How close is TOO close?

[MrSandman]

gsu, don't get flustered if a group is upset about you wanting to play through. just be persistent, and point out that there are open holes in front of them. nothing worse than a group who won't let a faster group play through.

if it were the final shot before i ask a group to play through, and i knew i was laying it 20 yds short, i might fire it up on them to let them know i was closing in. but if a group hit into me a couple times within 20 yds when i was putting, especially if they were doing so from inside of 200 yds, i would be pissed at them. if somebody was 290 away, and smoked a 3W to 30 yards of the green, I would give them the credit for the good shot.

i played today, three single digit handicaps in our group, we moved at a good pace and played in under 4 hours. we still let a group play through, and the group was a 60 yr old man and woman. there is no way either would beat any member of our group, but they were cruising, so why shouldn't we let them play through? playing through is not establishing the best players, it is about letting the quicker groups play at their pace.

[gsu_paintballer]

if it were the final shot before i ask a group to play through, and i knew i was laying it 20 yds short, i might fire it up on them to let them know i was closing in. but if a group hit into me a couple times within 20 yds when i was putting, especially if they were doing so from inside of 200 yds, i would be pissed at them.

I may not have said this yet, but they were walking off the green to their cart parked on the path. They had made it about halfway by the time I took my shot. I know this is irrelevant, but IMO, it's different than taking a shot when someone is putting.

[michaeljames92]

unless you are laying up, always wait for the green to clear.

[Ogg]

I wouldn't worry about it - you didn't hit them and you were 20-25 yards away from them - I have no idea why they would get mad at that unless they thought you were going for the green.

[ks8829]

Common courtesy and your judgement, if the group ahead was upset you were too close, I probably would be too.

[sonicblue]

Regardless of whether your 6I can go that far, 140 yards is too close to hit, doesn't matter how close you actually got. Seems perfectly reasonably to expect you could have caught it clean and gone that extra distance.

When you're on the tee, you wait for the other group to hit their second shots and clear the area. It doesn't matter if they're 260 from you and you normally drive 220. When you're in the "normal" area of the fairway and they're on the green, you wait for them to clear. It doesn't matter if you don't normally hit it that far. Now, if you hit your drive way short and are laying up, or are some significant distance - e.g., 225-240 - where you truly don't expect to hit it that far, that's different.

[sonicblue]

I may not have said this yet, but they were walking off the green to their cart parked on the path. They had made it about halfway by the time I took my shot. I know this is irrelevant, but IMO, it's different than taking a shot when someone is putting.

That's very relevant. If they were finished with the hole and walking off, you could have waited 10 more seconds and avoided the whole incident. If they were that slow and you were just trying to be expedient in order to get up there and play through, the extra 10 seconds likely wouldn't matter.

[kfowler]

IMO, yes you were too close to take the shot, even if they were walking off the green.

However, I also think they overreacted if this was the only time it happened. Remember, there's some real A-holes out there. I've had this happen many times to me and it doesn't bother me as long as it's not more than once.

[phatone]

140 yards is way to close to hit no matter how far you hit your clubs. That's PW distance for me so I would never guess that the college kid behind me was laying up. Now if I was clear of the green like you say the group in front of you was, I probably wouldn't care the first time. The second time I might get a little miffed. On another note, where do you play? I live about a hour from Statesboro. I'm assuming live there...

[CPHoya]

First : If I was putting on a green and someone in my fairway was hitting from 140 yards, regardless of age or ability, I would be completely livid. No one is actually laying up from 140 out; if you really were, there is no way I would have believed you when you told me and there is absolutely no way I would have intuited that you weren't hitting at the green from 140. If you had done that and hit my green, I would have been likely to blade that ball right back at you or to throw it in the nearest lake. You have to be kidding me. If the group is on the green you just should not be hitting unless you're AT LEAST 200 yards away. And if I'd seen you make even one decent swing, I'd be just as pissed at you for hitting into me from 200 (that's a 4 or 5 iron for a lot of players) as I would have been with you for hitting into me from 140.

Second : Speaking of blading balls, all you needed to do was catch it thin and send it screaming over the green. You're a pretty high handicap, we both know that was a possibility whether you were going for the green or not. If you did that it would've been more dangerous than floating the ball in from up above. And you wouldn't have expected that so you would've had little to no time to yell "fore" so we could duck for cover. On that note, I was once hit by someone doing exactly that. I wanted to break each of my clubs over his head. Golf balls hurt, a lot.

Third : I've had people hit into me as I was leaving the green. One of the rules - a real rule - of golf is that you should position your bag on the path between your green and the next tee or in a spot that expedites your exit from the green. If your ball hits my green while I'm leaving as fast as I possibly can without jogging, you're an ass. Stop doing that. Let the people leave the green.

Fourth : I absolutely do not believe you were laying up from 140 yards. If you were , you should probably stop doing that. Wait for the green to clear and try to hit it. As you improve you'll realize that 140 yards out is SCORING time, and you'll probably be more sympathetic with this post than you are now.

To answer your initial question: you were way too close .

[ERC7.5]

Well put CPHoya. Hitting from 140 in with people in the proximity is way in the wrong. MellowYellow was correct (in my mind) as well. For myself, I give any of my clubs + or - 25 yds. In case I catch one differently than I "expect". You also have to take into consideration the occasional Skull Ball .

[MellowYellow]

Yeah come on, I said two or three times I wasnt trying to offend you and I'm definitely not saying I'm BETTER than you.

I was saying if I was on the green with no idea what someones handicap was or whatever, and they hit from 140 yards, which to me seems SUPER close, and then said "My 6iron only goes 120 you were safe!" I would have THOUGHT (not that you DO suck but i would have THOUGHT) that you suck at golf and you could have easily hit me, becuase most people even people that putt from one side of the green to the other can still get ahold of a club and hit it 140 yards, that's really not very far, I cant hit a PW there like the previous poster, but im sure everyone here has a club they can hit ATLEAST 140, so why would I believe you truly were laying up, I would BELIEVE that you tried to hit the green and came up short.

Now here on the forum, I hear you say you were laying up, so fine I believe you, but my previous post was taken 100% from the perspective of the people you hit into, I would never believe someone would try and lay up from 140 yards.

[meenman]

I really had to laugh this past sunday morning. We had two really old guys hitting when we were 100 yards in front of them.

They obviously knew their distances because neither one of them came within 40-50 yards of us.

[chipper2]

My rule of thumb is I do not hit if I could come within 30 yards of my best drive. Safe rather than sorry. Hitting close to the next group does not make the round go any faster.

[MellowYellow]

Not only that, if you're worrying about not hitting the people in front of you, or worrying "are they going to get pissed after I hit this, is it going to get too close?" That's just one extra thing you have to block out while taking your shot... I dont need any extra obstacles in my game.. golf is hard enough.

[gsu_paintballer]

Not only that, if you're worrying about not hitting the people in front of you, or worrying "are they going to get pissed after I hit this, is it going to get too close?" That's just one extra thing you have to block out while taking your shot... I dont need any extra obstacles in my game.. golf is hard enough.

I wasnt. I knew I couldnt hit them

[MellowYellow]

So gsu, this is a little off topic, but why CANT you hit over 120 with your 6 iron?

Is it one of those deals where your PW goes 100, your 9 goes 120, but so does your 8,7,6,5,4 because the longer clubs arent hitting as pure? Do you have an odd swing?

[Big Padrigo]

If in doubt wait, simple. I have seen all sorts of shots be mishit or hit flush and that means they can go a lot further and end up a lot closer than you may think. If there's a problem with slow play let the clubhouse know, never try to hit into a group in front to speed them up, at best they're going to think you're impatient...

On slightly different note when you see players leaving a green, give them time to move away from the green as well, same thing can happen with balls going through the green coming close to golfers as they move to the next tee box.