Etiquette Violations (and Other Things) That Bug You

[TourSpoon]

On 6/30/2023 at 6:12 PM, iacas said:

Cart drivers who park beside the cart path instead of ON the cart path. Do those three feet really help you that much, buddy?

A buddy of mine always says, "Too bad they don't have a cart path around the tee box (or green) for you to park on. Oh wait! There is one right next to your cart!" 

On 6/30/2023 at 6:32 PM, snapfade said:

Discarded cigars by the green still gets me.

Add cigarettes and sunflower seed shells.  

On 6/30/2023 at 10:48 PM, StuM said:

The golfer who needs to laser the tee when he is next to the 250 yard marker. And if course we all know he can’t even come close to hitting it that far.

You can laser the tee or the green all you want, but wait to hit your layup 8 iron and its on! 

On 7/1/2023 at 6:29 AM, boogielicious said:

lastly, people who use “ass clown” and “ass hat” to describe stupid golfers when clearly “F**ktard” is the appropriate term.😉

This is 100% my wife's favorite word to describe inane and disrespectful behavior. In this case she would likely say, "Would you look at that Golf F**ktard spitting seeds all over the ground, makes the entitled Polo F**tards seem courteous." For the record, she doesn't play golf but she can spot them from our house on the tee box. 

[stealthduffer]

On 7/4/2023 at 9:29 PM, iacas said:

And do what with it (on tee boxes that don't have a little box for them)?

I appreciate them, as I'll use the broken tees on par threes or any par four that isn't a driver.

Our course has a trash can on every tee. Except #8 and not sure what happened there. And our tee boxes look like the lowest low end public course. If nothing else pile them next to the tee box. 
 

Particular pet peeve of mine because I once hit a tee laying flat just under the surface causing a shank that almost hit someone on the next tee box. 

[ChiTown]

Oh man.  Yesterday I was playing at my club behind a fivesome driving three carts and one forecaddie. I was behind them walking with a caddie.  Long story short two members and three guests all decide to play from the tips which runs around 6700. They’ve also decided to bet so now they’re all playing like it’s a pro tour event. My key gripes

• I caught up to them at the tee for every hole.  Not once did they ask if I wanted to play through. Luckily, I started on the back nine (90min) and only had to deal with them when I looped the front 9 (2.5 hours!).
• They shouldn’t have been playing the tips. Not a one of them made GIR on the fours or fives
• On par fives waited for the group ahead to clear the green before hitting their second shot
• None of them fixed any ball marks on the green.
• Never played ready golf. They just moved like a herd from one ball to the next. 

[klineka]

25 minutes ago, ChiTown said:

• They shouldn’t have been playing the tips. Not a one of them made GIR on the fours or fives

I dont think this by itself is an etiquette violation IMO.

Maybe they usually always play shorter tees and wanted a challenge that day. My buddies and I do that from time to time, granted we still maintain an appropriate pace of play.

As long as you maintain appropriate pace of play I don't care which tees you play or how far you hit it.

[ChiTown]

1 hour ago, klineka said:

I dont think this by itself is an etiquette violation IMO.

Maybe they usually always play shorter tees and wanted a challenge that day. My buddies and I do that from time to time, granted we still maintain an appropriate pace of play.

As long as you maintain appropriate pace of play I don't care which tees you play or how far you hit it.

Completely agree. I can see playing the tips but in this case it may not have been the best decision since they weren’t hitting any GIR on the fours or fives. And it’s fair to say not all five of them should have been playing the tips. The goal for the course is a four hour round, and these guys took 2.5 hours on the front nine. They also never caught up to the group ahead of them. So they were definitely lagging. 

[RFKFREAK]

I ended up playing the back nine today with a really deliberate player.  This wouldn't have annoyed me much except it was raining and he was taking forever on everything, even a 2 foot putt.

What really got me though was when we were on our fourth hole together.  I'm playing the second to back tees and he's playing the whites.  There was a group in front of us who had just hit their approach shots and were riding to the green when I teed off.  I walk the 80 yards to his tee box, and notice he's still waiting so I look out and the group in front of us are probably 30 yards in front of the green.  So, I say, "I think you can hit," and he replies, "I can hit them if I really get a hold of one," to which I look down on the scorecard and see that it says the hole is 350 yards, so I ask, "you're hitting it over 300 yards?".  He looks at me funny, then goes into his routine and "crushes it" 250 yards. 

[ChetlovesMer]

7 hours ago, RFKFREAK said:

"I can hit them if I really get a hold of one," to which I look down on the scorecard and see that it says the hole is 350 yards, so I ask, "you're hitting it over 300 yards?".  He looks at me funny, then goes into his routine and "crushes it" 250 yards. 

Ah, yes. The Classic Over-Estimator.

His favorite line is "I can hit them if I really get a hold of one!" 

[boogielicious]

29 minutes ago, ChetlovesMer said:

Ah, yes. The Classic Over-Estimator.

His favorite line is "I can hit them if I really get a hold of one!" 

Big hitter the Lama.

[RFKFREAK]

1 hour ago, ChetlovesMer said:

Ah, yes. The Classic Over-Estimator.

His favorite line is "I can hit them if I really get a hold of one!" 

Seriously.

I probably wouldn't have cared much since there was no one behind us but it was raining and I was hoping to foursome in front of us would let us play through if we caught up to them. This guy was so slow that never got even close to happening.

[WilliamB]

Somebody chipping onto the putting green while others are practice putting. I can't relax while someone is doing this .

[RFKFREAK]

1 hour ago, WilliamB said:

Somebody chipping onto the putting green while others are practice putting. I can't relax while someone is doing this .

Is this in instances where the course has a designated chipping area?

[imsys0042]

23 hours ago, klineka said:

I dont think this by itself is an etiquette violation IMO.

Maybe they usually always play shorter tees and wanted a challenge that day. My buddies and I do that from time to time, granted we still maintain an appropriate pace of play.

As long as you maintain appropriate pace of play I don't care which tees you play or how far you hit it.

Exactly.   As long as you can maintain pace of play and not hold up other groups.  Unfortunately where I play on Sunday mornings the last pro slipped in a group right before our Sunday game. They play from the tips and can’t break 100.  They don’t play ready golf and one of them leaves sunflower seeds on many of the greens.   
 

the first week they were put there the starter had us move out of the way because he told us we had been pushed back.  They proceeded to hit two balls each, of which only two were potentially anywhere near good.  One of them almost hit a couple of us.  Two of them are not even very nice to anyone outside their little foursome.

[ChiTown]

11 minutes ago, imsys0042 said:

Exactly.   As long as you can maintain pace of play and not hold up other groups.  Unfortunately where I play on Sunday mornings the last pro slipped in a group….

I’m with you on this. I think what irked me the most was that I caught the fivesome on #2 before they teed off. It’s a private CC and the two newer members didn’t even offer to let me play through as a single with caddie 

[imsys0042]

8 minutes ago, ChiTown said:

I’m with you on this. I think what irked me the most was that I caught the fivesome on #2 before they teed off. It’s a private CC and the two newer members didn’t even offer to let me play through as a single with caddie 

I caddied at a private club and while there were one offs, here and there, who were rude generally most members would have waived you thru.  There was one notable exception a group that played who called themselves “The Hat” who played weekdays usually in the early afternoon.   They wouldn’t let an ambulance through.  I was banned from caddying for them because there was some confusion about whose ball was farthest away and they had me walk to the hole to verify.  Having caddied for several years I knew not to walk in someone’s line but didn’t see one of the ball markers and stepped across the line.  Buh-bye.   Caddymaster told me I was better off and called them arrogant pricks.  Most of them were nice enough on their own, but as a group they were insufferable.  That’s the worst kind of etiquette breaches IMO, they were long time golfers and should know better to wave people thru.

a lot of the items on this thread are definitely bad etiquette but when I see them it’s usually people who don’t play a lot of golf and they simply don’t know better.   People who should know better are the true ass clowns.  
 

one of the things that bugs me personally, although I can understand if you’ve taken the time to practice your wedge game and really focus on different swings for wedge distances.   Using your range finder from something like 30 yards.  Personally it makes me want to face palm.  Some people might find it useful, but it’s one that I just don’t get. 

[Shindig]

I'm surprised I haven't seen this one yet.  The "you don't need a provisional, we'll probably find it" conversation.

This really bugged me before the recent rules, when a lost ball meant you'd have to go back to the tee.  The time for the conversation was often more than the time hitting a provisional would have been.

It still bugs me a bit, especially if I hit a ball that, if lost, I'd rather hit my third shot from the tee than drop and hit my fourth in the fairway from the allowed place -- think a really short and curving shot, for example. 

 

I'm not sure if suggesting someone doesn't need a provisional (other than cases where the ball is clearly going to be found, such as if it's in the middle of the fairway) is technically an etiquette violation, but maybe it should be?  If for nothing else, appropriate provisional shots help pace of play. 

[ChiTown]

5 hours ago, imsys0042 said:

I caddied at a private club and while there were one offs, here and there, who were rude generally most members would have waived you thru. 
 

one of the things that bugs me personally, although I can understand if you’ve taken the time to practice your wedge game and really focus on different swings for wedge distances.   Using your range finder from something like 30 yards.  Personally it makes me want to face palm.  Some people might find it useful, but it’s one that I just don’t get. 

That’s where I am. I think most all members would at least offer to let you play through. But the two members were new and maybe they didn’t know better. That said, every time a shot mattered (they could see it) I had a great shot. So that felt good. Haha

By the way I laser anything under 200-ish. On the short end I track my carry and total distances for chip and pitch for my wedges. So I’m one of “those guys”. Hahaha 

[boil3rmak3r]

I agree with most of the posts so far.

One of my biggest irritations (which may or may not be deemed an etiquette issue) is playing with someone that gets really pissed off at themselves while playing badly, sulks around cursing himself out, and just kills the vibe of the group.  
 

C’mon man, it’s just a game and none of us are THAT good to be so mad at ourselves for a bad round (at least none of us within the group I play with). These guys are the players that others cringe when they see they’ve been paired up with them.

[dsc123]

Few things bother me.  One, like @boil3rmak3r said, is the guy who gets angry. 

Another is the guy who feels like its his place to police other people's etiquette.  I tend to run into olds like that in club tourneys.