Are all league golfers idiots?

[piper_clap]

I'm a member at the local semi-private course, and I play about 5 times a week. Having grown up in this town and returned as an adult, I know nearly everyone at the course, for better or worse.

I'm routinely asked by the pro why I'm not in any of the leagues, and the reason I've given him is that I can't get there for their tee-times. Usually I start at 6:15, right as they are finishing up, so I can have the course mostly to myself on league nights.

Unless the starter decides to let the league guys, after having a few hours of warm up drinking, to take 10 carts and play a 20 man scramble. I was coming in on 17 this evening, with a pretty decent round (nothing record breaking) in progress when I see an army of carts come roaring up hole 2 (which runs parallel). I pulled my tee shot a little left, to the shared rough between the two fairways. As I'm walking up, I see a cart drive by, pick up my ball, realize its not theirs, and drop it 20 yards away, straight behind a tree. When I get up to my ball and replace it as close to where I thought I was, two more carts park 10 yards in front of me and unload. As I stand there, they then ask me if I can get out of their way.

Less than diplomatically, I told them of a fun game they could play with themselves.

Needless to say, this all rattled me quite a bit. I went double-double on the last two holes. I ran into the owner of the course on the way out and mentioned the behavior.

I know the simple solution is to not golf on league nights-but there's leagues 4 nights a week and the weekends are packed. The course is empty until these jackholes get out there and screw up a nice evening.

Is this a common thing at other courses, or am I surrounded by a particularly trashy golfing community?

[st0wgolf08]

I'm a member at the local semi-private course, and I play about 5 times a week. Having grown up in this town and returned as an adult, I know nearly everyone at the course, for better or worse.

What did the owner say? If they were drunk, the course needs to limit their drinking if they are going to play the course and affect the rounds of others. If they are just being ignorant, they need to be spoken to.

[piper_clap]

What did the owner say? If they were drunk, the course needs to limit their drinking if they are going to play the course and affect the rounds of others. If they are just being ignorant, they need to be spoken to.

I forgot that part-I'm still rather pissed off about the whole thing.

His reply was "They spend a lot of money." Well, he knows I'm a member and I'm in there every day-I make it a point to buy my balls there and to eat a few meals a week in the bar and tip well to make up for what is, usually, spectacular service (the pro doesnt usually charge me for range balls, things like that). I mentioned there are other paying customers as well-but he walked a way (he's a tool anyway). I'm thinking the next time the opportunity presents itself, I might hit any of their balls that get in my way back over to the correct fairway for them, or get a case of the laterals and bounce a few off a golf cart.

[billm408]

short answer... yes.

[shankapotamus]

Don't be ignorant back. That would be really hypocritical.

[Fourputt]

My home course is a public course. No memberships unless you count a player's card that gets them $5 off per round. We have leagues every weekday evening (my wife and I play in the Friday evening league). The leagues are required to play the same way everyone else plays, i.e. as foursomes. No mob outings are ever going to happen there. Just because they spend money is no reason to allow them to ruin the fun of another paying customer.

[Cooker]

Might be a good time to find another course to play...

[piper_clap]

Might be a good time to find another course to play...

Last year I was a member at the other course within a reasonable drive (15 minutes). That course is a goat pasture that I will never set foot on again. I'm done having my somewhat yippy putts further complicated by trying to figure out how a patch of clover is going to affect the break.

The sad thing is, I love everything else about the course-its challenging enough (128 slope from the blues) but not maniacal. Its in great shape, the staff is great. Plus, its 3 blocks from my house and its the course I played as a middle schooler (before I took a 15 year break starting in high school). I'm thinking I'll just throw a bigger stink with the starter/pro shop each time it happens.

[BigBoy]

I think what you may have witnessed is a group mentality type of deal. Reminds me of some friends I had in college that were great dudes.. unless they were at a party with a lot of their "brothers"... then they were disrespectful, ready to start crap with people at the drop of a hat.

these league guys as a group feel like they can have the run of the course as a result of their numbers. I even see it at a local muni I play that has specials for old people on wednesday. These old guys will hit into you, pick up your ball, all kinds of obnoxious stuff, because they feel like they own the course that day. I've had to bite my tounge on two occasions where some heated words would have been exchanged if I didn't know that they were 85 years old.

[davechen]

Well, I'm in a golf league, so I'm going to say not all of them.

[n8ron]

I agree with the person who talked about the group mentality.

I am in a league so I'm going to have to say no.

The league I'm in has all kinds of golfers; Scratch all the way to 36 HCPers. We have a league to have a good time and get away from the wives. Many of the guys drink out on the course, and a few treat every putt like a million dollars. I will tell you one thing however, none of us would ever tolerate behavior like that. Even the poorest of golfers on our league are very aware and practice golf etiquette.

20 vs 1 is pretty tough odds, the owner or manager is a dink. So it's a tough call as to what to do. What ever you choose, you'll be in the right, unless of course it involves a felony.

[DavidFehertysBike]

Yes. Big mass groups of golfers (leagues, outings) produce the most obnioxous behavior ive ever seen on golf courses. During outings ive seen groups drive the carts on greens and laugh about it. Call it pack mentality.

[CarlSpackler]

I play in the league with people I work with and we are always respectful of others, although we still may be idiots for completely different reasons. If we get a member or sub who doesn't follow etiquette, we will educate them.

I have had this problem with other golfers who were playing casually. I witnessed a guy once walk over to where my ball was, pick something up and slyly slip something into his pocket. I confronted him and asked if he picked up my ball. His face turned red and he gave it back. It's happened other times where I could tell the other person outright lied and told me they didn't pick anything up. People need to leave balls where they are if there is even the slightest possibility that it could be in play, PERIOD!

:steps down from soap box:

[RandomRaiderTTU]

Honestly, I'm a pretty reasonable and level-headed person 99.8% of the time, but I don't know how you didn't go over there and wrap a 4-iron around that guys neck.

I got pissed just reading about it.

I generally leave golf balls where they are when I see them on the course unless I don't think there is any *ANY* possibility of it being someone's golf ball.

Sorry this happened to you.

[mruseless]

Don't be ignorant back. That would be really hypocritical.

Agree.

Might be a good time to find another course to play...

My thoughts exactly.

Last year I was a member at the other course within a reasonable drive (15 minutes). That course is a goat pasture that I will never set foot on again. I'm done having my somewhat yippy putts further complicated by trying to figure out how a patch of clover is going to affect the break.

This is off topic, and I don't mean to be picky here, but in the first paragraph you say the course is a goat pasture, and in the second you say the course is in great shape. Are you talking about 2 different courses?

[st0wgolf08]

Agree.

I think at first he was talking about the course he was a member last year,the goat pasture as it was deemed.

The second with the course being in great shape is his current course, he said he really likes it there, just not the people from what I understand.

[deronsizemore]

I've had to bite my tounge on two occasions where some heated words would have been exchanged if I didn't know that they were 85 years old.

Why bite your tongue? Just because they're old and in a large group doesn't give them the right. By not saying anything you probably gave them confirmation (in their mind) that their age and group outing does indeed give them the right to do whatever and act like idiots. I don't have much tolerance for stupid.

[Chief Broom]

Leagues, especially ones that have been in place for years tend to be somewhat overbearing. It happens. I try to maintain my sense of humor about these things and laugh at their outlandish antics. It's pretty much a given that course management knows which groups are yahoos and which ones take things more seriously. This puts management in a tough position because while some leagues may tend to exhibit poor behavior they also constitute a significant revenue stream for the club. If management ticks off a few singles or foursomes they lose that occasional business (and more often they probably won't lose the business of someone who gets upset due to league play), but if they lose the league they lose a large number of paying customers who are on the course on a regular basis. You see this same dynamic at bowling alleys where league play costs the business some individuals coming by to play an occasional game, but the regular league play more than makes up for that loss.