paired with a jerk... what do you do?

[alf174]

its pretty difficult to ignore someone thats walking right in front of you while you are making a shot... my brother told me to just hit the guy... but i knew he was half joking... i mean c'mon... let me hole out and then go back to my original spot and take practice putts while you are in the middle of putting... can you ignore that? or how about this beaut... i just walk onto the green between your chip shot and the hole and start lining up my putt... then putt out? i can see ignoring all the talk and bs... but you cant ignore someone thats physically in the way of your shot... should i just lay up on a 15 yrd chip so i dont hit the guy? drop a few strokes so i can have a clear shot without him in the way? if i didnt pay any attention to him he'd either be in the hospital or id be forced to pay attention to him trying to kick my ass after hitting him for being in the way... i really doubt even you could ignore his bad(inexcusable) behaviour

Or the time to act would have been after the first or second offense. If asked if he would continue in manner befit of a considerate golfer, he said no, then drive him back up to the starter and drop him off. Water under the bridge now, nothing was done then and avoiding that individual would be the best course of action in the future. Thankfully, your experience is very rare.

[XMScott]

Put my headphones on and play better. I always seem to play better with them on.

I carry my iTouch with me. Its my scorecard.

[HSip]

Just tell them it's too bad that they're not good enough to play professionally where the real money is. Then finish your round, ignoring them as much as possible and then NEVER play with them again.

[Zeph]

Never played with a jerk, but if I ever do, I'll do one of two things:

1: Ignore him.
2: If the above does not help, tell him to leave or split up the flight and let him go on alone.

Ruining a round of golf because of a jerk is not worth it. Tell him early on that if he does not behave, you won't play with him anymore. If the day is fully booked it might be harder if he refuse to leave, but you can try pretending you are calling a marshall.

[TheNatural]

Monday morning QB is an easy call. as little as i get to play I would have been hard pressed to figure out what to do in your shoes. You never know the starter or pro shop may know him and let him do what he does for a kickback. Did the walking on the green behavior start on the first hole? If so thats enough to make me confront him just to get an explanation. If a guy absent mindedly does that in front of your chip; OK no harm no foul. as far as that young kid not shutting up or some hack who tries to hit geese or a house...In the future I will ask them to play ahead and I will BS and say I have to go to the clubhouse cuz I Have the runs. These types will affect the attitude on your entire round and nobody likes that, we have enough to contend with.

[nevets88]

The NYC area is chock full of jerks, of all different degrees, mostly people who don't have any consideration for others. I've played with many pleasant people, but have to deal with unpleasant people on an ongoing basis. You develop a very good jerkdar and get very good at ignoring people.

Examples: don't apologize after nearly hitting you with a skull, don't help you find your ball after you repeatedly spot their ball, walk ahead when you haven't teed off, talk while you putt/swing, constantly give you tips when your game is orders of magnitudes better then theirs, etc... Don't even get me started about littering, not raking the traps, driving the cart on the green and sensitive areas, etc...

What can I say, you put alot of people in a tiny space, all vying for limited resources, and people are nasty - NYC, London, Paris, any big city.

[flopdarock]

Monday morning QB is an easy call. as little as i get to play I would have been hard pressed to figure out what to do in your shoes. You never know the starter or pro shop may know him and let him do what he does for a kickback. Did the walking on the green behavior start on the first hole? If so thats enough to make me confront him just to get an explanation. If a guy absent mindedly does that in front of your chip; OK no harm no foul. as far as that young kid not shutting up or some hack who tries to hit geese or a house...In the future I will ask them to play ahead and I will BS and say I have to go to the clubhouse cuz I Have the runs. These types will affect the attitude on your entire round and nobody likes that, we have enough to contend with.

yeah besides being obnoxious the first three holes... he had good ettiquette until teeing up on the 4th hole when we refused to lay any money down... thats when he started bombing balls and walking in front of us... i think he knew he wasnt getting a free round that day and was intentionally trying to piss us off...

(this is in reply about gambling) i have absolutely no problem with gambling... heck i won my irons off my middle handicap brother and my hybrid off my single digit hcp brother... i play guys i know at my home course for whatever they want... but im supposed to give a single digit hcp 15 strokes when im a 12-15 hcp... yeah... handicap is there to make the playing field fair... that was about as backwards as you can get

[pjsnyc]

The NYC area is chock full of jerks, of all different degrees, mostly people who don't have any consideration for others. I've played with many pleasant people, but have to deal with unpleasant people on an ongoing basis. You develop a very good jerkdar and get very good at ignoring people...What can I say, you put alot of people in a tiny space, all vying for limited resources, and people are nasty - NYC, London, Paris, any big city.

I wonder if I was one of those jerks you got paired with

In all honesty, I've become accustomed to playing with random partners and have learned to just accept it. There are a lotta hackers in NYC that just don't know any better. The last thing I want to happen is for it to get to me. Simply ignore and they'll get it. If they're INTENTIONALLY trying to be a jerk, then thats a different story all together.

[DavidFehertysBike]

Ive encountered that kind of behavior before, but its rarley comes from "better players" like the guy flopdarock had an played with. Im not speaking for everyone of course, but ive rarley came across low handicaps that show up to a course as a single. They usually run in packs like girls at a bar..

But when i do play alone and I get paired with somebody with that attitude, its usually some middle aged fat guy who thinks he is 10x better than he really is. I just proceed to ignore him and drop 75 on top of his 95. I also lol myself to death at his pitiful excuses.

[Trav]

Hindsight is always better/easier - but I would have:

1) Said something to him at the time, not yelling at him but calling him on his behavior and asking him if he was interested in playing a considerate round - esp. since there were 3 of you and 1 of him - usually being called out, politely, is enough to shame most people, and most of the time I have found people will respond to a polite but firm message.

2) If he continued acting like a jerk, I would have driven him back to the clubhouse as you suggested and either dropped him off or demanded a refund, or called from the course. Life is too short to put up with such behavior. I know it's hard to do, but this sounds a lot worse than just the annoying playing partner you are willing to put up with.

3) I would have called the pro shop and reported it afterwards - most courses don't want to get a negative rep, esp. in these times when many courses are struggling. If they defended him, then you know this is not a course worth patronizing and you can post feedback on the many course review sites, which will get their attention. But if you don't report him, the problem will continue and the next poor guy who gets tied in with him will wish the previous partners had done something.

Amazing how some people just can't accept the game is supposed to be fun for everyone.

[William Le Wolf]

Put him in his place :)

[walk18]

I've seen hustlers playing pool, but I've never run into anyone like that on the course. I probably would have said "look man, I know you're trying to hustle me, so let's play straight up." As long as it wasn't more than $20, I can handle losing that. but he sounds like an ass.

[Grndslmhttr3]

I've seen hustlers playing pool

Reminds me of an episode of Fresh Prince.

[cnixon83]

i get paired with a jerk atleast once a year. last year i was paired with a group whom had no regard for anyone else... picking up and taking other peoples balls, driving the cart onto the green, no real etiquitte at all, they were playing the middle tees and i was playing the tips. i had a pretty good round going... i was a few under, i had "honors" on every hole. i'd be on the tee lining up my shot, they'd hop up right in front of me and tee off... after a few holes i was tired of it, i placed my tee in the ground and set up, they walked right in front of me so i bluntly told them that unless they want to visit a proctologist to have a golf ball removed from their ass get the hell outta the way. needless to say they moved.

[Williamevanl]

This is a good question. This actually happened to me for the first time about a week ago. This guy starts the round talking about how long he had been playing the course *forever* and it quickly turned into something strange. He got off on tangents about how people shouldn't care about the yardages/club selection etc.. saying that was taking it to seriously. He basically got into a "everything about golf is stupid and I'm only out here so I can beat my friend that never plays."

He'd ask what club I was hitting and say it was stupid when it wasn't *maybe 8 iron from 147 or something* The guy was a dick, at one point he actually broke his golf ball on a drive and I could hear it wizzing and I told him that I thought he broke the ball and he got pissed off and started bad mouthing my drive only to find out that he actually did break his golf ball.

[Pro]

I hate golfing with people that think they are so good at the game but, in reality isnt that good and lies with his score

[flopdarock]

im surprised anyone falls for the "im a 25 hcp" line... or maybe the guys that actually fall for it are 20 hcp's that spot him only 5 strokes... then he wipes the floor with them saying it must be his lucky day... my brother did call him out and thats when he admitted to being a single digit that hustles to get his greens fees paid for... my brother beat him by 4 strokes on the back so that means if they bet my brother still would have lost if he spotted him 5...
dont get me wrong... ive been playing for a long enough time to get paired up with a few jerks... but this guy was unbelievable... id gladly play a few rounds with some past jerks over him...
ill still play that course after all its an arnold palmer signature course and its worth every penny... i just think next time if my brothers are in town... we'll decline a single especially if its him

[LongballGer]

I would have called him out on everything he did.