Older Ladies playing golf....

[PaddyHarrington]

The OP is right in some of what he says, maybe it's just in Ireland but I find older lady Golfers can have a huge chip on their shoulders when they are on a Golf Course, they are the last type of people who will let you play through.
It's like they feel we as males feel we have a right to play through as
they are ladies where really it's just golf etiquette
and if it was a group of men holding you up with slow play you would also expect them to let you play through.

To the posters getting all high and mighty over this how about you cut the OP some slack for Christ sake, we are all only human and I'm sure you have all reacted in a way you shouldn't have at one time or another, yes they could and should have dealt with the situation better but saying "grow the •••• up" to a young fella isn't the right sort of advice to be giving... People in glasshouses shouldn't throw stones, he made a error of judgment when dealing with these women even though i can understand his frustration but let's advise him not berate him.

[Shorty]

'' well you can get the f*** off the course you old bunch of hags, this is a golf course not a F***king social tee party go home''

Any club that I have ever been associated with would take the following actions:

1. Your cousin would be banned from the club for six months if not twelve months. Instantly. 2. You would be immediately stripped of your "Junior Captain" status 3. You would be suspended from the club for three months. 4. You would be instructed by the Club Captain to write a letter of apology to the women concerned.

[Fat Slice]

OK, to the OP, some advice worth about $0.02:

All kinds of people golf, different ages, sexes, abilities, etc. Who golfs in front of you is the luck of the draw. Sometimes it's a single in a cart with a plane to catch. Sometimes it's four old ladies. You take the good with the bad. Until we're Donald Trump, we have to share the golf courses we play.

Don't hit into people out of impatience. Even if you don't think you might hit them, there's always the sprinkler head, cart path, etc., that can add a little length to your shot. Generally speaking, if you are waiting in the fairway, you're going to be waiting at the tee box whether you rush your shot or not. Relax and enjoy the game and don't hop up and down waiting for the green to clear. That kind of anxiety will mess up your game, and you will have yourself to blame, not the people in front of you. Find something to do while you wait - I polish my clubs, mark balls, etc.

Should you hit someone, hit their bag or cart, or even roll up near them, be courteous and apologize. I think you'd expect the same.

As a young man, try and cultivate some respect for those older women. Some woman changed your diaper once and I bet you'd want young men to respect her. Life as an old person isn't easy - have a little patience and understanding even if you think they're being less than courteous to you. The whole 'get dissed and flash on someone' is a modern phenomenon borne of ghetto/rap culture that has no place in civilized society and especially on the golf course. I play golf in Oakland, CA (look it up) and to a person the golfers on the munis have been courteous and respectful. I don't think it's too much to ask you to show some patience and respect in a situation like the one you were in.

There's a saying even older than those ladies: you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. I am sure if you were polite and friendly you could have talked the old ladies into letting you play through. Be nice, introduce yourself, explain that you are in a tournament, and ask them if they would mind very much if you played through as it would help you maintin your swing by playing a little faster. You may not get a 'yes', but I think you'd have a better chance than hitting into them and then expecting them to offer you to play through on your own. The larger life issue here is that if something is bothering you and you want someone else to change their behavior, figure out how to approach them and talk to them in a way to get what you want without making them feel attacked.

Take your responsibilities as junior captain seriously - your actions reflect on the club.

Finally, don't fall into the trap of negatively stereotyping women - again, this will create more problems for you in life.

[Blades4me]

An incident occured last weekend on saturday when me and my 2 cousins were playing our local course, we went in the the reception to confirm our tee time and we seen four ladys who were just about to head out before us, we overheard one lady saying ''whats the best golf ball for a beginner?''

I may not be completely grasping your post, but the first thought I had was, "were the hell was the marshall or starter in all of this?" It shouldn't have even come close to that confrontation had the marshall actually done his/her job. Or is your marshall like many others and just a nutless wonder who adds nothing to the golf course, (and sure as hell doesn't add anything to it), but wants to golf for free? If that is the case I'd ask for a new marshall that actually did something. Yeah I know thats a stretch.

[shades9323]

but im sick and tired in getting caught up in situations like this as it affects my golf game aswell as my patience

It only affects your golf game because you let it. I'd say you need to work on the mental aspect of the game. I would question wether or not you actually have patience as well.

[Greg]

What I think the young gentleman who started this thread fails to realize is that many new golfers dont understand pace of play or allowing someone to play through. And these newbies, being older women, probably could care less how long it takes them to play as they probably were retired and had nothing else to do. Yes i have felt like telling someone off who slows me down, but geez, get a grip boy and show some restraint. Your actions reflect very poorly on all young golfers, yes its unfair but you probably ruined it for every young golfer at your club by acting like you did. You could have politely explained to them that better players are normally allowed to play through and would appreciate if you and your friends could go on ahead. Treating those ladies with respect regardless would have been the right thing to do. Im not old by any means(36) but i understand that being on the earth a certain amount of time earns respect, saying please, sir/maam, thank you, im sorry etc. Other than them holding you up, which they were probably unaware of, they didnt do anything wrong. Even at my age, I usually get a certain amount of respect from most people your age and I appreciate that. If you treat me with respect i will treat you with respect, it goes both ways.

[Easy]

Calm down peoples...

Firstly what your cousin did was wrong. Why let two old women get you angry? Suck it up put a nice smile on your face and courteously apologise. Old women love that stuff.

[holeinon3]

So I'm going to take the minority stance and say you were right, in one sense. Every golf course observes some sort of timing restrictions, and these ladies were obviously not following them if they were 4 holes behind. They should have been asked to skip a hole by a marshal or let you play through. However, you gents handled the situation poorly.

[clubhousehero]

Yea i think the OP is taking way too much heat here.

I'm sure 99% of people have hit shots into a slow group by accident like the OP did. Where you blade it or shank it or something. It happens. And he said he thought the old ladies were kinda funny while his cousin blew up. He cant control that. He even admits his cousin went over the line. i can't see what exactly the OP himself did wrong besides not yell fore after the 3w hit the cart path.

And people telling the op he should have patience... he said it took them 2 hours to play 6 holes...thats a 6 hour round...i have patience but not that much, he'd have to be a saint! He had a right to be alittle ticked off. still his cousin was out of line.

And another thing, this happened in Ireland so i'm assuming the ladies were irish. Well as someone of irish decent i can testify to the fact that all (ok, most) Irish women are completely crazy and out of their minds. Its a scientific fact actually.

[PaddyHarrington]

Yea i think the OP is taking way too much heat here.

Its true you know........

[KD Epic]

Yea i think the OP is taking way too much heat here.

I got stuck behind 4 old ladies and there were 3 twosomes stacked up at every tee box. Of course I hit the shot of my life that rolled right past them on the fairway. I got up there and the ball was gone and the lady was chewing me out (I knew what happened) even though I apologized immediately. Then she starts criticizing ME about etiquette and rules (even though I apologized) so I explained cart path and pace of play rules and she said that EYE had no right to teach her about rules -- just as she began that argument a ball from the two guys behind me rolled right past my feet. She shut up and kept playing. Her group of hags with their cute pink ball markers and complete disregard for rules and courtesies NEVER let us play through. It was cool though it basically became a group of six playing behind a group of four and still having to wait at every teebox.

[James_Black]

What I do when there is slow play is skip ahead.

Women golfers are always slower, it's true.
Most of them are nice and let people through, others just ignore me.

[sean_miller]

What I do when there is slow play is skip ahead.

An old girlfriend of mine (I mean she was a gf in the distant past - not a current one who's a cougar - that one's for you, Fat Slice), her mom, and her sister would usually play in the group ahead of us as a threesome, while her father, her brother-in-law, and I would start as a threesome in the next group. You with me? It would be a real struggle for us to keep up, and we'd generally put a hole or two between us and the group behind us. We were not slow, but those gals left us in their wake.

My point is, both genders produce more than their fair share of slow and ignorant golfers, and a female golfer is not necessarily slow, just because of gender.

[Greg]

i guess the one thing you can be certain of, is that ALL BEGINNERS, male or female, young or old, are slow because they're terrible. I played last weekend with a friend of mine and another friend of his came along, Nice guy but just starting to play so he was having trouble with just basic shots, the 20 yards and a cloud of dust on every shot, more like 50 yards but you get the idea. It took us nearly 3 hours to play 9 holes, we're usually nearly twice that fast as a 2some. But hey everyone has to start somewhere, i was just happy with all the waiting that after the first hole, i played pretty well after that, even making 2 pars which is above average for me. Yes waiting on slow players is a pain sometimes but it happens, beginners dont know about etiquete either, they're just as likely to hit into you as they probably cant judge distance very well or have any idea how far they hit any of their clubs. Throwing a fit like a 3 year old and name calling doesnt help anything as someone said in an earlier post, the ladies should have been approached and asked politely if you and your friends could play through, as they may not have even known that was normally done.

[Tiger Spuds]

As others have said, you probably won't be keeping your Junior Captain status long if you continue carrying on like that.If you're a Junior Captain, you're basically a representative of the club, and as such you should be cordial and friendly to anyone on the course, beginners or not.In fact you should probably make more of an effort for new patrons.All this stuff about it interfering with 'your game' doesn't do you any favours.Are you the next Tiger or something?Delays are part of Golf, deal with it.They've paid money to play there and as such are just as entitled to play as you.As beginners, they obviously weren't aware they should be letting people play through, as is often the case with newbies.

I'm not sure if that comment about all old Irish women being crazy was intended to be serious or not.. If it was, it's too retarded to warrant a comment.

[WUTiger]

Many, many, many years ago, my friends and I played the old Forest Park 18-hole layout here in the area.

As our city bus pulled up to the course, we noticed some elderly women teeing off on the third hole. Anyway, we get in the starter's line, and about a half hour later we tee off. All goes well until about the 12th hole, when we catch up with the women. They are taking about 20 minutes to play a hole. One of us asks if we can play through, and he gets a lecture on respect for elders and patience.

Anyway, on the 14th hole we work a bypass. We all tee up in back at the sametime, and when the women get down range, we all hit drives at once into the adjacent 15th fairway. It was like one of those quick start tee offs to save time in rain-delay tournaments. The women had all sliced their balls into the No. 14 rough, and were taking two shots each to get out.

Anyway, we played ready golf for approaches and putts, and were leaving the No. 14 green when the women got within 100 yds. The women started yelling at us, but we smiled, wished them luck, and moved on.

[martytilma]

Little harsh. Should have just got the ranger involved from the get go.

[KD Epic]

Many, many, many years ago, my friends and I played the old Forest Park 18-hole layout here in the area.

Totally awesome. My problem is that every time I try to do something like this my golf shot does what I don't want it to. Like if I want to drive 400 yards (exaggerating obviously, more like 395) I should do it when there's a person there that I say "I could never hit it that far"