Annoying Habits on the Practice Green

[Sandy Lie]

9 minutes ago, Carl3 said:

Come on, he is training the next Tiger Woods. You are just a nobody and have no idea, LOL. I had a joker like this who had his six year old doing ladder drills I swear chipping to 1 foot increments with maybe 10 tees stuck in the green and a bucket of range balls. If that wasn't annoying enough there was the constant coaching and lecturing.

Minimal, quiet talk in the practice are. Preferably none at all. The guy with the cell phone on the practice green is probably the worst. Yakkety yak, blah, blah, blah, with a phone in one hand and the putter in another. or the guy with ear buds or blue tooth carrying on about the monthly numbers or something.

LOL!  How true!

when I putt before a round I use just one ball. Why? I only get one chance when I play.  I see guys putting 3 or more over and over.  But to each there ownI guess.

[mclaren4life]

Yea those guys are annoying as hell also. I actually am the “return guy” for my son when he is practicing. We don’t use a bucket we use 3 or 4 balls. If it is crowded enough where that is too much then we work on something else. The feeling of being that guy bothers me so much that I refuse to do it. 

2 minutes ago, Sandy Lie said:

LOL!  How true!

when I putt before a round I use just one ball. Why? I only get one chance when I play.  I see guys putting 3 or more over and over.  But to each there ownI guess.

That’s a whole different issue. You couldn’t be more right. You don’t have 30 of the exact same putts in a round of golf. It’s not like bowling where it’s the same distance and pins are always in the same place. We may use 3 or 4 balls but he chips them all from different areas and distances. I’ve never understood putting from one spot for so long. 

[Buckeyebowman]

I don't care. I just set up and putt, or chip, my two balls toward whatever hole I want. If that disturbs the clods, so be it! I figure that maybe that would clue them in to the objectional  aspect of their behavior. But, clods are clods, and don't recognize much. 

[mclaren4life]

Here is another type of special person I saw today when we went to the range. The guy that leaves his balls and basket right on the practice green. There were about 20 balls spread around the green and just off it. 

[colin007]

10 hours ago, Buckeyebowman said:

I don't care. I just set up and putt, or chip, my two balls toward whatever hole I want. If that disturbs the clods, so be it! I figure that maybe that would clue them in to the objectional  aspect of their behavior. But, clods are clods, and don't recognize much. 

Yeah, I agree. I have no problem chipping or putting to a hole that someone else might be using. We are all sharing the practice green, so share the targets also.

That being said, I almost never use the practice green. 

[Sandy Lie]

I’ll add one more...Cigars!  Hey if you enjoy a good cigar that’s fine. But I’m pretty sure most others on the putting green may not.  

And those ashes!  Haha!  
 

I was playing with this old guy, yes older than me a few months ago.  He was close to 80.  A third player showed up cigar in hand to join us.  Which was ok until the old guy says he can’t play with folks who smoke.  Why?  He has only one lung and it can cause him problems.  I spoke to the starter and he let the guy go out in front of us.

[Big C]

If someone is hitting to one hole, that is fine and I have no issue with it - whether they use 2 balls or 30. With that said, I've been on hundreds of practice greens and I don't think I've ever seen someone use that many balls to practice putting. The most I've seen is 8-10 balls, and then it's usually a high school kid working on his/her game that is good enough to keep their stuff concentrated to a tight radius. Is that really a thing @mclaren4life?

Occasionally you will see someone who sets up shop for an hour or two at the practice pitching green. Since ours only has two flags, that can be a bit annoying. But even then, I have developed a foolproof solution, as my TST alignment stick doubles nicely as another pin location. I simply give the guy who is hogging the green a friendly nod, plant my alignment stick into the green at least 10 yards away and start hitting my chips and pitches. No one has ever raised an issue with this.

[Buckeyebowman]

Good idea!

[darthweasel]

On ‎6‎/‎9‎/‎2020 at 2:30 PM, Big C said:

If someone is hitting to one hole, that is fine and I have no issue with it - whether they use 2 balls or 30. With that said, I've been on hundreds of practice greens and I don't think I've ever seen someone use that many balls to practice putting. The most I've seen is 8-10 balls, and then it's usually a high school kid working on his/her game that is good enough to keep their stuff concentrated to a tight radius. Is that really a thing @mclaren4life?

 

I would be the first to admit my chipping needs work. It improved vastly when I watched and implemented the Phil Mickelson method. However, in something that should come as a shock to...well, nobody, I am nowhere near as skilled as Michelson chipping one-handed. Even with the vast improvement, my chipping control needs a lot of work. Therein lies the problem.

 

Whereas he uses a 64, I cannot even use a 60 degree with his method. I tend to use a PW or 9i. I need desperately to work on it. The problem is...if I practice around people there is a real danger I will thin one into their grill or across their path. Fear of doing this tends to lead to either the "hit it 6"" issue or blast it 20' past where I am trying to hit it. Neither leads to improvement.

Because of this, I seldom get to practice chipping and it becomes a self-perpetuation issue. Then I see other people chipping across 4 holes and...grr.

 

I cannot practice chipping until I am good enough to practice chipping which I will never be because I don't get to practice. Vicious cycle. Fortunately I recently found a lightly used practice area that in maybe 15 trips to the course I had never seen used, and got in a couple good sessions. Apparently I brought attention to it because now it is always full.

[BamaWade]

We have 4 practice greens at our club (the large one is putting only), and I don't really run into many issues there.

But the local public course (UofA's home course) is the polar opposite--at the public-side practice green that allows chipping and sand practice, at least. That green is constantly over-populated, and the majority are college-aged kids who generally do whatever they want--to hell with anyone else.  Common offenders back onto the range tees and hit ~30-40y pitch shots into the green (and always 15-20+ balls at a time).  Also bad are the ones that practice their long bunker shots from the practice bunker to the far end of the green...flying shots within yards of whoever happens to be working on their putting.  I don't care if you're friggin' scratch--unless it's the Iron Byron hitting those shots, that's dangerous at worst, and super-inconsiderate, at best.

No problem with either if the area is empty, but these are common when it's busy.  For me, unless that practice area is virtually empty (hardly ever), I walk right on by and just practice my short game at the club.