Outside Agency… Not Happy!

[Sandy Lie]

Pretty sure everyone knows that if someone man or beast interferes with your ball there is no penalty to you. You can simply put a new ball down as close as possible to where the original ball lay and play on!

So today our Mens Golf Association had an event, shotgun start double groups each tee.  144 players! It was slow that’s to be expected.  We had two instances of outside agency occur, hard to believe. The first occurrence was on the 8th hole a par 4. Everyone hit good drives, but when we got to the landing area we did find four balls, however one player in our group did not find his ball. There was a ball in the area his ball landed but his ball was a Bridgestone and the ball found was a Titleist. We looked and looked but couldn’t find his ball. 1st we thought “lost ball”. There was some debate so two balls were played. I didn’t agree but the two other players did. I said finding a ball that’s not yours and assuming someone played yours by mistake isn’t how the rule works.
Ok let’s fast forward to our last hole. Another par 4. After the fairway cleared I teed off first and blistered the ball down the left side with a baby fade.  Next three hit their drives and as we departed the tee box a cart from the group ahead of us appeared at the crest of the fairway and stopped. It then quickly left.  I get to the area where my ball should be and nothing! We all looked. So now I suspect that someone picked up my ball.  I went forward to the group ahead of us and asked if they mistakenly took the ball. They all said no. Are you sure I asked. Then one of them said that their fourth player took it but that he suddenly quit his round and he left with my ball.  I’m furious! At this point I’m tied for Low Gross with my playing partner. When I started to leave one of the players cited “Outside Agency” and to drop a ball.  I get it I replied and left.  Problem was we didn’t know where the ball came to rest, rough or fairway and how far away from the green.  We discussed and decided fairway. I still haven’t calmed down and proceeded to hit a fat shot. Make bogey, my first on the back. Down one.

Heres the kicker!!  We get to our next and last tee box and one of the guys in our group sees a ball next to the box marker.  It’s my ball.  The players I asked lied and had picked up my ball. No I didn’t hit into them. The guy we saw at the crest of the hill had actually come out of the tree line after doing his “business” and saw my ball and picked it up!  They admitted it to one of the guys in my group when we got to the green on our last hole but not to me, no apology, nothing.

Made par on the last hole, shot 74 and lose Low Gross by one stroke!  As to the first lost ball mentioned we then concluded they took that ball as well!

When your playing in a tournament other players should not pick up a ball presuming it’s a lost ball. Jerks!

yeah this was long!

 

 

[iacas]

Whaddya gonna do?

Some players should not be playing in tournaments.

[DFW75]

I was guilty of this (not in a tournament). Noone else was on our hole, and figured it was a lost ball. But someone from the other fairway came over looking. I went up there and let them know what happened and placed the ball back where I had found it.

After I realized what I had done, I no longer pick up balls on the course I didn't hit. I don't need "extra" balls badly enough to mistakenly pickup someone's shot. 

[steelied]

8 hours ago, DFW75 said:

 

 I no longer pick up balls on the course I didn't hit. I don't need "extra" balls badly enough to mistakenly pickup someone's shot. 

This 👆🏼  If it’s not yours, leave it alone unless your ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN it’s not someone else’s. 

[The Flush]

We were playing Eagle Sticks this summer and my son, who is the long driver of our group, hit a long one that was maybe 10 yards into the rough, but certainly no where near out of play and would have been relatively easy to find.  Except a member of the grounds crew drove a cart out of the trees on the way to somewhere else on the course and stopped and picked up his ball and drove off. He was too far away to bother yelling at him nor worth the time to try to chase him down.

[imsys0042]

Years ago I was playing with someone who picked up a ball on our hole and the person who owned it came looking and it was kind of a shout-y affair.   I've hung back a couple of minutes to see a group pass before picking up a ball.   Presumably if they didn't come onto my hole, they either don't care or it's not there.   Couple of people have picked up mine, most people are sorry and are sheepish about it.   There was one sociopath who I saw pick it up as I walked over and then proceeded to lie and keep it.   It's a golf ball so it's not worth a fight over it.   Hope it hit a tree though and knocked him right in the store though.

I did caddy in a group that one time all hit breakfast balls off #1.  One of my guys hit the middle of the fairway and the second ball was in a bunker.   I went to retrieve his ball from the bunker and he started yelling at me.  "Never touch a member's golf ball without being told to!".   Then proceeded to tell me to pick it up.   IIRC when he left the membership they had a party in the bar.

[ChetlovesMer]

On 11/10/2021 at 7:27 PM, Sandy Lie said:

When your playing in a tournament other players should not pick up a ball presuming it’s a lost ball. Jerks!

Agreed.

Here's my best related story.

About 12 years ago, I was playing in a tournament. Not a shotgun start. The second day of a four day tournament, I'm in the last group out. Behind us are some yahoos just playing the course, not part of our tournament. I was hitting the ball great that day.... putting like dookey but what ever. On a par 4 I hit a drive that lands in the rough between our fairway and the adjacent part 5's fairway. The shot was a little right of center but its a good place from which to approach the green. 

I spent a few minutes helping some others in my group find their tee-shots then head to my ball. As I'm walking towards it I see one of the yahoos standing over my ball and he says "Oh, here it is!" loudly to his friends and starts to address my ball. It was in a place that would have been a pretty impressive tee-shot from the par 5 he was playing. 

When I see him addressing my ball and about to hit it, I shouted at him. "Hey, wait a second!" 

"What?" he looks up at me annoyed.
"Are you sure that's your ball?" 

He looks at his buddies "Yeah, of course its my ball." 

"I can see a blue line drawn around that ball from here. I draw a blue line around my ball, do you do that too?" 

He looks at the ball, looks at his buddies, looks at me, looks at the ball, then his buddies again. The guy picks up the ball and throws it at me and yells "f*** YOU!" Gets in his cart and drives off. 

Luckily one of the gentlemen I was playing with witnessed the whole exchange. We replaced the ball where it was before he threw it at me and then played on. I'm pretty sure I made par on that whole. (Perhaps, it was a 3-putt bogey). 

 

[Esox]

Missed a par 3 over the green by a couple yards. A guy who had teed off at the next hole (perpendicular to the par 3) came walking up, and proceeded to repeatedly kick my ball back the 30 yards or so to his fairway, then he picked it up. My kid went to ask him for the ball back, they guy denied the whole thing, saying he found it in his fairway and assumed it was lost because no one misses a par 3 by that much!