Golf Pet Hates

[DaMoose90]

People playing music on the golf course on a Bluetooth speaker... It was a far fetched joke in caddyshack.. now it's a sad reality. Drives me insane 

[Wade Patton]

43 minutes ago, DaMoose90 said:

People playing music on the golf course on a Bluetooth speaker... It was a far fetched joke in caddyshack.. now it's a sad reality. Drives me insane 

They're now selling bags with a BT speaker built right in.  "Be the person everyone wants in their foursome" is what the company spews in the promo video. 

I say you're more likely to be the person everyone want to throw a sand wedge at.

The course nearest me uses "USB ports for playing your music in every cart" as a selling point!  I only heard one the time we were there, but it was too much. They've slid way down my list of places to play.

Unrepaired ball marks, unraked sand, unfilled divots.  Basically any disrespect to the course irks me as it's not exactly easy to maintain a golf course in good condition, and it can directly affect the play of many players who come after, for days after.

[Opoponax]

I accept slow play as part of the game when the course is backed up. It's inevitable sometimes so whatever. 

However, I usually play as a single and not being allowed to play through by a group that has no one in front of them is extremely frustrating. 

Last Friday I went out by myself and got stuck behind a foursome. One guy played the blue tees, two guys played the whites, and the woman in the group played the forward tees. Not only that, they seemed to mill about before teeing off. I know this because after watching them walk off the green on #4, I skulled a shot into an adjacent fairway, thinned that one over the green, hit the next one into a bunker, then hit a nice shot out of the bunker, and two putted. 

When I arrived at the next tee box they hadn't even teed off yet. Not one of them. I began to get nervous about teeing off in front of them because it's always nerve wracking to have strangers watch you. But it turns out I needn't have worried because they didn't offer to let me play through. They saw me, looked at me indifferently, and proceeded to spray their respective shots all over the place.

Thankfully they stopped at the turn and I was able to get past them and finish the rest of my round in about 90 minutes. 

Anyway, I think what all these complaints boil down to is the lack of courtesy. Not fixing pitch marks, raking bunkers, playing music (god, what a scourge that is), etc. all have to do with a discouraging lack of awareness that others exist. 

[Vinsk]

3 minutes ago, Opoponax said:

Anyway, I think what all these complaints boil down to is the lack of courtesy. Not fixing pitch marks, raking bunkers, playing music (god, what a scourge that is), etc. all have to do with a discouraging lack of awareness that others exist.

Yeah I agree. That foursome is of the same type who:

• Block the aisle with their shopping carts
• Stand in doorways
• ’Merge’ onto 70mph highways going 45mph 
• Use two spots when they park
• Spend 15min at the turn

[NM Golf]

golf pet peeves:

• Slow play
• Bad slow greens
• Blaring music
• Sandbaggers

On 8/21/2022 at 3:06 AM, wacker said:

 However, my biggest moan is mucking around with handicaps in competitions. Handicaps were designed to even things up between golfers, when you take 5% or 10% off of them in a competition the playing field is no longer equal, so what's the point of having a handicap?

Comes from the fact that the higher the handicap the better chance someone has of play to their handicap or better. Gives guys like myself a fighting chance.

[mcanadiens]

It kind of dovetails into slow play, but I really hate six-somes.

I'm sure that sounds really stupid to a lot of you, but I've seen it more than a couple of times. Two groups of yahoos go off on separate tee times and join each other on the second or third hole.  Just as soon as they are out of sight from the starter. 

Hopefully someone with eyes on them calls the pro shop and it gets dealt with before it ruins the round for everyone else. My new home course is pretty good about nipping those. The old days in bandit country not so much.

 

[mohearn]

6 hours ago, Opoponax said:

However, I usually play as a single and not being allowed to play through by a group that has no one in front of them is extremely frustrating. 

Last Friday I went out by myself and got stuck behind a foursome.

I'd just ask, politely at first.  But I know, you gotta be careful, never know who you're dealing with.   

[NM Golf]

21 hours ago, mcanadiens said:

It kind of dovetails into slow play, but I really hate six-somes.

 

Dude...six-somes...really!? Thats just crazy anyone would even try that. Maybe my course has more tattle tales, but if a 5-some tries to tee off at 10:50 (we allow them after 11) people lose their minds and we get 20 phone calls in the shop. 

[mcanadiens]

44 minutes ago, NM Golf said:

Dude...six-somes...really!? Thats just crazy anyone would even try that. Maybe my course has more tattle tales, but if a 5-some tries to tee off at 10:50 (we allow them after 11) people lose their minds and we get 20 phone calls in the shop. 

In the old days, Kittyhawk (former Dayton, OH muni) let this group of Orientals (Korean I think) play the Eagle as a six. If you were behind them, you were hosed. Figured that was just Dayton being dumb old Dayton.

Now I've seen wankers do that three or four times in the past year or so. The new home course (Miami Shores) dispatched someone right away and knocked them straight off the course. Saw it happens once at another area course and those guys just split them up after a lot of damage was done.

Some people just don't call em in. Snitches get stitches and all that bull.

 

[imsys0042]

It's not specific to golf, but this came up recently at my club.   I wouldn't call it a hate that people get to have certain tee times.   The Sunday group I play in have 4 times that the club is nice enough to give us.   But it's very clear that some people get super preferential treatment at the expense of others and people are expected to put up with it.

Someone who knows someone at the club, probably the pro, moaned about not getting to play when they wanted.   So they inserted them before the Sunday group I play in and bumped us back.  Supposedly they complained that we were slow and that they wanted to be in front of is.  Thing is, they are slow and they play from the back tees and can't break 100.   Most weeks we are waiting on them for most of the round but nothing ever happens....

On top of that, one of the courses around here is currently closed for some reason and they have been sneaking people from that club in between tee times which backs up the course.   Why, I don't know.

On top of that, two weeks ago in between tee times that are 10 minutes apart (8am, 8:10, 8:20 etc) there were two groups that magically appeared at 8:05 and 8:15 that slowed everything up.   Two weeks of extra tee times made 4 hour rounds into 4:45 rounds.   

[ChetlovesMer]

On 9/8/2022 at 5:52 PM, mcanadiens said:

It kind of dovetails into slow play, but I really hate six-somes.

That's a thing?
Why would anyone want to play in a six-some? Seem to me like 2 three-somes would be be way better. 

[wacker]

On 9/5/2022 at 2:16 PM, DaMoose90 said:

People playing music on the golf course on a Bluetooth speaker... It was a far fetched joke in caddyshack.. now it's a sad reality. Drives me insane 

Thank God that is an American thing. I am sure you would get thrown off of the course in the UK, you certainly would be at my club

[Wade Patton]

We let a 5-some play through our 2-some a couple of weeks ago. I can move right along, but my buddy doesn't quite have the mobility I do. Life has been a bit harder on him.

But we're old school golfers and if you're waiting on us and we're not waiting on someone in front of us, we invite you to play through. Every time. 

We let a six or seven year old kid play through on the par-3 yesterday.  He was whacking 'em right along and dad was "caddying". I'd never seen clubs so little.

I don't "hate" slow play, I hate it when slow players do not understand how/why/when to let faster groups play through. Some are too self-absorbed, and others are simply ignorant of the basics and importance of golf etiquette.

Edited September 10, 2022 by Wade Patton
editing punctuation and spacing for clarity. Then I added the bit about "hate".

[colin007]

I have no problem saying "Hey, y'all mind if we play through?"

[mohearn]

54 minutes ago, wacker said:

Thank God that is an American thing. I am sure you would get thrown off of the course in the UK, you certainly would be at my club

Never seen it here, maybe I'm not following the right people.  I am banned from playing in Japan, though, so there's that.

34 minutes ago, Wade Patton said:

I don't "hate" slow play, I hate it when slow players do not understand how/why/when to let faster groups play through. Some are too self-absorbed, and others are simply ignorant of the basics and importance of golf etiquette.

I'm kinda this way too, I mentally budget 5 hours or more.  many (most?) times the whole course is backed up due to over-scheduleing.  My threesome played in < 3.5 hrs the other day walking with pushcarts on a 6800 yd course and strolling/chatting too.. Course was empty, even had time for some productive ball-hawking (which when busy is my #1 "pet hate."

[Opoponax]

On 9/8/2022 at 2:52 PM, mcanadiens said:

It kind of dovetails into slow play, but I really hate six-somes.

I'm sure that sounds really stupid to a lot of you, but I've seen it more than a couple of times. Two groups of yahoos go off on separate tee times and join each other on the second or third hole.  Just as soon as they are out of sight from the starter. 

Hopefully someone with eyes on them calls the pro shop and it gets dealt with before it ruins the round for everyone else. My new home course is pretty good about nipping those. The old days in bandit country not so much.

 

And this brings up another pet peeve: marshals who don't enforce pace of play rules. No one wants Golf-Stalin ruling over the course with an iron fist, but we also don't need marshals whose job is best described as professional cart driving b.s.'er. 

[mcanadiens]

On 9/10/2022 at 6:07 AM, ChetlovesMer said:

That's a thing?
Why would anyone want to play in a six-some? Seem to me like 2 three-somes would be be way better. 

Rare, but I've seen it and once was too often.

I guess those people just really, really like each other.

[NM Golf]

On 9/5/2022 at 7:16 AM, DaMoose90 said:

People playing music on the golf course on a Bluetooth speaker... It was a far fetched joke in caddyshack.. now it's a sad reality. Drives me insane 

We had to put a local rule banning music on the rules sheets when I was still running tournaments. Personally, I just ask them to turn it down, but some people hate it. I don't really understand why people feel the need to blare music while playing golf, but I also don't understand drinking a 12 pack while playing either.