart and chip his ball into the water hazard.

Then we hear him start to yell up a storm, hops in his cart and comes and yells at me how I hit his ball in the lake. I go "sir, we told you many times not to hit into us and even asked you if you wanted to play through and u said no" he goes " I dont give a F**k, the rule of the game is to play the ball as it lies and now my ball is lying at the bottom of a god damn lake thanks to you *******, you better swim out and get it or im going to kick your ass" at this point everyone can hear us and the marshal is coming over. The marshall gets there and the guy throws his club at the marshal's cart, gets back in his cart and speeds away. Long story short, the guy eventually gets arrested for public intoxication, destruction of private property and disturbing the peace.

I have never been back to that course even though they gave me a card for 15 free games.

True story and something I will always remember

lol texas2step, that is one crazy story.