Club Throwing

[lordhamster]

I occasionally will just kindof let my club fall over (one end is resting on ground, I just let go of handle) in disgust. I'm too cheap to throw or otherwise harm my clubs.

One time though I was on a course and I saw what looked like a brand new driver floating in a lake. If I knew it was a good one, I'd have probably gone in after it... but the water didn't look that nice. I didn't want to go through mud, leeches and other gunk to retrieve a crappy walmart club.

[gortyl]

I don't condone this act whatsoever but the other day while I was playing in another state I saw a guy helicopter a club over fifty yards! I'd never seen anything like it in my golf career. I was amazed, stunned. What's the wildest club throwing act you've witnessed?

I hope you weren't in Missouri, because it might have been me.

I am an occasional club thrower. I, too, am not proud of it, but I readily admit that once every few rounds, one of my clubs gets tossed in frustration. It is therapeutic, but certainly not my preferred method of therapy. I'd rather opt for the cold beer, but I have some anger management issues. It's amazing that guys like Pat Perez and Geoff Ogilvy have had similar issues and have, for the most part, conquered them. I'm getting better, but not there yet. Here are my stories, again for your entertainment only. I have no choice but to laugh at them now, but most of the time when they happen, they are quite embarassing.... 1. The funniest was on a hole in Louisiana several years ago with water along the entire right side of the fairway starting about 20 yards off the tee box. Shot one - lake. Shot two - re-tee. Huge slice into the lake, but I take "point of entry" about maybe 75 yards up. Now I can go for the green and what the heck, I'm laying four, might as well. Shot three - lake. Remember, I'm on the right side of the fairway alongside a lake. I tomahawk the club across the fairway toward a tree line. The five wood flies into the trees about 30 feet up and GETS STUCK in the tree! Luckily no one was behind us because it took me about 15 throws with my wedge to hit the five wood hard enough to have it fall back down. What a f'n idiot. 2. On one of my golf trips to Florida a few years ago after a dreadful shot, I took the butt end of the club in my palm and kind of shoveled it up in the air in disgust. As often happens when you do things in anger, something you didn't intend to happen happens. The club went high into the air about 30 feet high and was heading right towards my golf cart which was stationary in the fairway. My iron comes right down into the golf bag of my buddy and is a direct hit to the shaft of his three wood and you just see the head of his three wood collapse as the shaft just cracks in half. I felt SO bad because here we were on a golf trip and this guy used his three wood as his driver. We can laugh about it now and of course I paid for the re-shafting, but again, what an idiot. 3. There have been many other issues over the years. Once in Oklahoma, I threw club into a thorn bush and feeling so embarassed that I just reached in anyway and tore the hell out of the arms (yep, served me right). After taking three hacks to get out of some rough with my five wood, I smacked it against my golf bag and must have hit the wrong spot because it cracked a half inch hole in the back end of the head of the fairway wood. I used the fairway wood for several months after that with little impact. And I wasn't joking about the Doctorfro comment above - this weekend after playing at 3 over par on the much tougher par 38 front 9 (3 par 5s), I opened the easier back nine by getting too cute on my third shot on a par 5 and planting it into the side wall of a bunker. I could barely get any sand under me to stand half way decent and couldn't get the ball out of the bunker and caught too much ball on the second try and sent the ball over the green. I had a pound of sand in my shoes and had just ruined any chance of going really low and just helicoptered my club about 40 yards over the green towards where I hit my ball. Doctorfro must have been my caddie because I could have sworn no one else saw it but my foursome and my caddie!

[FatNakedGuy]

My knucklehead brother buried... i mean BURIED his putter into the green after missing a shot. A HUGE hole in the green and all I wanted to do was crawl under a rock and die.

I don't understand how folks let themselves get that worked up over a game.

[Fraser]

Not a club throw but a blow up that had us all laughing hysterically. Was playing with a good friend of mine, had known eachother for about ten years or more, played at the same course.

On one of the many rounds we played together he had a birdie putt from about 3ft which he missed badly. Instead of picking it up (or tapping it in) he swung madly at his ball with the back of his putter. It caught some pretty good lift and hit his standbag about 50ft away right where his woods were, the ball then dropped down into the bag itself.

He went from shouting and swearing to hysterical laughter in about 0.3 second!

[jcrew]

Have hardly thrown a club but I will tomahawk it into the ground on occasion. I have a pretty short temper but I'm getting better and better about it. I will have rounds where I have a lot of bad shots but manage to hold my composure and not expose a peep of emotion through a double bogey or a birdie. At the same time I will have rounds where I after every bad shot I let out a disgusted sigh and feel like slamming my clubhead into the ground. I'm trying to trend towards the former. If I have a bad swing and I feel it through my swing, I always just quit on it and let the club drop at the top of my swing but usually manage to catch it. I don't think there's anything wrong with that really.

[Eore]

i came very close yesterday-
we have a hole (#12) that is a par four, dead uphill that i never hit a good drive on and am left with no shot to the green. my best score to date on this hole is a double bogey.

i hit a snot bubbler of a drive and had 140 left (an 8 iron) the wind was so strong that i clubbed up to a 5 iron. i hit the best 5 iron of my life, high and with a slight draw. too high. the ball was actually coming backwards. i ended up totaly buried in the face of a bunker. 2 yards more i would have been on the green.

i just slammed my club into the ground. my dad and i made a pact after that. if either one of us slams a club into the ground, the offender buys dinner.

[kregan]

I played a round on Saturday and ran into my first club thrower, not club dropper, but a real throw.

It was all good until the back 9 and by the 13th hole on a bad drive he launched his driver toward the golf cart, it bounced off the cart path (head first), off the front windshield, and back onto cart path sliding down the asphalt a little.

Result, broken shaft mid way down the grip and the head was all scratched up!
I suggested he pull the grip off and just hit the driver with a short shaft!

[Southpaw]

For some of us with bad tempers, club throwing is very therapudic......and economical....if I didn't throw them occassioinally, I would break it over my knee. Emotions get the best of us sometime but you do what yo need to do, and move on.

Amen. I get frustrated, and sometimes really mad on the course. Only if I'm having an absolutely awful day will I throw a club, and that's just to keep myself from breaking it. Also, don't mistake this as me blaming the club, I know it's entirely my fault but the club is already in my hands so....

People may call me and idiot or spoiled because I throw clubs, but you have no right to judge. You have no idea what I'm feeling at that particular moment in time, going round after round of playing poor golf(by some standards) and not being able to figure out the problem is the most frustrating thing ever.

[Jay-Bird]

TODAY! The foursome infront of us, on a par three. I didn't see the shot, but as I was walking off the green before the hole they were on I hear "F**K" and look up to see this guy throw his club from the tee box toward the cart, the club bounces off the top of the cart and flies off into the 10-foot-tall weeds infront of a lake. It took the guy five minutes to find it. His buddies were giving him a hard time, trying to get him to "just leave it..." It was really funny!

[traviswise]

Saw a guy the other day at my CC throw his club into he motorized cart. I chuckled.

[ClairefromClare]

Last year, I played the Forest Course at http://www.fiddlerselbowcc.com/ with some friends. One gal had a lousy approach shot and, almost as a joke, slung her club in frustration. She tossed it further than she planned; it landed in a thick patch of fescue and brambles, more than head high. She had to play the rest of the round without her pitching wedge. We went back for it at the end, and it took forever to find it again. Taught her.

[gumpy]

I just take divots from the fairway in anger and then replace the divots... feeling horribly stupid...

[bogeyhitter25]

I've dropped it occassionally at the end of my follow through.

[PingGKEN]

Sorry if it has already been posted, but here you go! An instructional video on the proper techniques used in throwing a club!

http://www.golf.com/golf/video/artic...720077,00.html

[TommyD69]

I have heard that you should never buy a putter unless you get a chance to throw it first!

Seriously, I pulled a Judge Smails a long time ago with my driver. I was 1 over after 16 holes. On the 17th tee, I sliced (and I NEVER slice) two balls into an orchard and out of bounds, then I snap hooked my third tee ball into the 13th fairway... Well, that was it... I WANTED to throw the club down the fairway, but I held on a little too long, and the club sailed left and into a tree about 25 to 30 feet up. The shaft SNAPPED, and then the drive hung there teetering back and forth, mocking me!!!!!

I stormed off the tee and finished the round with my 3 wood. Later that day, one of my playing partners wives, called my wife, and asked if I was over my "Girlie Hissy Fit", not knowing exactly what the response was going to be. My wife laughed, then my buddy’s wife laughed, and the tension was defused.

Later that evening, I made a home made "Bat-a-rang" out of an old iron head and a big ball of twine. I took my 2 youngest boys out to the 17th tee to show them what their stupid father had done earlier that day.

I threw the "Bat-a-rang" into the tree and over the branch holding my drive on the first try. Shook the branch, and the drive fell to the ground. When I went to pick up the driver, the splintered graphite shaft shards stabbed me in the palm of my hand!

I reshafted it, and used it for another year and a half before a retired it.

To this day, all my golf buddies call me Judge Smails...

[kekoa]

i've only thrown my club on a few occasions. not far, just about 10 or so feet. i feel like doing this when i flub a chip shot. no way in hell i would ever throw any of my blade irons or woods. they are too damn purty and expensive. lol

[CG031]

Kids I play with in Tournaments throw clubs all the time. I'm not sure I've actually THROWN a club out of my hands. My temper isn't near what it used to be. I've learend to tone it down quite a bit, but it was never THAT bad in the first place anyway.

[JohnTwing]

I've helicoptered a club once, taking a 4 iron off the tee, and it slipped in my hands on the downswing, causing me to totally strike the ground and hurt my wrist. I flung the 4 iron wayyy far that time.

I've also been known to toss the clubs towards the cart after using them around the green (easier to find and pick up), but sometimes with a liiiitle too much mustard on them.

Also not that long ago missed a tap-in, and went to slam the ball, and ended up taking a chunk out of the green - aiiiiiii. I'm not making that mistake ever again.